Secret Signs

Morning folks! Not sure how this will go down here but I thought I may aswell give it a try :) Basically, I'm trying to get some of my artwork out there for folks to see so made a Facebook page for it. I've already been in contact with Children's book illustration agency thing (but they said they have people with my style of art already :( so that sucked) But anyway, Im hoping to try get my work across to more people and pray that I can get somewhere with it! Now this being quite a large community and folks seem to love artwork and the time put into being creative I thought I would see if you lot could give me a hand :) I'll pop some of my work on here for you to look at and if you like it then you can go to my facebook page and like the page! :D

thanks in advance to anyone liking/sharing my stuff and feel free to throw in some constructive critisicm/advice where you think I could change a few things with the style or whatever.

hope you enjoy :)

Deviant art page also!

https://www.facebook.com/AliShannonArt/

Le bump :)

not to be rude but couple things.

1. Bumping your thread multiple times isn't gonna help you
2. Art styles like yours is very simplistic and common if you want to stand out you have to actually stand out and not draw like others.
3. The first 2 were ok but the other 3 were IMO bad.

-Not being rude.

-Your art is simple and common, and 60% of what you picked to share is bad.

Pick one.

I'll bump your thread, Tuvae!

Sorry, that was pretty rude of me, too! D:

I bumped it once lol.
Also if you notice I said i tried for childrens book illustration... It doesnt need to be uber complex and OMFG realistic. Simple is good at times you know...

As for being rude, dont worry I expect it lol Its the internet after all :)

I like it.

Thank you Seha ^^
Also, Escorian... Tis a shame... I was always quite proud of the third one! Lol. :(

Simple isn't bad, but unoriginality is... Sometimes criticism is gunna sound rude.

Yeah only thing I could think to say really is that it looks too familiar to something else, I can't put my finger on it with the princess you've shared but it's an art style I feel I have seen before.

The bears give me a feeling that someone has played a little too much Little Big Planet.

I like the bears.

After that, kind of tapers off. Keep trying!

I really hope you succeed :) You're just not there yet.

I can't believe some overlooked this detail. Grats to you for perusing this! Good luck to you, and I hope it all turns out well! :)

EDIT: What medium are you using for your illustrations? Seems like line drawings and the second to the last looks like marker or water color from the look of the grass. Have you considered charcoals and acrylics? Looks bolder to me.

I think you should demo 2-3 spreads of a children's book story so we can really give you advice, tbh.

Yeh, its hard to give critisicm without sounding rude at times... but its ok aslong as ways to improve or alter the work is advised its not really rude.

No idea what style it is tbh, I just draw and thats what happens :/ Also ive never once played LBP :P If im honest, they are based on Soft toys that i got my ex-gf years ago... lol.


Thanks! Its kinda hard to find agencies for that sort of thing and its high competition when trying to do it through authors. But Im trying! I do generelly line work with markers for colouring. A friend suggested trying watercolour painting to see how it would look, so i got some canvases and will be doing that soon :)

Advertising here probably won't do too much, other than to increase your FB page visits, but it is a start maybe.

Your better bets are to try to create a web-presence with a dedicated portfolio site (which hosts your work, and provides contact information.) If creating your own website from scratch seems too daunting or expensive, even with the 'wizard' type tools out there for HTML, there are always other sites like Deviantart, which provides not only a means to host your work and display it but also has community peer reviews. This allows for some creative input from others as well as exposing you to the works of those in the industry you wish to work.

To that end, scanned-and-hosted classic media (lineart, marker washes, watercolour/acrylics) work well--because they teach important skills of rendering and progression in the creative process, as well as patience--but you would definitely want to expand into computer graphics software when you can. Current software (even free-to-use versions) can emulate a large variety of rendering techniques and really are the present-and-future of graphic arts.

While the graphics programs can be daunting to use at first, they allow infinitely greater control of the process (with 'layers' and 'copy' and 'undo' options that traditional painters simply don't have LOL.) With the ability to provide publishers with clean and professional 'camera-ready' work compatible with their systems, knowing how to use these tools will be practically expected from anyone working in the field.

