@chrisaakins I’m Trying to find my direction too. I hadn’t done a mural in ages. Childcare was always an issue. Youngest is now in kindergarten. I painted a mural yesterday. One that I had put off for two years. It was so much easier than others I painted. I didn’t realize all those lessons we learn here and other places were so transferable. I planned the mural like crazy. (Like they drove home in the critiquing podcast). Thumbnails and colorstudies. Transferred the image from a small drawing to a large paper. Then transferred it to the wall and painted. My hand was way steadier because of all the inking. So many small lessons turned out to be a very relaxing mural experience! And it turned out nicely.

Murals vs illustration. More legs on the table or stool, right! I would be so happy if I sold the illustrations and made what I did for the mural. Then I thought, I probably need to do both. It’s good money. They can coexist. And if it gets too much mural and you’re not liking it, cut back, or stop it all together.

Good luck!

@kaitlinmakes Thank you! I'll have in mind all that things!!!!
Yes is the direction I want to go. The nudity is not sexualized nor is a whim or purely aesthetic reasons, I want to convey a natural approach to nudity but I understand that every country is in a different place and I don't mind to change the target potential audience on America, for example.

Bytheway, the book is online, in ongoing or in-progress if you prefer, and is totally free. I work every day on it and I updated constantly, so you don't need to buy it!!!
My goal now is to reach as many people as possible and if my work is good and I create an audience, then I can print books, sell prints, merchandise, etc. At the moment only develop the story and reach people.

@robgale Yes, thank you for that. I agree with just putting more time in front of the Cintiq because for me, it's the slickness that I'm not crazy about. Whereas paper has some more resistance. I think it's a matter of putting in those hours to get to that comfort zone. And I like your idea of warm up time too. I'm also going to try playing music as well to see if that helps.

@heidigfx
I'll try to explain:

fact: The digital photography size is the number of pixels that we express in "Wide x High". You can express this in Inches, cm, pixels, etc.
Example: 10 MP photo has 10036224 pixels, which is the result of multiplying 3872 pixels Wide x 2592 pixels High. (this numbers can vary slightly from different manufacturers)

ppi is the number of pixels per inch a screen has.
dpi is the number of dots that a printer put in an inch of paper.

ppi and dpi are used indistinctively normally. Is a common error. You have hundreds of pages talking about this.

When you set your photo to 72ppi, 300ppi, 10000ppi or 1ppi you don't change the size of the photo (at least that you resize). The thing is you can set your photo to whatever number of ppi without changing the size of the photo or any other thing. The photo is exactly the same.
What you just did is changing the metadata which orders the printer how to print the photo, how many dots per inch has to put on the paper. For that, they should express this in dpi instead of ppi

So you can forget about all this and focus on the real size. For screen show is completely useless and setting to 72 or 96 or whatever is completely useless. If you know you are going to print at 300, for example, stack to that setting just in case you forget to change it latter and waste a paper

There's a lot of pages talking about this. For an explanation about where this 72 number came up for example:
https://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/the-72-ppi-web-resolution-myth/

@bichonbistro Be assured that even though you are the one brave enough to ask the questions, there are plenty of us who are going to benefit from the answers! I for one am pretty clueless about this stuff!!

@eric-castleman Actually no! Is this a good class starting with? I was thinking maybe I should start from Painting Color and Light. I would really like to start my illustrations with value first and then move to color. Feels much easier for me.

@jason-bowen @christinakal I've been reading through the following link about illustrators and their postcards. Its very informative and it gives a lot of different perspectives from illustrators.
Sub It Club Postcard Post

I don’t have a huge amount to add on top of the feedback already given.

I would add a call to action (eg: Contact me today) that sends them to your contact page. At the bottom of the About page is a good start.

You did mention your Youtube channel, however, I couldn’t find a link to it on your website (you can just link the text that mentions it).

Regarding your style and content. I agree with the following comments:

create 10 pieces in the same style you want to be hired for AND display them next to each other. Take Wills portfolio class.

My other feedback is to get a real URL. Something like jasonwbowen.com looks more professional than jasonwbowen.wixsite.com/

@tessaw thank you!I'm on it now...

I recommend having a mix of physical, relaxation, and creative activities.
I go for a walk, listen to ASMR videos on youtube, watch movies or series, read, learn a new skill like learning a language or even art-related skills. I need to do something to rest everyday but take at least 1 day completely off every week.

Very helpful information guys. Thanks a bunch!

@Lee-White Hi guys! I'm starting to see questions about the fall classes but don't know if I should add mine to one of those threads or just ask in general--may we have a general fall class update?

I am particularly wanting to know about environments and children's books. But if those aren't available, I might choose something else, and that's why I would like to know, so I won't save a spot for a class that doesn't end up happening this fall and, having done so, forgo the opportunity to take one that is being offered but may fill up while I wait.

Thanks so much!

Thanks a lot peeps! When I get back home I'll check out some of my favorite comics, see if I get any cool concepts for figuring out my panels.
If I get a completed, coherent comic out of this I'll be really happy. And who knows, maybe I'll do good in the competition too.

@tessaw I believe you are right if you are saving for the web on that. I still change it myself before saving.

@smceccarelli I've heard of horror stories like that before. I had considered myself immune to it until I saw a post by Maggie Stiefvater on Twitter, explaining how her popular YA series had taken a hit (and not turned into a box set by the publisher) because of people illegally distributing her kindle copies.

I like how you have your website as a living, interactive portfolio. Maybe I should take that approach with Wattpad going forward. ^_^

As a side note, a majority of agents and contests do not consider Wattpad to be a published place. If you self-publish on nearly any other site/platform online, some will see the author as "used material" as they prefer debuts. Wattpad lets you retain all rights as well as the special debut privilege, which was a major factor in my decision to post there.

@smceccarelli Thanks, they are great love the style. I think for this year I will send in some work I did earlier on this year and work on some illustration for next year

@tessaw I never thought of Legos 🤔I like that idea.

@gorillo I wonder if its the file type you are using. What is the file type? How did you go about saving it? I know at work I will get jpg's from people and I will have to sometimes resave them in order for them to work in the browser. It was something to do with the data of the jpg.

@Heidi-Ahmad I might be interested in using Society6.com or similar in the future.

@TwiggyT
@TessaW
@Chip-Valecek
@riftweaver
@stringfellowart

Color and Light classes here I come! Thank you all for the nice comments and giving much needed advice for furthering my work. I appreciate you taking the time! -Todd