September wip help. All feedback is welcome :)

TessaW

@peteolczyk Hey, that's still a congratulations as far as I'm concerned! Good on you to advertise and thanks for being generous and offering to let us know how it goes. I was happy to see your piece featured- paid or not!

peteolczyk

@TessaW thank you Tessa. Just wondering if it might be worth starting a new thread on this subject

korilynneillo

@peteolczyk It might be! I'd definitely love to hear from some other people what their thoughts are/if they've done it/how it's gone.

Thanks for keeping me in the loop about how it goes! I'll be patiently waiting (and building up some funds to maybe do the same myself!)

MOO

I'm probably too late to add much. I really like the fist one best. Someone mentioned the kid looking up at a wrong eyeline, the thing I would mention-and it will probably be fixed as you work onit further and add shadow and light is that the back part of the picture confuses me as to wher the machine ends and the nountains begin. I LOVE your concept and I think it is so cute!

peteolczyk

@handdrawnviolist no problem at all, I’ll absolutely let you all know. I’m intrigued myself so if I do get any enquiries I’ll ask them how they stumbled on my page.

peteolczyk

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen thanks for your valuable feedback Marsha. It’s a good point about the mountains, partly because they are meant to be houses so I should definitely make them more house like ( a hint of bricks and tiles maybe) and fade them off into the background. I probably won’t finish this one off for now, but I might get some time to work on it mid winter.
Thanks for taking the time to give me your advice, you're not too late at all, there’s still time and valuable critical feedback on the piece for me to learn from it.

peteolczyk

Just an update for those interested in advertising on Instagram. My inquiries definitely increased around the time I advertised, although the time line for when they came in between emails and adverts isn’t clear or might not be accurate.
I also updated my profile around this time to make it more clear I was an illustrator taking on commissions.
I haven’t asked yet which feed/ hashtag they found me on as I’ve had quite a few dud enquiries too so I haven’t asked yet.
I think it definitely increased enquiries and got me some more work and a bit more exposure.
It’s too much of a coincidence that follows and queries went up a lot around the time I advertised.
Would I do it again?
Yes I would, I think it worked and it definitely helped.
I’d just finished drawing for someone who paid me an hourly rate for my work. I hadn’t been able to post a thing from this in months, it took up all my free time and I’m not allowed to share the work even now, so my social media activity was really low. I’ve ended up with a couple of commissions, and possible self published children’s book commissions.
In an ideal world though I wouldn’t need to advertise at all, I’d rather have an agent