Saying goodbye is never easy to do, so our students had their work cut out for them with this month’s prompt, Saying Goodbye. You can check out all the submissions here!

We’ll be reviewing the submissions during our monthly How To Fix Your Art livestream, where our instructors share their time-saving strategies for taking illustrations to the next level.

Did you submit a piece this month? Tune in live to see if it was selected it for an in-depth critique. To everyone else, we hope you'll join us and say hello to our community in the chat!

The Details

What: How To Fix Your Art livestream

Who: YOU! All are welcome, whether you submitted a piece or not.

Date: Thursday, October 17

Time: 2 PM MDT (time zone converter here)

Where: Live on our YouTube channel!

Are you ready for another epic art critique? How to Fix Your Art will be streaming live this Thursday and you're invited!

Jake, Will and Lee will be on hand to deconstruct student submissions for this month's prompt: Jeremy never thought the machine would actually work.

This prompt actually came to us from one of our members, Braden Hallett. You can find his work here.

Check out the illustrations that artists like you created and learn how to evaluate them like a pro!

All the info is below. Hope to see you there!

The Details

What: How To Fix Your Art livestream

Who: YOU! All are welcome, whether you submitted a piece or not.

Date: Thursday, September 19

Time: 2 PM MDT (time zone converter here)

Where: Live on our YouTube channel!

If you haven't already heard of it, Inktober is a worldwide art challenge where artists do a different ink drawing every single day of October. That's 31 drawings in 31 days!

Sometimes the hardest part isn't doing the drawings, but coming up with 31 different ideas of what to draw.

If you are struggling with creative block, try following the official prompt list above to help you generate ideas. You can use the words as inspiration for what to draw that day.

Now is a good time to start thinking about what you are going to draw, so when Inktober kicks off on Oct. 1, you can hit the ground running 😀

Y'all, we hit 200 episodes, can you believe it??

After dozens of interviews, hundreds of listener questions, and countless good-natured arguments, the 3 Point Perspective podcast has reached this huge milestone, and it's all thanks to you.

To celebrate, we'd love it if you were part of this landmark moment! Join Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry LIVE as we celebrate 200 episodes.

We'll be hosting a special livestream tonight on our Youtube channel, and you're invited!

We'll get started at 7pm PDT. You can join here: https://www.youtube.com/live/xKRwGFODxyQ?si=QDioKgp-_cwlBZiS

We'll be recording the livestream and posting the episode on all the usual platforms in a week or two. You can be a part of SVS history!

There will be plenty of banter, a smattering of dad jokes and maybe even some arguments

Hope you can make it!

Do you know someone who would love our art classes as much as you do?
Give them the gift of SVSLearn!

This Black Friday through Cyber Monday, you can gift 3- or 6-months of full access to SVSLearn. It’s the perfect gift for students, aspiring illustrators or anyone interested in improving their illustration skills from home.

These gifts are non-renewing and give full access to the 100+ classes in our subscription at 35% off:

• 3-month access: $58.40 USD (save $31.45 off the regular price)

• 6-month access: $116.81 USD (save $62.89 off the regular price)

You'll also have the option to send a beautiful certificate with your purchase so there's something special to unwrap on Christmas morning.

Ready to give the perfect gift? Learn more below!

Just popping in to remind you of December's How to Fix Your Art prompt!

The prompt is Rock Fortress. Your challenge: design a rock fortress and use it in an illustration. You can create a full illustration featuring the fortress, or a design page with the fortress on a white background. Focus on the structure of the building and how to convey that it's made of rock. (It's harder than it sounds!)

Submissions are due December 1, and the livestream critique will air December 14 (a week earlier than usual). Tune in to see if your piece was featured!

Need more details? Click below. Happy drawing!

We here at SVSLearn are bigs fans of Inktober, the art challenge where you do one ink drawing a day every day of October.

It makes a great training ground for professional assignments because it teaches consistency, work, and creativity under pressure. You learn how to finish daily assignments whether or not you’re in the mood or “feeling inspired.”

These are essential skills for professional illustrators. Everyone has days when they don’t want to sit down and draw or when they’re fed up with a seemingly endless project. But the ability to see it through, regardless of how you feel, is what separates the pros from the amateurs. 

If you struggle with this, don’t beat yourself up. Here are five tips to staying consistent and finishing Inktober (or any long project) strong.

1. Habit Stacking

One of the hardest parts of long challenges is remembering to fit new habits into your day. Simplify by connecting your drawing practice to something you already do daily. You could sketch while waiting for the bus or ink during your lunch break. Perhaps you could commit to inking a certain number of illustrations while the laundry runs or the baby naps. Try linking the practice you want to develop to a routine or habit you already have. This will help you remember to follow through and give you a designated time to complete your goal each day.

2. Plan Ahead

Inktober may be a daily inking challenge, but who says you can’t do some work in advance? Take time at the beginning of the week to review the upcoming prompts and even sketch out some concepts for your illustrations. This allows you to get much of the design and drawing grunt work done early so you can enjoy inking during the rest of the week

3. Forget Motivation

Motivation feels amazing; it gives you so much energy to hit your goals and stretch yourself. The downside is that just like all other feelings, motivation dulls with time. Professional illustrators don’t depend on their emotions to make them draw every day; they follow through because they’ve committed to it. Forget motivation and focus on integrity. Think of how proud you’ll be when you’ve finished the challenge and let that thought sustain you when you don’t feel like pulling out your pens.

