@stayhomejoe one thing I noticed with all the heads, remember that skulls stick out a bit in the back to make room for the brain. So make sure that your heads are the same way. Using a reference can help.
"Sam Does Art" is a super helpful youtube channel and he often does critiques and mentions using his skull prop, calling it "the skull of his enemies" haha

@Miriam ok thanks for letting me know

And the original superhero, my muse Eva:
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@Asyas_illos Yeah, I like that one too, but it's the second red riding hood piece I'd have along with the one of her as a little girl running with wolves. And it's got blood and a dead wolf in it, haha. Not too gruesome for a Middle Grade focus?

@kayleenartlover That's a good idea, I'll toss some rim lighting on there, thanks! Rim lighting is becoming a theme in this portfolio, haha.

Completed 2-page spread from "Shan Shan and Ms. Water Monitor" I did as part of my dummy sample.

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@KevinTreaccar These are awesome ideas! Thanks so much for taking the time to think on this and give me your ideas. They are super helpful.

@Eliana-Bastidas Thank you! It is a slow gradual improvement. For sure I'll be keeping your valuable advice in mind for my next work 🙂

@jenn Thank you for your kind words 🙂 and yes I love textures haha

@jenn thanks hope to win someday lol. Also the color palette looks great to me.

@Griffin I really like the boy running after the robot! Maybe to make it even stronger you could try playing with the value a little more? Maybe try lightening the sky and the hills bit to help the background really separate from the foreground? But really a great piece overall even if you just left it!

@KevinTreaccar Lovely! You had a strong concept in the first place and push that forward with your willingness to seek improvement. Well done 👏

@Griffin This is looking so great! If feels like a complete and believable environment and I feel the urgency in the character's faces.

One thing that stuck out at me is how in your quick sketch the body pose of the kid in the back of the bronco is more dynamic and reaching. In your line art, the pose has stiffened up, and makes it seem like the vehicle is parked rather than moving. (And I'm unsure now which it is supposed to be).

Another little thing, is that I felt like the running kid's path would make more sense closer to the road path. You could move this kid more into the road, or curve the road, if you thought they should be in the path.

Sorry if these are late comments! I'm looking forward to seeing the color!

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@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thank you. I did draw a queen of heart, and a walrus. They came out alright. I just didn’t feel right using them without adding something to the story. Maybe next time.😁

Here are the updated sketches!
I did two versions of that last spread. I like the first version the best since it also shows more of the background. In the next pages, the dog and cat end up going outside so maybe it's good that you can see the door in the second panel? I'll say though that this angle isn't my fave.
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I've added more animals to both of these scenes! I managed to move the animals out of the gutter in the spread.
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@MelissaJacie @JQ

@Georgios-Christopoulos In fact I liked the first image you posted best, as it looked cleaner and really comic book.

@Griffin looks great!

@Rebecca-Jensen the flat values aren’t finished. I was just trying a technique I learned where you just use 3 values to block in objects to create a good balance of values but I’m not sure I got that balance right

@Jeremiahbrown Thanks so much for your thoughts! This series has definitely been a huge learning opportunity for me. I'm hoping to be able to use everything I've learned, and the feed back I've gotten to do another series soon. I think part of what I struggled with on this was that my concept wasn't super well thought out and planned. Hoping to fix that next time! 😅

Awe Thanks @ann-nadine!

@Griffin of course! I always appreciate seeing it from the eyes of others myself.