I've been meaning to get involved with the community here for quite some time now... meaning to get started on monthly challenges and have conversations on this forum. It didn't quite happen before.. My first and last challenge entry was one year ago in october. Now I hope to have the time and energy to go through this...
So I decided to get started on this month's challenge.
First up I wrote down a couple of ideas and associations I had for the word slow.
Snail, sloth, koala, tortoise, a school room with kids watching the clock, slow dance, slow down!
A park scene with an old man walking a tortoise, kids rushing by, playing with a dog...
A character walking on a tightrope...
I made a few sketches, but nothing really grabbed me.
Today I was sketching for other things and as I made about the 3rd sketch with a kid and it's toy friend an image landed in my head... A skyturtle, swimming through the clouds with a kid lazily dipping his toes in the clouds...
Then as I made a few crappy pencil sketches I decided that I wanted to go for actual water instead of being up in the sky, and as I brought the process over to the computer I came to the conclusion that I want it to be nighttime, making it a second piece of a series that I was meaning to do...
I have a painting that I made 2 years ago and that was not quite ready to make a followup for before, but maybe now is the time... This is the mentioned piece:
I want it to have a similar soft and dreamy feel.
For now I was just trying to put down the values... I'll probably adjust that throughout my messy process of sketching back and forth and figuring out the structure of things if I manage to keep at it. We'll see. Anyway, this is what I have so far:
Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome. 
That is such an awesome idea! I can't wait to see the final piece!
I really enjoyed reading about your thought process. It's always interesting to see a glimpse of how other artists work.
Thank you!
As for the process - this is not quite how I normally work. I usually just start doodling around until something forms on the paper that I like and I take that where I can. Notes, thumbnails and values are usually not part of the process for me but I know that'd be the smart way to work, so I thought for slowvember, I'm going to give that a go 
Been awhile since I stretched myself this way.
I know what you mean. I do thumbnails, but I usually don't do actual value studies, and I always forget to nail down cast shadows and things like that before I color. Anyway, this is looking great so far!
@feleri So lovely!
I love your bear carrying the little kid. What is the story behind the piece? Beautiful concept @Feleri
I'm looking forward to see how you progress with your new piece!
Very nice! I like it so far.
I'll be interested to see where it goes
WOW! this is a wonderful image! I think it is something you could easily find in the pages of a picture book with just a bit more work. It is so dreamy and lovely! I think your values work really well here, try not to lose too many of those dark darks against the lights. For the bear piece, that is about all I could think of to improve it- just push some more darks into the piece and let some of the shapes merge, in order to bring more focus to your main character up there. I can't wait for the follow up on this piece!
I love the look of both of your pieces, it would be wonderful to see them both finished as they look so dreamy and magical! I particularly like the fact that they're both set at night, can't wait to see where you take them next
the illustration with the bear is magic! I d love to see it colored.
Yeah! This is looking really cool I really like the mood you have going here. The first one with the bear is clearly taken a bit further, so it gets the vote, but I'd love to see the other one taken a bit further just to see where you would go with it.
This is in reference to the bear image, since that one is further along. If anything I would love to see you play with the light and shadow shapes more to see if there are ways you can push them further and unify them to create more interesting, bugger shapes. Basically just reiterating what @JeaneBean said here.
Very cool, looking forward to seeing how it comes out!
These illustrations are amazing! You’re skills are amazing! I really like the finish on image 1 but I would definitely like to see how image 2 will turn out as well. I also can’t wait until they’re in color but even in black and white, they’re still awesome. Great work!
They look so adorable and cool! I especially love the tiny bear in the pocket and the way you use lighting, empowering the magical atmosphere. This should be a series for sure! 
Thank you so much for everyone for the kind words and encouragements!
@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson - The "story behind the piece" is a bit vague in my head. I have this floating concept in my head of kids being carried on the land of dreams and stories by their imaginary friends / toys / pets. I have many unspoken, unformed feelings about this and I'm just exploring the idea as I go on with the painting, so there is no set story yet.
@JeaneBean and @robgale Thank you for your thoughts. For touching the bear piece, I should get my screen calibrated first, cause there is a treshold of greys where I just cant see the difference, but then I get to see it on other screens and its totally weird... and then I get it printed and its all awfully dark... so it's a challenge I'm postponing a bit now, but I hope to get back to it someday and I think you are absolutely right in getting the shapes more under control and I shall play around with that a bit further at some point.
It's been a busy week, but I haven't been able to paint/draw up until today and even now, not so much time and attention could go into this, but I made some progress so I thought I'd share that with you all.
A few rounds of sketching to start figuring out what I want with the structure of things...
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I haven't been able to work on this (or anything really) lately, but today I allowed myself to paint with watercolor for the whole afternoon and then came a round of digital sketching, after which I decided that Now its time to finally make some progress with this as well..
So here's the next round of sketch. I'm slowly figuring out what kind of objects do I really want him to have on his 'boat'. I might give him a few more things later after I checked back on my value plans.
@feleri So cool to see the fleshed out sketch of your second painting. To be honest I want to see you finish them both. They feel like they are part of the same fun story to me!
Rob Gale
instagram: www.instagram.com/robgalestudio/
website: www.robgaleillustration.com
@robgale Thank you very much.
I consider the bear one finished actually. I know that with digital painting it's hard to have anything "finished" but for me that is done. Many have asked me to do a colored version and I'm not perfectly happy with some bits and pieces so maybe if I improve enough I'll give it another go, but for now it's done. I want to be able to match that in level and mood with other pieces first and if there ever comes a point when I feel like I could or should, I'll rework it. :))
@feleri Oh Gosh! Sorry, I think I misread something earlier on, for some reason I got the impression that you were deciding between these two, the bear and the turtle. Haha, now it makes more sense, because that one does seem like it's in so much more of a finished state. It's still fun seeing this one come along!
Thank you!
As for the process - this is not quite how I normally work. I usually just start doodling around until something forms on the paper that I like and I take that where I can. Notes, thumbnails and values are usually not part of the process for me but I know that'd be the smart way to work, so I thought for slowvember, I'm going to give that a go Been awhile since I stretched myself this way.