Any classes you can fit into your spare time in either classic media, life drawing, or computer graphics would be a great investment. Even if they teach you to approach the creative process and render in ways in which you aren't comfortable or think are compatible with your style, knowing how to draw or paint in different ways or to see a subject in different ways helps tremendously to an artist's flexibility and expression.

aw man i just wrote a reply then lost the post... dangit..

Anwyay, thanks Schutz, I did animation and computer design at college so i have the digital art behind me. I never felt comfortable doing it though. I did 3D animation aswell and I never really got into that. I prefere the traditional work, which sucks as its never something thats used really anymore. Also I do have a deviantart :) And its got a lot more work on there, my FB page only has my own original work, where as DA has fanart and stuff which friends said i should show off too on my FB page... but that didnt sit well with me. I felt it would be better to have my own original work and designs. I'll put the DA link into the OP :)

Hey ive not bumped this in a long time... so here we go.

*bop*

Figured a more deserving bump would be one with more drawings o.O

The faces are horrifying.

Seems that your art improved.
I like to draw but what i think about comix or books is that the art isnt the main thing but the story itself.
Why dont you publish a complete work in a proper site?
You said your work is for children but this game shouldnt be played for kid, so no great feedback here.
Aside that, there are so many arrogant, smart ***, presumptuous, rude guys in this forum that the last place i would post anything is here.

Well, i use Facebook just to get people to see it, like it, share it, every little helps that way. I use deviant art also. Ive not tried making a proper site for it, i dont know how to if im honest... shoulda paid attention in web design class in college... haha.

As for the community here, yeh, i knew there would be a lot of negetive feed back cuz its the internet and people do it for lulz, its lke having a goal or wanting to achieve something is forbidden here. But, saying that, theres good feedback too and i have had a few people from this site like my page :) so im happy for that.

And girls too, don't forget them.

Anyway you draw far better than I can, I can say that honestly.

Yeh, critics come in all forms! Unfortunetly they never criticise then offer suggestions how to improve, rarely you get that type of person.

Haha, thanks :) Ive changed my style a bit over the last few months.

Make the faces less horrifying, there I offered a suggestion. the rest is fine but the faces on the new ones are wrecked.Unless you went for the down's syndrome look.

Getting really good with how the clothes look.

Fix the faces, fix the terrifying eyes, and make a 2-3 spreads of a continued story that doesn't have the same 3 people you're basically drawing.

There are a ton of guides out there on how to improve with various drawing techniques. Charcoal, Watercolor, shading techniques, etc.

Personally, I'm the pencil and paper kind of artist. Some of my early stuff was so bad, it horrified me to post it anywhere, but I did. One key aspect to getting better, is keeping your previous works as a reference on what you did wrong, and what needs to be changed or improved upon.

When drawing female characters, you should never, ever, use straight lines, regardless of how simplistic the art style may be. Keep it fluid. Research as many drawing styles and tools as you possibly can, and experiment.

And I have to concur, the faces are absolutely horrid and disproportionate. Studying anatomy makes a huge difference in improving on facial features.

Girl in red dress' face kind of looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger's.

She is also tipping over because her head is gigantic in relation to her frame.

Work on facial expressions, anatomy, poses, and shading. A little bit of work on the eye's to avoid the doll-like look. And make sure they do not look too similar to copyright/trademark characters. It could land you in an unwanted lawsuit. Working with realism/semi-realism will not hurt you. Remember "practice makes perfect."

I didnt think the first 2 human faces are bad. For a children or for cartoon, draw too realistic isnt a good thing. In fact, having some proposital dispropotinal things help as those char must be remembered by characteristic feats like big nose, ear, etc.
I liked the red girls face, seems a very cartoonistic face and very pleasant construct, giving an impression of gentle girl.
But it dont seems like a main char in any story. Try creating a scenario and try dawing a char to match this. Like a scenario of europe middle age and your char is a jester. Then you can drw something better than just random pictures imo.
Drawing is a method to transmit information instead of words. And for that, it must have a content o be worth, so the the drawer can see if what he want to tell is being correctly send by his drawns.