@swordofodin Great Work! I love the characters and how you subdued the background and set the atmosphere. XD

This is such a great thread! It's really fun, and encouraging to see how everyone has grown this year. I know I struggle sometimes with feeling like I'm not getting anywhere, but it's always a good reality check to see what you were doing a year, or even two or three years ago.

@Art-of-B the line work exercises you showed are definitely something I've started working on as well, and it's amazing to see how helpful that can be. I now recommend it to anyone I can think of to recommend it to.

I really like the idea of doing a painting at the beginning of the year and then doing the same one again, with a similar amount of effort at the end of the year.

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It's not exactly beginning of the year to now progress, but it shows an evolution, so I thought I'd share. Here are a couple shots demonstrating a concept that I'm currently working on and have learned more about this year, which is trying to create more dynamism and 3 dimensionality in my drawings. These are both sketches of similar characters, but you can see how the second one has a more dynamic pose, and I'm trying to think of each and every part as it would live in 3D space, whereas the first one was done a couple years ago, and the pose is more straightforward and the details more generalized.

I don't think I could have done the second one earlier in the year, I learned and practiced a lot of perspective and simple forms in space types of exercises, and I know there's a lot more I can do to help push it even further.

@kaelin-twede-0 I loved that class so much. Sometimes they recommend what classes to take next too which is very helpful.

@doodleworx Happy holidays to you too!!

@lee-white Oh good tip! Thanks!

Thanks! I figured the rock would be affected by the light from the lava & so would be warm too, but I guess not. That does explain why I was having trouble getting it to look the way I expected. Thanks you!

@jason-bowen thanks for the reference

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Here is my second and final Christmas banner for this year.

Merry Christmas

@irina These are great questions to consider, some of which I should have thought of and didn’t. Like the idea that the picture reads from right to left rather than left to right. I might try and reverse the image to see what it looks like then. There is much to be worked on and I can see how leaving room for text would be important. Thank you for comments.

Really lovely

This is such a beautiful piece! There is something really special about it that I can’t quite put my finger on, it just really evokes a strong mood. It has so much impact for a composition reflecting stillness.

The one critique I could offer is similar to the one above - the area around the pinky finger of the hand on her lap. The area of the hand just after the pinky finger ends seems to bulge out and is too thick in proportion to the rest of the hand. That area of the hand would not be so thick on a girl of her size, and would further compress when laying on her lap. I thinking correcting that may make other issues disappear, except the pinky knuckle highlight which may still be a bit too strong. Otherwise, really incredible piece of work.

Day 8 A child is born!
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@nyrrylcadiz Thank you! I am not seeing which angle of it is odd. Could you please clarify? I wanted the wind to be blowing from the right to the left to give it a little movement but I'm not great at drapery and skirts always confuse me. Any more feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Finished the rendering of the Christmas Misfit.

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@dottyp said in Children's Book Illustrations for a Client. Looking for feedback.:

Try lazi Nezumi to get straight lines look it up on Utube for a demo. Also making your page around 4000 px 4000px and 350 dpi in Photoshop (if your computer can handle it) and then resizing it smaller can make the line work nice and smooth.In my opinion Clip Paint Studio gives nicer lines than Photoshop

Thanks!

Thank you so much, everyone!!! I posted it yesterday with the collar. Of course now I see all the things I want to change, but so be it. I have to get used to working faster!

@JeaneBean I really like doing the faces because I used to be a portraitist. This isn't as realistic, but I don't think I could ever draw a generic kid face! And yes, I did have a hard time deciding whether I was doing a flat or rounded piece, so perhaps it was too compromise-y.

Thank you @BenR and @DOTTYP for the feedback. I really appreciate it. I changed my picture. I might fix it up some more, but I think it is getting better now anyway, thanks to you.
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@inkandspatter said in What I worked on this week:

I can immediately recognize your work when I’m scrolling through my feed

Well that's good 😀

As for style I think over the years I did make some decisions as to what I wanted my style to look like. As in saying to myself 'I like smooth linework. I gotta smooth out those lines' or 'I really like using texture. I gotta learn to incorporate it without using simple texture filters'. But really, for the most part, it's just kinda evolving as I produce. Saying 'yes please' or 'no thank you' as I look at other people's work.

As for how long I've been tryin' out the SVS videos I think I took the painting texture and deets liveclass last year around April. That's when I really started trying to utilize the videos.

@nessillustration awesome, so glad to hear some of the suggestions worked out 🙂

@inkandspatter I tend to like to use the most saturated color or the darkest dark and/or lightest lights in the area of focus. I think you the foreground (or sometimes plane of focus) usually claims both the darkest dark and lightest light and values compress in mid and background. You could compress in the dark range /low key for the background trees for an eerie feel or move higher key if you want a light, fun forest idea.

I'm not sure the best way to add contrast to the squirrel and keep him further back though. If you do a low key bg you could make him lighter against it and that would draw the eye. You also have several branches and the tree shapes pulling the eye to the squirrel.

It does feel like having the lizard draw the eye first and then the squirrel tells the story well though.