4. Reward Yourself

Who says you have to wait to celebrate your progress until October 31st? Create small rewards for yourself all along the way! Maybe you get to listen to an audio book while you draw, or for every page you ink you can watch 30 minutes of your latest binge show. Find ways to make the work rewarding, even on days you don’t feel like creating.

5. Create a Community

It’s much easier to stay consistent when you’re accountable to someone. Whether that means posting your work online every day, sharing it with a friend, or convincing some of your friends to take the challenge with you, it always helps to have people cheering you on and holding you to your word.

And that’s it - 5 tips to staying consistent this Inktober! Did any of these tips help you? Do you have a suggestion of your own? Head over to our free forum and share your insights with our community. And don’t forget to tag your Inktober projects on Instagram with #svsink so we can see what you’re working on!

It’s true. We’ve missed the monthly prompts! So we thought it would be fun to bring them back as a mashup with How To Fix Your Art.

How To Fix Your Art is our free, monthly livestream where you send us "broken" art and we "fix" it. Until now, we’ve been accepting submissions of just about anything, but we thought it would be fun to kick it up a notch.

Beginning with the upcoming November livestream, How To Fix Your Art submissions will be based on a prompt! This is a fantastic opportunity to improve your visual storytelling skills and learn to create on assignment. We’re excited to see your unique interpretation of each prompt!

We’ll share the prompts a month in advance so you have plenty of time to work on your piece. If you submit your art, it may be featured in an upcoming HTFYA livestream!

So, the prompt for November is: Flight. Any guesses as to who came up with the prompt? Yup, that’s right! This one came from Mr. Jake Parker 🤓 Fans might know that Jake was a contributor to the much praised graphic novel Flight, Volume One.

Your illustration should tell a story incorporating the concept of flight. Take time to brainstorm and make it interesting! Any illustration format goes; just upload your finished piece to the Forum by November 1.

The prompts for December and January are already live. You can check them out and learn more HERE.

Important: We’re also changing our submission process. Now you’ll submit your pieces through our free forum by the first of each month if you want the chance to be included in that month's livestream.

Find more information on the new HTFYA page below. We can’t wait to see your creative takes on our monthly prompts!

With fall right around the corner, it’s time to pull out your pens and prepare for Inktober!

What’s Inktober? It’s a month-long art challenge created by our own Jake Parker that’s aimed at improving your ink skills and developing positive drawing habits. Here’s how it works:

1. Make a drawing with ink (you can follow the official prompt list or do your own thing)

2. Post it (on whatever social media platform you prefer or even just your fridge - just share it with someone)

3. Hashtag it with #inktober and #inktober2023

4. Repeat!

Inktober runs October 1-31 and allows you to plug into a vibrant online community of artists. Whether you want to improve your inking, make daily drawing a priority, or just have fun, this challenge is open to you!

Below are five ways to set yourself up for the best Inktober experience.

1. Choose Your Weapons

Before we dive into this challenge, it’s important to have everything you’ll need ahead of time, that way you are ready to go when the challenge kicks off October 1. While most Inktober participants choose to stick with traditional black ink or pens, you are free to do whatever suits you - start with a pencil underdrawing, add watercolor, use digital ink, etc. If you need some great ink or paper recommendations, check out the Tools page on the Inktober website.

2. Review the Prompt List

Inktober posts the official prompt list on Instagram and Inktober.com each year on September 1. While you don’t have to follow them, the prompts give your drawings direction (which makes keeping a daily practice much simpler). The lists are varied and have included words like gargoyle, salty, radio, precious, and bluff. Sometimes it’s challenging to come up with a drawing based on the prompt, but that’s part of the fun! Take a look at the list ahead of time and start brainstorming early. Jot down any ideas that come to mind so you’re prepared to jump into drawing when the time comes. Want the prompt list a week early next year? Sign up for the Inktober newsletter and get it delivered to your inbox!

3. Schedule Your Drawing

When you’re forming a new habit, scheduling it into your day is a must; otherwise, you’ll likely put off doing it until you’re either too busy or tired. You might find it helpful to set a reminder on your phone to keep yourself on track. While Inktober is designed to be a daily challenge, you can do the half-marathon version and draw every other day, or even do just a day or two a week. What’s important is that you set a goal and make time to work on it consistently. 

4. Set a Timer

This one’s for the all perfectionists out there. Sure, you could spend hours refining your drawings, but that’s a pretty time-consuming habit to keep up every day. Setting a timer, whether for an hour or five minutes, will limit your overthinking and train you to make bold choices with confidence. Plus, it helps develop a sustainable practice. By the end of the challenge, you’ll prove to yourself that you can fit drawing into tiny pockets of even the busiest days.

