Our SVS Virtual Studio 2019!

[braden H]

Doing a 30 days 30 characters challenge at a webcomic hosting site. Using it as an opportunity to do design work for a short portfolio comic, so I'm doing locations as well as characters

This is a roost for riding bats (because bats are cool). The tower sits over a good ol' pit for catching guano, which gets shovelled out on a regular basis.

[Heather Boyd]

@Braden-Hallett

Your process is top fabulous Can you design and build my house lols.

[braden H]

@Heather-Boyd Only if you want it to immediately collapse

[burvantill]

@ShannonB Thank you. You make it seem easy.
My problem is I never learned how to be loose with watercolor. I can be loose but it’s always contained within the lines. Incidently, it’s the way I used to color in my color books too. Don’t color outside the lines!
So I put tidy glaze after tidy glaze on hoping to eventually get what I wanted and it didn’t work. Normally I paint fairly bright. And coincidentally with this image, I was trying to reach the same look that you have in your paintings. You are able to light your focal points well, Without losing the brightness throughout the painting.
The second I figure it out I’m going to redo this one.

[braden H]

Really tryin' to put that environment course to work

[Heather Boyd]

@Braden-Hallett You are a powerhouse man hahaha!

[uzma]

WOW love seeing all the great pieces - 3D, 2D, digital and traditional!

I recently started a 30 Day Challenge on my IG - Instagram.com/uzma.b.ahmad. Hoping it helps me improve on perspective, tone, and lines. This one was Day 3 - Thoughts on a Cliff.

[Kat]

@Whitney-Simms this is beautiful!

[demotlj]

I was stuck in a parking lot waiting for 45 minutes for someone but fortunately had my sketchbook and pens with me. Here is the tree next to the lot. (Note that spring has yet to arrive here.)

[Whitney Simms]

This is my art student. I teach Kate and her mom (my good friend) once a month. She’s homeschooled, so we do art for four hours together one day a month. I can teach watercolor, but I wanted her to get a good foundation that I am a bit rusty on. My friend subscribed to SVS and Kate has already taken three classes. I’m so excited to watch her grow. Guess I’ll get better too, i need to watch the classes in the curriculum too!

But check out her painting! She sat for four hours today and knocked it out. I told her that she needed a setting for her girl on the bike from last month. 4 HOURS! Y’all, she’s 12. I’m so proud of her. And glad that SVS can really teach her the things I can’t. Thanksfully, she still values my critiques and wisdom (you know I don’t have any wisdom).

[ShannonB]

@burvantill I honestly struggle a lot with keeping loose, especially when it's a piece that needs to work out well (like commissions or whatever!) I end up trying to stay within the lines and doing like you said and it never looks great but makes sure nothing goes too badly I suppose! When it's just a piece for myself I feel more free to mess around and come up with happy accidents which is so much better! So keep going and just try to experiment lots and I'm sure you'll find a method you like because this is already looking so great

[burvantill]

@ShannonB Thank you. I appreciate that.

[ArtofAleksey]

@Whitney-Simms you have probably been able to provide something to her no one else has! You should be very proud of your influence

[demotlj]

@Whitney-Simms This piece is great, and not just for a 12 year old -- it's great period. Tell her to keep at it because the more she learns and practices now, the better it will get into her bones and stick with her the rest of her life. How I wish I had learned the fundamentals at that age!

[Heather Boyd]

24 more weeks of ABC plants. I couldn’t fit them all in the month of April for Aprilbet. Lily of the Valley was a test but will be included in the complete collection. So I started last week with my Aloe Vera plant.

Painting in gouache,

[Whitney Simms]

@Kat thank you! Can you tell I'm ready for summer!

@demotlj @Aleksey I'm not super sure how much knowledge I am giving her, but we have a good time. I know here well enough to correct without sugar coating anything. About value and telling her to stop putting so much detail in her thumbnails. Move faster! She draws lighter now too. A few things. Kate has a love for creating and that isn't anything you can really put in someone. Sometimes you can help foster the love of creating, but there has to be something there to start.

Anyways, how much would you have given to have something like SVS at 12 years old! This girl is going any place she wishes with her art.

And that freaking city scape. I get no credit for that other than the topic and a few random reference pictures of store fronts. Her painting was really all her own. No direct copy from reference. So So good. I did make her do a color dummy. Maybe I'll claim 1% just for guidance. Mentoring and teaching is the best.

[LauraA]

@demotlj I like these! They remind me of Ernest Shepherd! (Pooh, for anyone who doesn't know)

[LauraA]

It has been a really hard week to get anything done, so I just wanted to post something! Today I'm knocking out color schemes and struggling to use a fairly realistic color palette for a dark building in my neighborhood. (I have another scheme in which the building is red.) I added a texture to this one and rather like it because it's simple, but I'm not convinced the color mood is right. The rest of the process is in a thread called Children in the Neighborhood Series WIP and eventually I'll post all the color schemes there.

And I signed up for the book cover class! Have a good end of the week, everyone!

[demotlj]

@LauraA He is the style I'm trying to emulate right now and I really enjoy doing it but I'm finding it hard to do on larger characters or complex scenes. It works best for me with small characters set in a landscape or with vignettes.

[demotlj]

@LauraA I like it, and like how her hair blends into the background -- it makes her feel anchored.