SVS Virtual Studio FEBRUARY 2023

[Melissa_Bailey]

Working on more dummies this month. Here's a dummy cover I just finished this afternoon...

[Melissa_Bailey]

@Asyas_illos love it, Asya!

[ksfabian]

@Melissa_Bailey I love the balance in the composition and the mouse is super cute!!

[ksfabian]

@Asyas_illos I love this lineless style. It's like a balance between comic style and painterly.

[Valerie Light]

I've been missing the regular monthly prompts lately! Anyone know when they will resume?

I am waiting for my first book to publish in March with Arcadia Children's Books! In the meantime, I'm learning how to make seamless repeating patterns for licensing. (hopefully)

[ksfabian]

@Jeremy-Ross Your fruit guys are so fun!!! I hope your shop blows up!!

[Melissa_Bailey]

@ksfabian thanks a bunch! Mice are one of my favorite creatures to illustrate.

[Tom Harshberger]

@Melissa_Bailey love it. the edge lighting on the mouse's ears is so nice!

[Valerie Light]

@Melissa_Bailey so pretty, Melissa! Do you have a bunch of dummy ideas ready to go? I'm working towards that.

[Jeremy Ross]

Thanks @ksfabian!

[Melissa_Bailey]

@Tom-Harshberger thank you! I'm still struggling a bit with getting my values right, so the edge lighting was an attempt to help the character stand out more.

[Melissa_Bailey]

@Valerie-Light thank you! Yes, I have 2 dummies ready to go, 1 just about ready to go (it's got some nonfiction elements and I forgot to finish the back matter), and 2 in progress. I want 3 ready to go when I start submitting to agents this month.

As far as story ideas, there are a bunch! If you don't have one, I highly recommend having a story idea notebook. Mine lives on my desk, within easy reach if an idea strikes (which usually happens late at night, on a walk, or somewhere where I have to rush back to my desk before the idea disappears).

[Asyas_illos]

@Melissa_Bailey thank you!

[Asyas_illos]

@Melissa_Bailey I love this mouse, do you have a title yet?

[Asyas_illos]

@ksfabian thank you

[Asyas_illos]

@Valerie-Light how exciting congratulations! I’ve been looking into pattens myself

[Melissa_Bailey]

@Asyas_illos thanks! Yes, I do have a title --here's the cover mockup:

[ArtMelC]

@Kim-Rosenlof Thank you! The colour palette story was a bit funny because I randomly colour picked from a photograph of a rambutan fruit on the table but it ended up being one of my favorite palettes.

I came across the #storystorm challenge on Twitter, organized by PB author Tara Lazar. During the month she invited guest bloggers to write inspirational writing posts on how to get ideas and stuff. It's amazing! When I came across it it was already the 7th but I decided to get on it anyway!

[Bill B.]

My main goal this year to to finish more illustrations. I really struggle with trying to get whats in my imagination down in pixels and then painting is a whole other problem. Lee’s advice from 3PP about doing 20 master copies from the experts in our industry really rang true. I’ve only done a few at this point so I want to make that a goal this year as well.

[kylebeaudette]