5. Improve Your Thinking

To get the most out of Inktober, develop a healthy mindset around the challenge and your art. Recognize that this isn’t homework or a competition; it’s a skill-building adventure. Some days, your drawings won’t turn out as well as you hoped. Don’t give up! Today’s work will lead to better art tomorrow. Be prepared to hit a wall and feel like quitting at some point. That’s normal, but the payoff from keeping your commitment is much greater than taking a day off. You’ll be glad you soldiered on when you’ve completed the challenge! That said, if you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up. Just start again the next day. Improvement comes not from being perfect, but from being committed and trying again. So pick up your pen and remember to have fun!

Ready to dive in? We can’t wait to see what you create! If you need more support, check out our amazing ink classes on SVSLearn, including Inktober Bootcamp. You can take these classes for free when you start a two-week trial of SVSLearn!

Happy inking!

If you DREAM of taking the challenge, this is your chance! FORTUNE smiles on those who draw. Will you RISE to the occasion?

If this is your year to do Inktober, now is a good time to start thinking about what you are going to draw. That way when Inktober kicks off on Oct. 1, you can hit the ground running.

What is Inktober? It’s a monthlong art challenge started by Jake Parker, one of the founders of SVSLearn. Every year, artists around the world take the challenge and do a different ink drawing every single day of October. That's 31 drawings in 31 days! The goal is to improve your drawing skills and develop positive drawing habits.

Anyone can take part in the challenge. All you have to do is:

1. make a drawing in ink

2. post it online

3. hashtag it #inktober and #inktober2023

4. repeat 30 times

But, sometimes the hardest part is just coming up with 31 different ideas of what to draw.

That’s where the official prompt list comes in. It’s simply a list of different words for each day of the month, that you can use as inspiration for what to draw that day. Do you have to use it? No, it’s totally up to you! It’s just a resource if you need a little inspo.

We might be biased, but we here at SVSLearn are big fans of Inktober 🖤 We really hope you give it a go, especially if you’ve never done it before. If you do take part, be sure to tag us! We'll be featuring our favorites on Instagram 😁

Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Join us live on YouTube to see how different illustrators approach and improve the same piece. With their unique perspectives and years of professional experience, it's bound to be an entertaining and enlightening session!

Will they fight? Will they agree? Who can say? Guess you'll just have to join us and find out! Mark your calendars and prepare to level up!

The Details

What: How To Fix Your Art livestream

Date: Thursday, August 17, 2023

Time: 2 - 3 PM MDT (check here for times around the world)

Who: Anyone!

Where: Live on our YouTube channel

Whether you’re a newbie artist or a career illustrator, it’s easy to get frustrated when your art doesn’t match your expectations. Fortunately, you don’t have to stay stuck!

Here’s 5 practical steps you can take today to improve your illustrations and create work that pops.

1. Define Your Purpose

If you don’t know what you’re trying to say, how can you expect anyone to listen to you? Whenever you start a new piece, ask yourself, “What do I want to communicate?” When you’re clear about your purpose, every choice you make, from composition to colors, can reinforce that goal and give your art much-needed oomph.

2. Focus on the Concept

A boy holding a baseball bat, a queen on her throne, a superhero flying through the air: what do these scenes have in common? They lack concepts. These might make lovely stand-alone images, but they don’t tell much of a story. When you’re illustrating, it’s important to create images that further the narrative as much or more than the text. Take the time to brainstorm and experiment with thumbnail sketches until you find a winning concept and composition.

If you struggle to develop great concepts, check out our course Developing Great Visual Stories for pro tips and techniques!

3. Master the Fundamentals

This might seem obvious, but having a solid grasp of drawing basics like light and shadow, perspective, composition, and color theory is essential to creating impactful art. Have you ever heard the phrase, “You’ve got to learn the rules to break them”? Well, it’s true! Even if the style you’re aiming for is abstract or primitive, understanding these principles will allow you to bend the rules in your favor down the road.

If you’re unsure where to start, our Foundations curriculum maps out exactly what you need to know to master the basics. Start from the beginning, or select specific courses to fill in your knowledge gaps.

4. Finish What You Started

SVSLearn founder Jake Parker is famous for his belief that a stack of finished projects is better than a single “perfect” one. Why? Because with every project you complete, you sharpen your skills for the next endeavor. If you linger too long in one phase, you limit your growth. To improve your illustrations, create small projects for yourself and see them through, over and over and over.

For example, want to be a comic artist? Make a zine. Write the story, sketch it out, ink it, and share it with someone. And set a deadline so you can’t spend too much time overthinking it. When you’re done, evaluate what you could improve, and apply those changes to your next zine. Repeating this process several times will make you proficient at turning good ideas into good finished work, a skill you can translate to larger projects.

5. Seek Feedback

This might be the scariest step, but it’s essential if you want to break through the ceilings in your work. Getting outside perspective allows you to see if your art is communicating the way you intend.

The key is to seek feedback from the right people. Unless your mom is an illustrator, she probably isn’t the best person to ask for art advice. Look for mentors who have professional experience, who will be honest about what’s working and what isn’t, and who can give advice that helps you progress toward your goals. Maybe that’s a professor, teacher, or illustrator you admire. At SVSLearn, we offer deep-dive portfolio critiques by industry-leading illustrators tailored to your goals and experience level. Check them out if you’re ready to improve your art in a big way!

