Our SVS Virtual Studio December 🎁 2019

[burvantill]

Hello Illustrators! It’s December! The end of the year reflecting begins.

WE INTERRUPT WITH A BRIEF ANNOUNCEMENT
Before we get started sharing what we are currently working on, please share what was your favorite piece that you worked on this year and why was it your favorite?

NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED SHARING
Imagine you are walking through a studio silently looking over people’s shoulders at their work. This is NOT a place for critiques. You may applaud, encourage, ooh and ah only.

What is everyone working on this month?

Imagine you are walking through a studio silently looking over people’s shoulders at their work. This is NOT a place for critiques. You may applaud, encourage, ooh and ah only.

[braden H]

The elephants ALWAYS return.

[Judy Elizabeth Wilson]

After a year working on the cintiq my style is changing and is at a crossroad.

[burvantill]

After considering the work that I did this year I think this one was my most favorite to work on. It was part of a 2 painting colab project with @kaitlinmakes. I like the stylization of the raboons and the trees, the light and shadow. I don't know if this is my strongest piece, but I had the most fun creating it.

[Coreyartus]

I think my favorite piece this year was part of a personal project I worked on--a simple creepy crow I named Brachyos (which is a derivative of the latin genus for American Crows--corvus brachyrhyncos). I enjoyed the little frame and the blurred background because I felt it gave it depth, and individualized mystical floating crowns and seals were present in all the pieces in the series... This was the first time a drawing felt "automatic" to me... Like I could get out of the way and just let it happen... There was no pressure, no thinking, no overwrought overworking... It felt like it just flowed out of me. I really really really liked that feeling and I want to experience it again... It's probably not the best thing I did all year, but it's the piece that felt the most natural, the most effortless, the most organically whole to me.

But up until this very week my teaching job flat out completely overwhelmed my capacity to focus any of my attention toward my drawing for far too long. I am desperately stretching to get back into the groove and just doodling so I can create something--anything--and reconnect with that "zen channel" that makes everything else but the act of drawing blissfully recede into background noise. So this little ditty is what I made today--a little reacquainting to my iPad and Procreate and feeling that stylus in my hand at that particular angle while making my hand and wrist and arm move again. It felt really really good. And it's not much, but it's a door to more. And my relief is palpable.

[Heather Boyd]

I am very proud of this short 2 day work, especially when the candy cane looks like I could eat it. I had not intended to go realistic but when I add shadow and light it always seem to turn out that way. I just love looking at it and it reminds me of drinking it up. And I saw those bubbles and I just had to try and paint them.

[Judy Elizabeth Wilson]

Some more done on this cute snowy scene.

[Heather Boyd]

@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson I want to hug all of it

[ArtofJoseGalue]

BTW I love that you keep doing the monthly virtual studio. I am always working on something on the side of my actual job and enjoy sharing and looking at other people's pieces.
Below is my favorite piece this year, it was back in October when astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch were part of the first all-women spacewalk. I was using CS6 when I updated my operating system and the software stopped working (something about 32-bit and 64-bit). Therefore, I took the opportunity to do a color pencil piece. TOOK FOREVER! I remember when I was able to do a whole drawing in math class.
Anyways, below another piece that I'm currently working on. I am trying to get better at editorial illustration and composition. It's been tough, I feel like I want to do all, visual development, character design, and editorial illustration. We'll see where 2020 takes me!

[burvantill]

@josegalue25 Drawing in math, those were the days. You got some great dark black with the color pencil drawing.

We used to have only one virtual studio post. It was too popular and got REALLY big. The monthly makes it easier to talk, the threads don’t get lost in the jumble anymore. I’m glad you like it

[Mark Wilson Illo]

I try to take part in as many drawing challenges as I can every week, and one of them was to draw your favorite Christmas movie. This was my first foray into digital gouache in Procreate. Hope you all like it!

[Oriana Fernandez]

Just starting to wrap up on a set of scenes from a book I'm writing. Will be using some of these for an illustration competition as well. I call this one 'Black Dahlia'. I'm really happy with the way this piece turned out (my favourite for now). I have also been experimenting with the Kaleidescope Lime Pro app for background patterns. I use my own illustrations to generate different designs.

[Judy Elizabeth Wilson]

Finished scene. Practising a little bit of everything, background sky, snow, winter outside colours, animals and thinking about making portfolio art for picture books and board books.

[Kasey Snow]

After thinking about it, I think my favorite piece this year was the one I did in March for Sterling Hundley's Live Ideation class here at SVS. I didn't get to go to art school, so working with someone like him was something very out of my reach. But because of SVS I was able to have a little slice of what that experience might've been like, and I learned so much in such a short amount of time.

[braden H]

Really tryin' to focus on a process that I can follow every time.

[Chip Valecek]

Taking what I learned from slowvember, a few master studios, and mixing it all in with my process and this is the result.

[burvantill]

@Chip-Valecek Nice

[ajillustrates]

Finally able to get to a project where I need to create groups of animals for 9 posters, and just completed the first group tonight. Also, I think sometimes you just have to illustrate a happy pig.

[ajillustrates]

Oh, and I forgot to share my favorite piece that I worked on this year. It was this Adventureland poster, because it let me define a new detailed, retro style for myself in vector, while limiting myself to 7 colors. Also hippos.

[chrisaakins]

@Chip-Valecek wow! That's really good! I'm impressed!

Here is my favorite piece this year. I like it because I learned a whole lot about inking doing the class with you guys and the characters really evolved into recognizable little mice.