SCBWI “bloom” submission, feedback welcome

[Roxana Antochi]

The illustration looks very nice, I like the concept. Have you thought about flipping it horizontally, so that the focus is on the upper right? It seems as though your eye comes back to the left, although the original direction is toward the right.

Something like this. I was thinking it would also look better with some more depth, so I added some foreground plants which also help to frame it. I hope I'm not intruding on your illustration

[ArtofAleksey]

@Roxana-Antochi no you’re not intruding. The tail is technically the foreground element and I don’t wanna cover it because i want that to feel like a “path” leading up to the little girl at the top.

Ill try to flip it see what happens

[MichaelaH]

@Aleksey I like the idea with the path (tail) leading to the girl, what I would make better, the girl is almost at the edge, maybe some more free space above the girl like Roxana did. And maybe some little bridge on that part of the tail, where the wing lies?

[ArtofAleksey]

I already inked it because i only have today to finish it lol. I really wanna get this in by the deadline. Inked:

[demotlj]

@Aleksey I really like how you developed this and the scene is great. It was funny, though, because for a second I got confused and thought you were doing this for the SVS "moment before" contest and wondered if things were about to get bloody when the dragon woke up! Glad it's for the "bloom" prompt; it's a much sweeter picture that way It's amazing how different captions can put an entirely different mood to a drawing.

[ArtofAleksey]

@demotlj haha yes even though it’s a different prompt i still thought about this. I made sure to not show any sharp points, like on the ends of the wings, made rounded claws, no teeth, no spikes, rounded point of the tail. Even though this dragon is big, it’s been asleep there for a while and is now overgrown with plants. Tried to make it look nonthreatening as best as I could with the time I had left.

[Heather Boyd]

@Aleksey The one you stared has a lot more weight presence -that's what I like most about it. It be interesting if your dragon was so large that he/she was pressing on and leaning over a fence. I like the fence in the first one. Sorry this comment was concerning the 3 valued sketches a few drawings back lols -I hadn't noticed how far your drawing has come.

[Heather Boyd]

@Aleksey Now that I have seen the latest haha -the little girl is in profile while I find a lot of your other elements are in a 3/4 s view. Maybe if you twisted her a bit - I find she gets lost a bit -drawing version (not colour/valued added yet -I know). I read her as a second read and the dragon - 3 vegetable patches first.

[MichaelaH]

@Aleksey It looks great

[ArtofAleksey]

@Heather-Boyd yeah i realized this too im gonna try some stuff digitally to improve it. And yeah originally it wasnt gonna be profile but Idk i kinda like it.

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok I made it on time!

[braden H]

@Aleksey Right on time

I like the woodcut look of the sky. I get a miyazaki vibe, dunno why

[ArtofAleksey]

@Braden-Hallett you’re like the 5th person that’s said that! I think it’s the color palette?

[braden H]

@Aleksey In the intro to Laputa there's an animated woodcut kinda sequence that has the same kind of linework for the clouds as you've got here. I think that's what's triggering it for me.

It could also be the adorable hat and the red dress. Miyazaki seems to love that shade of red

[ArtofAleksey]

Oooo I actually havnt seen this

[braden H]

@Aleksey if you can find the original non-disney dub it's amazing The voice acting in the newer release with Mark Hamill is... in many ways atrocious (same with Porco Rosso). Though I suppose you can watch it in japanese with subs instead.

Either way, awesome movie!