If you feel overwhelmed by all you have to learn, pick one or two of these principles and practice them a little every day. You’ll be amazed by how far you can go with consistent effort. Don’t forget to plug into our community where you can ask questions, share what you’re learning, and connect with other like-minded artists along the way. 

Great work awaits you; get out there and create it!

Do you dream of illustrating children's books but don't know where to start? Our course, Children's Book Pro, is here to help!

Created by working illustrators with over 75 published books, Children's Book Pro is the most comprehensive course on illustrating children's books available. From character design to book dummies to getting published, you'll learn EXACTLY how to complete each step of the process.
This 10-week course includes:

• Weekly Zoom check-ins with course instructors

• A dedicated social community connecting you with fellow students

• 3 finished manuscripts to work with

• Easy-to-follow assignments and checklists to keep you on track

• 3 instructors who are working illustrators and have taught at the university level

• 5 bonus courses on illustration fundamentals and visual storytelling

All course material is yours to keep, allowing you to improve even after the class has come and gone.

Enrollment only opens twice a year, so be sure to sign up now!

THE DETAILS

What: New session of Children’s Book Pro

Instructors: Will Terry, Jake Parker, Lee White and David Hohn

Class Start: Aug 31

Class End: Nov 9

Where: Online at SVSLearn.com

Cost: $597

Weekly Zoom Sessions: Thursdays, alternating between 10 am PDT and 7 pm PDT

In this month’s How to Fix Your Art live stream, Jake Parker is helping us refine this essential skill.

Whether you’re a newbie artist or a seasoned pro, this free event will help you take your drawings to the next level.

How to Fix Your Art goes live on YouTube at 2pm MDT on May 18. It's free and open to all experience levels.

Want to come extra prepared? Check out Jake’s class, How to Draw Everything.

Hope to see you there!

The Details

What: How To Fix Your Art livestream

Date: Thursday, May 18

Time: 2 - 3 PM MDT (check here for times around the world)

Who: Anyone!

Where: Live on our YouTube channel

Ever heard the theory that a good painting is just as interesting in black and white as it is in color? That's the power of value: when you know how to wield light and dark, you can make dynamic illustrations with or without color.

Want to learn how? Tune into this month's How to Fix Your Art live stream with Lee White! He'll be teaching about how to use value to create compelling illustrations.

(Want extra credit? Check out Light and Shadow for Illustrators to get a head start before the live stream! )

How to Fix Your Art is a free live stream open to everyone. Each month, one of our expert illustrators takes us on a deep dive into an essential art skill and teaches us how we can improve, no matter our current level. Join us this week to improve your use of value!

The Details

What: How To Fix Your Art livestream

Date: Thursday, April 27

Time: 2 - 3 PM MDT (check here for times around the world)

Who: Anyone!

Where: Live on our YouTube channel

Do your natural environments lack personality?

It's easy to think of rocks and plants as just another background element . 

But even the little details can breathe life into your visual storytelling.

In this class, pro illustrator Shane Hunt will share his strategies for drawing unique trees, rocks, and more. His secret sauce? Solid design.

You’ll go over the principles and elements of design (such as line, shape, value, balance, unity, and variety) and how to apply them to your environments.

By learning design principles and elements, you'll be able to draw compelling natural environments in any style, from realistic to fantastical.

This class is in Level Three of our Foundations curriculum, making it perfect for illustrators looking to add extra finesse to their environment design.

If you loved Shane’s Effective Vehicle Design class, get ready for this! He’s bringing his design expertise to the natural world, and you don’t want to miss it.

Now available for streaming in the video subscription!

Congrats to the Top 16 from our October art contest! Way to glow, team!

Be sure to take a close look at our Top 16 and get ready to vote for your favorites during the upcoming Critique Arena on Nov 17.

The prompt for October was: GLOW. As the days grow short and the nights grow long, it’s time to let it glow🌟

If you are new to Critique Arena, it’s a monthly live event where our members vote for the winners of our monthly art contest and our judges critique their work.

Only members can vote and chat with the judges during the livestream, but anyone can watch for free on our Youtube channel 😊 You don’t have to enter the contest to join the livestream!

Just a reminder: the judges will be selecting Honorable Mentions too, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Nov 17

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Anyone!

Where: Members will be emailed a Zoom link to attend, or you can watch for free on our Youtube channel

All bets are off!

Instead of our same old routine, the forecast for this month’s Critique Arena is cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Just 11 competitors will be entering the arena this time!

Be sure to take a close look at our Top 11 and get ready to vote for your favorites during the upcoming Critique Arena on Oct 20.

The prompt for September was: CLOUD. The challenge was to create an ink drawing with a character and a cloud, that tells a story☁️

If you are new to Critique Arena, it’s a monthly live event where our members vote for the winners of our monthly art contest and our judges critique their work.

Only members can vote and chat with the judges during the livestream, but anyone can watch for free on our Youtube channel 😊 You don’t have to enter the contest to join the livestream!

Just a reminder: the judges will be selecting Honorable Mentions too, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Oct 20

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Anyone!

Where: Members will be emailed a Zoom link to attend, or you can watch for free on our Youtube channel

Ready to vote for some cirrusly good art??

Join us live on Oct 20 to vote for the winners from our September art contest!

