I've got an Epson Artisan 1430 (cheap, and largish format). Epson sells special watercolour paper designed for printing (unsure of the weight), but you could probably just throw some regular watercolour paper in there and see what happens.

EDIT:

Random forum posts suggest that 300lb paper 'sometimes requires gentle encouragement to start the feed but otherwise works' and the watercolour paper I was printing with is 190lb.

@gary-wilkinson Through his website. It is a $100 per image. I had two images done after you send in the images it takes about 10 days he returned me a number of short videos on each piece totaling about an hour. There was a paint over and a lecture were he also references master artist images to further demonstrate his points. He also included some videos from his CGMA class which is cool because I would love to take that course if I had the time.

@gary-wilkinson There is an old post where @Lee-White talks about using his Epson 4900 along with other points: http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/1881/prints-of-traditional-artwork/6

@cowboyseth Loads much faster. Nice and clean as well.

Overall the work Is solid and I could see you getting work in storyboarding pretty quickly. Your drawing skill seems professional and your design sense is good. : )

That said, the illustration style is too dominated by the caricature style and the overall site isn't really clear on what you want to do. You should limit your professional style to one or possibly two things, but to do professional illustration, caricatures, comics, storyboards, children's books, and visual development comes across as unrealistic. This can turn clients off big time, so I would suggest narrowing it down.

If you want to do illustration for a living, you may need to look at current illustration styles and lean away from the caricature style a bit. Same thing for children's books.

Overall very impressive offerings and you are off to a great start!

@lee-white I also think it's less of a pain if you have a short simple name to type in. Some of them are so long and hard to remember.

also, here is a quick color pass. I did this using my finger on my laptop trackpad, so it's not very accurate, but it's a start. I wanted to simplify your shapes and separate your character. Maybe go very dark with your values and details on him so everything doesn't look like that muddy middle brown tone. Just a thought....

0_1522858939904_1522830031672-927cb317-876f-4217-b5f7-2c72272b5369-resized.jpeg

@jimsz Thank you! I will check those articles out!

@lidia-ull Thanks!!

I'm taking the leap and sending a potential client an estimate for a picture book project (self-published). The thing is, this would be my first picture book (and professional gig). I've been so focused on polishing my portfolio/taking classes/etc. that I haven't yet had the time to dedicate learning as much of the business side such as estimating, contracts, etc. as I'd like. If a veteran illustrator out there is feeling generous, would you share an example of an estimate that you've sent to a past client, as well an outline of your process?

I was hunting around and found this thread from a couple of years ago. I thought it might be what you are looking for @smceccarelli!

http://forum.svslearn.com/topic/1881/prints-of-traditional-artwork/7

@alexsen I pre-ordered one of these in August and they keep delaying the shipping date. The latest word was that they are supposed to start shipping in April. If I ever get one, I'll let you know how well it works.

There’s nothing wrong with having more than one style (repeating it to myself every day as a mantra, because I really struggle with that myself - despite all evidence that it´s not a problem) and which ones to focus on really depend on many factors. What project is it? What is catching people’s attention? Which pieces/style generate leads and which don’t?
That said, there are a few things that catch my eye that I throw in for your consideration. I`ve seen lots of your art in the past years on the forum and all of it is very polished and very professional, and you clearly have lots of skills. Your drawing skills are amazing and this is probably something to capitalize on: when you give more emphasis to the linework (like in your inked pieces and basically all work here except the first two) I feel the work is more impactful and more „alive“.
There is one aspect that I would think about: the way you do faces feels a little too formulaic. What I mean is that you have a shorthand for faces (which is good for speed, for sure), but they end up all looking the same, regardless of age, situation or character. I feel this could be a limitation potentially, especially given that you define character so well with other elements: physique, clothing and props. I think experimenting with different ways to express character through the facial features could elevate your work regardless of style.
Another aspect to consider is what at school they called „appeal“. We had lots of discussion about that, in many different courses. It has nothing to do with cuteness or even with a character being good or bad, and there are no concrete definitions of it...it´s more a „you know it when you see it“ kind of thing. So I know it sounds vague and undefined when I say that is something to think about. It affects characters particularly, but also any animal or object that can be thought of as a character. I guess you sense it when you say your character end up „evil-looking“. I think the word is „less appealing“. Maybe a way to say it more concretely is that there are elements in your drawings like teeth singled out, tongues sticking out, extreme positions of hands etc... that make it more difficult for the viewer to „stick“ with your image and feel a sense of identification with your characters. Maybe an artist to look into is Scottie Young, particularly his „I hate fairyland“ series, which features a thoroughly evil and unhinged but very appealing character.
So, after all this rambling, my personal draw is to the crow on the sword and the howling dog. Those pieces sticks out for me as the most appealing of all and the most suitable to children’s books. Whatever you decide to do in terms of style, maybe it´s worth exploring that one with human characters, environments etc, and see where it takes you?

I'm away from the internet much of the summer and use Procreate on my iPad Pro, and in fact, that's why I got it. I do try to go into the city (1/2 hour away) once a week to use wifi to backup stuff.

I try it and I use it, it's very cool, but the feeling when you draw isn't same as photoshop. I don't very like this feeling, just my opinion, but the software is easy and very cool to use 😉

I have the same issue with my scanner. I guess that's just how scanners are--- they mess up the artwork. I have never found adjusting the scanner's settings to be helpful though. I have, however, learned that the best way to solve this issue is to edit the image in photoshop. What I do is that I hold up my illustration next to my monitor and I try to tweak the Color Balance, Contrast, Vibrance, and sometimes, Curves until the image on display is similar to the one I'm holding. You'll need to do a lot of trial and error with this process but you will get there. There is no fixed way to go with this. It all boils down to how you feel about the image. I hope this helps.

@smceccarelli Brilliant idea-thank you so much!

Thanks, Lee! I just got worried something was wrong with the board and maybe it wasn't coming through. I got kinda freaked out about the assignment but then after I re-watched the videos, I figured it out. Thanks for getting back to me. 🙂

@jason-bowen

Not everyone is able to obtain an agent.

When I was doing licensing years ago (paper products, greeting cards) I owned the copyright of the images which was spelled out in the contract but if I remember the copyright legalities were handled by the licensing company. I'll see if I can find the contracts.