A little help please...

Hi everybody,
I was hoping some of you could sneak over to the private side and give me some suggestive criticism or help. :) I am running into trouble with the main character of my book and I am not able to post it publicly yet. Pretty, please...I feel like I should be able to solve this, but I am pretty much blocked. :( I need a fresh perspective and eyes and I would really appreciate the help. Thanks!

Something new

This is still really rough, but I am trying to color my sketchbook art in Photoshop. I have colored this one four time now trying to get something I like and I think I might be close. Still not done, but I wanted to post it and see what I think about it when I see it online. Any advice?

Sorry I have been missing

Don't think that I haven't been working. I have, just have nothing all that new to post. Hope to have spread for a book that I have been working on done and ready to look at next week sometime. I am also posting on a blog called Sketch a Day where the members have to post a new sketch almost everyday or you get kicked off. The sketching isn't the hard part, it's the taking the picture and posting that I find tedious as hell. So here is a samp of a sketch on mine that you would find on that site. Oh, and here's a link too LINK

Spacey thoughts

Hi all,
This is the spaceship design for my book and I was hoping for feedback on coloring and design. The kiddo and his pet (thus the two chairs) that go inside aren't done yet, but I wanted to play with colors and see what worked in space. Any thoughts? This is all done in PS in CS4.

February Postcard Finished

Last night right before bedtime I finished the illustration for my promotional postcard. Thanks everyone for confirming my personal thoughts and to my advising husband for helping last minute. :) First mail out of the year. Surprisingly enough, while playing in photoshop for layout, it wasn't nearly as hard as my postcard last year. I don't know if it's because there isn't as much pressure (Brian having a new job), or if it's what I hope it is. That I have enough faith and trust in God that I just keep doing what I'm led to do and let Him take care of the rest. A running theme this year I think. :)

I would appreciate any feedback about layout. Especially in on the back. I realized I hadn't done any illustration to take from the front and transfer to the back. So I decided on illustrating a beach like (Columbian?) girl, all the way across the ocean from where the kids on the front are from, receiving one of the loving thought letters. Placement and color was the only real issue I ran into. Couldn't decide.

What about this for the back? Just thought of it. :P

If you have thoughts, opinions, for either the front or the back, I'm all ears. I'm hoping to get these ordered tomorrow or Friday. :)

Thanks!

Update on WIP

Any comments or suggestions would be awesome. I've been staring at this WAY too long. :/

Snowed In

Totally enjoying my new sketchbook. Its like drawing on bristol all the time with a paper that isn't pure white. So so nice! This is my illo for this week's IF "confined". A lot of snow we've received this month here in the midwest.

I haven't taken a picture of my progress on the "Hatchlings of Loving Thoughts" illo. I'm kind of frustrated with it, but will get to it after lunch today. I hope to fix a few things and move on. :/ Here's an inbetween picture of it. I'm further than this now, but it's a slight update from the image from previous post.

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have a new photo to show you. :)

My resolutions are:
Read through the Bible in one year (following each day with wendypope.blogspot.com)
Get three promo mailers out
Gain a larger network through blog and twitter
Put together a strong portfolio
Sketch IF every week
Never forget how much I love my husband and thank God for him every single day

There's more but they're tiny. I know these are going to be a bit more difficult to keep in habit. :)

Chocolate Feeding Frenzy

Cool, I think this one is done. Now it's time to send out the files to print my portfolio. I agree Isaac that you need pics of the same characters over and over again. Maybe that will be in next years portfolio.
Thanks for all the help on this one, but let me know if there is anything else that's just not feeling right with this piece.

Patti wanted to know of good sites to learn digital painting. Here are ones that I like
-Dani Jones has a great blog http://danidraws.com/blog/
-Schoolism.com has classes you can take. I've taken four of the online classes. they not only teach but the instructors go over your work and show you what you need to work on more.
-You tube has a ton of videos on digital painting. Some are good and others are bad, but you just have to go through them all.
-Ustream has some people that draw live on the computer. you can watch them work and ask them questions.

Hope those help a but.

Brushes and settings

Here's the brush and the settings that I am using for the alien image below. I keep my opacity and flow both set at 100%. I used to mess with those settings but you can get the effect with the pressure you apply to the pen on the cintiq

Happy 2010

So Happy New Year artists. I wanted to know what everyone's New Years resolutions are this year. mine are as follows
1. Lose 30 pounds
2. Print my portfolio and send them out to clients that I really want to work with.
3. Self publish my book (more details to come)
4. Go to as many life drawing classes as I can.
5. Improve as an artist everyday

I've read in several motivational books that people that write down their goals are more likely to accomplish them than those that don't. So let's write them down here so we have no excuses not to do them.

This is a new illustration that I am working on. This will be the last image for my portfolio. I felt like I needed one more kid image and I wanted the image to tell a story. This is still very rough so Isaac, let me know if you see any tangents. You're the king at finding those.