The prompt for September was: CLOUD. The challenge was to create an ink drawing with a character and a cloud, that tells a story.

A big THANK YOU to all who submitted! We are on Cloud 9! You can check out all the awesome entries here.

The voting goes pretty quick, so be sure to check out the Top 16 beforehand so you can vote for your favorites on Oct 20.

Just a reminder: the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

And as always, anyone can watch the livestream, even if you didn’t enter the contest!

Good luck everyone!

The Details

What: Critique Arena

Date: Thursday, Oct 20

Time: 2 PM to 3 PM MDT (check here for times around the world)

Who: Anyone!

Where: Members will be emailed a Zoom link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Who will save the day??

Join us live on Sep 15 to vote for the winners from our August art contest.

The prompt for August was: Design A Superhero. The challenge was to create a character sheet of an original human superhero.

We gotta say, the entries this month were SUPER! You can check them out here. A big THANK YOU to all who submitted!

The voting goes pretty quick, so be sure to check out the Top 16 beforehand so you can vote for your favorites on Sep 15.

Just a reminder: the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

And as always, anyone can watch the livestream, even if you didn’t enter the contest!

Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Sep 15

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Here we go again!

The official Inktober prompt list for 2022 is here, so that means Inktober is just around the corner!

Time to start prepping and getting ready for the challenge ahead💪

What is Inktober? It’s is a worldwide challenge to do an ink drawing every day for the 31 days of October. If you can actually stick with it and finish the challenge, you are sure to see gains! Not just in your art skills, but in your ability to develop a drawing habit.

But sometimes the hardest part of the challenge is just figuring out what to draw! 😵😭😅

That is where the official prompt list comes in. It’s simply a list of different words for each day of the month, that you can use as inspiration for what to draw that day.

Do you have to use the official prompt list? Nope, it's totally up to you! The Inktober prompt list is just there if you need help. But if you have another great idea, go for it!

Here at SVSLearn, we hope our students will give Inktober a try and see what it does for you. It’s an awesome way to reignite that creative spark. Many of our students get so much out of it, they end up doing it year after year!

That said, it can be a little overwhelming, especially if you’ve never done it before. If you’re not sure where to start, check out our Inktober Bootcamp! It’s a mini-course designed to help you build a plan for your Inktober project and practice your inking skills.

As always, don’t forget to hashtag your work with #inktober2022 so everyone can see your progress. And if you want some social media love, tag #svslearn or @svslearn too! We'll be featuring our favorites on Instagram 😁

Can’t wait to see all your inky creations!

If you aren’t already a member, now is a great time to sign up for a free trial! You’ll get instant access to all our inking classes and more. Ready to kickstart your Inktober?

Ok folks, here’s the lineup for Critique Arena! We just know it’s gonna be a photo finish!

The prompt for July was: Rabbit Road Race.

Besides a good story, the contest entries also needed to include a rabbit character, some kind of environment, and a road race.

Be sure to take a close look at our Top 16 and get ready to vote for your favorites during the upcoming Critique Arena on Aug 18. If you are new to Critique Arena, it’s a monthly live event where our members vote for the winners of our monthly art contest and our judges critique their work.

Only members can vote and chat during the livestream, but anyone can watch for free on our Youtube channel 😊 You don’t have to enter the contest to join the livestream!

Just a reminder: the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

See you at the finish line! Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Aug 18

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Join us for what’s sure to be a race to the finish! 🏁

We’ll be convening Critique Arena on Aug 18 to vote for the winners from our July art contest.

The prompt for July was: Rabbit Road Race.

Besides a good story, the contest entries also needed to include a rabbit character, some kind of environment, and a road race.

Our contestants did us proud🥲 They had rabbits racing around in every kind of transportation imaginable: cars, motorcycles, robots, hot air balloons, even turtles!

You can check out all the entries here. A big THANK YOU to all who submitted!

Look for another email this week giving you a sneak peek at our Critique Arena competitors. The voting goes pretty quick, so be sure to take a look beforehand so you can vote for your favorites on Thursday August 18.

Just a reminder: the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

And as always, anyone can watch the livestream, even if you didn’t enter the contest!

If you are a current subscriber, you can watch the livestream on Zoom, vote for the winners and take part in the chat. Subscribers will be emailed a Zoom link this week.

If you aren’t a subscriber, you can still watch it live on our YouTube channel, but you won’t be able to vote or chat. (Don’t worry, our free trial gets you access to the Zoom! Just be sure you are active on the day of Critique Arena.)

See you at the finish line! Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Aug 18

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Time to hit the books! The children’s books, that is 🤓

We are gearing up for a new session of Children’s Book Pro, the class we created for all the aspiring children’s book illustrators out there.

If you dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator, this class is for you.

Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White have taken everything they learned from illustrating more than 75 children’s books combined, and distilled it into one comprehensive course.

This class will show you everything you need to know about illustrating children’s books, from making a book dummy all the way to getting published.

The self-guided class runs for 10 weeks, but you'll always have access to the content so you can keep learning at your own pace.

New content will be added to the class on a weekly basis, and to help keep you motivated, we'll do a live Zoom session with the instructors on a weekly basis too.

The cost is $597, and includes:

• 5 bonus courses

• a weekly Zoom check in with the instructors to answer questions

• a dedicated social community so you can meet your fellow students

• 3 finished manuscripts to choose from

• easy-to-follow assignments and checklists

• 3 instructors who have taught at the university level and are also working illustrators

The upcoming session kicks off on September 12. Hope to see you in class!

If you haven't already, be sure to sign up now for a FREE preview! It’ll include some helpful tips for illustrating children's books that you can start using right away.

The Details

What: New session of Children’s Book Pro

Instructors: Will Terry, Jake Parker, Lee White and David Hohn

Class Start: The week of Sept 12

Class End: The week of Nov 14

Where: Online at SVSLearn.com

Cost: $597

Weekly Zoom Sessions: Thursdays, alternating between 10 am PDT and 7 pm PDT

Holy summer vacation, Batman! It’s time for a new prompt!

We had fun on our summer vacay, but now we’re back and ready to fight the forces of evil💥

So the prompt for August is: Design A Superhero.

For this challenge, we want to see a character sheet of your original human superhero💪

Every entry must have 5 color drawings on ONE page:

• 1 neutral pose front, 3/4 view

• 1 neutral post back, 3/4 view

• 1 walking or running pose

• 1 superhero action pose

• 1 close up of face

Like in our previous character design challenges, be sure to include some “traits” about your superhero. What is their superhero name? What is their superpower? What is their weakness?

How can you make your superhero stand out from the vast multiverse of superheroes out there?

Need help coming up with a cool character for your superhero? Don't forget to check out these classes:

• Unique and Appealing Character Design

• Posing Characters

• Drawing Heroes and Sidekicks

For even MORE inspiration, check out some of our previous character design challenges:

• Design An Inktober Character

• Let’s Meet Albert!

• Fairy Tale Traveler

Entries are due Aug 31!

As always, be sure to submit via the Critique Arena website to officially qualify. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course. Let us know if you have any questions!

We also encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment!

Good luck to you all!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Prep your file for submission:

  • Save your artwork as a JPG or PNG.

  • Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size).

  • Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name (required) and social media handles (optional). This bar should be white with black text.

  • Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb.

  • And make sure to include your name, month and year in the file name (ex: jake-parker-jan2022.jpg).

  • Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and upload your image in the Critique Arena course.

• If you would like to submit more than one image, shoot us an email.

• Entries must be submitted by the last day of the month. ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Critique Arena website by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

Ok everyone, start your engines!!

The prompt for July is: Rabbit Road Race 🏁

For this month’s challenge, we want to see a rabbit character (or characters), an environment of some kind, and a road race. Your rabbit(s) could be on foot, bikes, cars, or anything you can think of that involves a road.

Your image should tell a story. That might mean that your character is behind in the race and needs to catch up, or they are far ahead and think they can slow down, or they have just won/lost the race, and there's some visual cue that explains why. Feel free to do a full-page illustration or a spot illustration.

Be creative, and do something that will make us think. Remember, concept is king. Also…cute always wins 🤣

Struggling with creating a unique design for your rabbit or the vehicle? Don't forget to check out our character design course with Anna Daviscourt and our vehicle design course with Shane Hunt.

As always, be sure to submit via the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course. Let us know if you have any questions!

We also encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment!

Ready, set, go! Good luck everyone!🚗

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Save your artwork as a JPG. Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size). Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name and social media handles (this bar should be white with black text). Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb. And make sure to include your name and the month in the file name (ex: austin-shurtliff-jan22.jpg). Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course.

• If you would like to submit more than one image, shoot us an email.

• Entries must be submitted by the last day of the month. ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Critique Arena website by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

Do you ever struggle with integrating a character into an environment you’ve drawn??

We all love designing cool characters, but they don’t exist in a void. They exist in an environment, and it’s your job to create one that is true to the story!

In Level 2 of our curriculum, you learned how to design great characters. In Level 3, you learned how to design amazing environments. 

Now it’s time to bring these together in one awesome illustration! 

In this new course from Will Terry, he'll demonstrate his method for taking an existing character and placing it in a new background.

You'll learn how to:

• Determine where to place your character in your composition (and where NOT to place it).

• Identify your character’s perspective and design a background to match.

• Identify your character’s value and design a background to match.

• Establish a focal point and eye movement in your composition.

• Create objects and elements that enhance your story and composition.

Will’s class is part of our Foundations Curriculum, which is designed to help artists of all skill levels build a stronger foundation in illustration and master the essential skills needed be a working artist.

Now streaming in our video subscription!

Ok folks, here’s the lineup for Critique Arena! We just know these Top 16 are gonna take the arena by storm ⛈

The prompt for this month’s battle was: STORM⚡️ . Besides a good story, the contest entries also needed to include a character, some kind of environment, and a storm.

We got so many awesome storm scenarios for our May art contest! A big thank you to all who submitted!

Be sure to take a close look at our Top 16 and get ready to vote for your favorites during the upcoming Critique Arena on June 9. You can find the full illustrations on our Critique Arena website.

If you are new around here, Critique Arena is a live event where our members vote for the Top 2 entries from our monthly art contest and our judges critique their work.

Only members can vote and chat during the livestream, but anyone can watch for free on our Youtube channel😊 You don’t have to enter the contest to join the livestream!

Event links will be emailed to members, so keep an eye on your inboxes. Hope to see you there!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, June 9

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

A storm is a-brewing! But right now, it’s the calm before the storm, as we get ready for battle in the arena⚔️

The prompt for this month’s battle was: STORM⚡️ . Besides a good story, the contest entries also needed to include a character, some kind of environment, and a storm.

And our contestants did not disappoint. We got all kinds of stormy scenarios, from rainstorms to snowstorms to sandstorms! You can check out all the entries here. A big THANK YOU to all who submitted!

Look for another email this week giving you a sneak peek at our Critique Arena competitors. Be sure to take a look and get ready to vote for your favorites on Thursday June 9.

Just a reminder about the new format:

1. First, the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

2. The voting will take place first, then the judges will do the critiques after the voting is wrapped up. Please note: The voting goes super quick now, so it’s a good idea to review all the entries beforehand!

3. As most of you know, our guys love some good banter. All of that will start 5 minutes BEFORE the event officially starts so be sure to tune in a few minutes early!

Hope to see you there! Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, June 9

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Albert Lee

Instagram: @albertleeillustration

Hey Folks - For those that haven’t yet met Albert on the SVS forum, here’s an opportunity to get to know one of your fellow students! Albert’s story is one that celebrates overcoming adversity by finding strength inside, but especially outside, of yourself. Enjoy!

—————

To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are from and currently live, family details (including pets of course) and how you spend most of your time.

I currently live in Southern California with my wife, Sharon, and our 3 children: Joshua, Katie, and Ezekiel. Joshua and Katie are both gifted artistically and I often marvel at their distinct artist points of view. My wife is also artistically inclined, though she will never admit it. She works as both a real estate agent and full time homeschool instructor for our kids. Our youngest, Zeke, is a 5 year old, inexhaustible ball of energy who wears his emotions on his sleeves. We have an affectionate silky terrier named London and a clever hamster named Tasha.

For the past 7 years, I have been working as a sports illustrator, primarily for the NFL. Ever since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic in 2019, I have been working from home exclusively, which suits my introverted nature. (However, I do miss collaborating with coworkers on occasion!) I spend the majority of my time split between tutoring/playing with my 3 kids, juggling household chores, and working full time as an illustrator. I spend most late evenings working on personal projects and developing new skills. I am currently learning how to use Blender to help enhance my understanding of lighting, materials, and composition.

I am a second generation Korean American and the youngest of 3 children. I was born in 1977 in Pittsburgh, PA, but I spent my formative years in Poughkeepsie, NY where I developed a love of nature, sports, and illustration. I can still recall visiting the lakes at Bowdoin Park and Mohonk Preserve as a kid, and I have fond memories of picnicking there with my family. From an early age, I fell in love with drawing and often spent my free time illustrating anything from Saturday morning cartoon characters, to comic book figures, to animals passing through our backyard (we lived by a wooded area that was home to a variety of fauna).

(*A word of caution: I share some personal details here that may trigger readers)

Due to a traumatic series of events that I experienced from the age of 4, there was a dramatic shift in my personality (according to my parents). I was molested, but had no idea how to even begin to communicate what had happened to me. As a result, I became extremely withdrawn and non-communicative. I suffered from night terrors, and I would often "tune out." I also developed prominent signs of dysfluency and often stumbled over my words, which in turn, made me even more reclusive and insecure. Even as an adult, I struggle to communicate just how devastating that experience was for me. I apologize for over-emphasizing this point, but that experience single handedly began to unravel my perception of the world, and unlocked a series of existential questions that I wrestled with throughout my life. How does this relate to art? Looking back, I believe that I turned to drawing as a way to escape and cope with the overwhelming fears and emotions that I could not verbalize. In fact, illustration became my refuge and solace throughout my childhood and teenage years. Illustration provided the haven that I desperately needed and it allowed me to unconsciously explore the horrible things I could not confront or even find the words to define. Additionally, sports helped me develop an alter ego of sorts, that both empowered me and allowed me to work through my repressed wrath/abhorrence in a controlled, socially acceptable, and disciplined manner. My love of nature, much like art, provided an other-wordly refuge away from the memories that I was running from perpetually and it provided a different narrative of the world that was forced upon me.


What’s your favorite place that you’ve traveled to? What did you love most? 

I'd have to say that it is a tie between South Korea and Maui. I visited South Korea for the first time with my parents when I turned 21 and had such a memorable experience learning about my roots in such a visceral/tangible way. In particular, I recall visiting my parents' respective hometowns and marveled at the adversity that they overcame prior to immigrating to the United States in 1970. They lived through the Korean War which indelibly affected them and tragically took the lives of family members and friends. I had to include Maui as well because I fell in love with the crystal clear waters, incredible weather, pace of life...everything. What's not to like about Maui?

I see that you do a bunch of work for the NFL and the NBA!! Wow! How’d you land those clients? And how would you describe the experience of working with them?

I received the opportunity to work for the NFL back in 2015 through an agency called Creative Circle. Prior to receiving that initial invitation to interview with the NFL, however, I had received a series of rejections from various companies that I had applied to and was unemployed for about 1 year. In truth, I was extremely depressed at the time and my marriage was in shambles for a variety of reasons. One of the major contributing factors included the fact that I had been diagnosed with a debilitating disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) in around 2007, which caused a tremendous amount of strain upon our finances, my health, and my relationship with Sharon. Suffice it to say, I was brought to the lowest point of my life and completely devastated. After 12 years of marriage, my wife and I were on the verge of separating. We had two children at the time who were forced to witness the ugliest side of marriage/family life. Looking back, I believe that God allowed me to fail utterly, first as a husband and secondly as a father to bring me to the point in which I would be broken enough to realize that I could no longer live life without completely placing my faith in Him. Up until that point, I found ways to stumble through life by either masking my pain from others or by escaping from it by immersing myself in art, sports etc. Art literally had sheltered me and been my companion through many of the darkest moments in my life... but it could not provide an antidote to the brokenness that I observed in mankind nor could it cure the brokenness that was in me. I came to believe that it was Christ who offered the only hope of restoration for my messed up heart/soul. That is when my wife and I began to humbly pray for healing and forgiveness, both for ourselves and for our marriage/family. The very next week my recruiter at Creative Circle contacted me concerning a freelance position as an illustrator with the NFL. I went in faith to the interview and was invited to work at their office in Culver City the following Monday. I have been working with them ever since. Oh, and my wife and I will be celebrating our 19 anniversary in the fall. We are still working through our issues but we growing in grace towards one another with each passing year.

In terms of my time with the NFL, I cannot possibly thank them enough for how gracious they have been throughout these past 7 years. I truly believe that artists cannot thrive unless they are given trust and room to grow and make mistakes. Under the guidance of guys like Issiah Davis, Charlie DeMarco, Dane Storrusten, Armando Alvarez, and Robin Zibelli, I don't think I would have been able to thrive, let alone survive, under the pressure that I was experiencing, both personally with my situation with my wife, with my ongoing health issues, financially, and vocationally. They gave me so many opportunities to grow, to tackle new projects that required me to expand my skill sets. I am also so grateful for the connections that I made with my coworkers. People like Christian Prieto, Dennis Padua, David Lomei, Chloe Booher made it possible for me to overcome so many of my deficiencies/insecurities and I truly cannot overstate the value of working with people whom you respect, admire, and trust.

Considering these clients of yours, I’ve gotta ask, did you play sports growing up?

I did. I played baseball throughout my elementary school days (centerfield and shortstop) and tennis/cross country/football/basketball throughout my high school years. Though it sounds super cliche to say this, I have to admit that I truly learned so many critical life lessons through the inevitable struggles, losses, and disappointments that came hand in hand with every sport. The pursuit of sports taught the value of remaining humble, of confronting my shortcomings without excuses. Each sport also taught me the value of pacing, timing, staying in the flow state, staying focused, disciplined, and trained. Sports gave me the courage to overcome my sense of helplessness to some degree and provided a way for me to overcome my highly introverted nature. I made a few lifelong friendships with guys that I used to play basketball with.

Here’s a three-part, short answer question: Board games or video games? Burgers, fried chicken or a big salad? Hotel or campsite?

Man, I'd have to say board games. My kids and I spend most evenings rotating through our collection of board games together. In terms of food, my honest answer would be burgers all the way. The western bacon cheeseburger to be exact. In terms of lodgings, I'd say I love campsites though I have only gone camping 3 times in my entire life. I love being out in nature (minus the mosquitos!)

What are some of your other hobbies besides making art? 

Honestly, I am kind of a boring guy who cannot get enough of art. I have been learning Blender 3D for about a year and a half now and love it. I love drawing and painting traditionally and absolutely love sculpting. I honestly don't have any other hobbies outside of art!


Who are some of your favorite artists? How have they inspired you? 

This is hard to answer because there are just too many to list. Off the top of my head, guys like Yoshitomo Nara, Souther Salazar, Dave Kinsey, James Jean, Sam Weber, Ronald Kurniawan, and Hayao Miyazaki come to mind. I think that I am probably imposing my own interpretation upon their works, but I gravitate towards artworks that seem to represent more than just what is seen/visible/representational. Artworks that somehow paradoxically use 2D/3D mediums to express ideas, notions, feelings that transcend our perceptions/material concerns speak to me. As an artist, I still struggle to become less fixated with the way in which something is represented in a literal sense. I am learning how to become more attuned to what can only be felt or perceived by something deeper. 


In terms of being a professional illustrator, what recommendations can you give with regard to young artists attempting to forge their path in this field? 

I would have to say that it is important to find out the reason why you want to even express yourself in this medium and what it is you actually want to say... and if it is even worth saying. One can become disillusioned or burn out easily with the wrong motivations (such as fear and insecurity). It is unwise to build a career/your life upon a foundation that is without a deeper, lasting, fulfilling purpose. I learn that lesson time and time again. I'd also recommend cultivating ways of perceiving the world through a lyrical, metaphorical, narrative lens and creating a visual language of your own that you can draw upon when attempting to "translate" your ideas into an artistic representation. It is important to hone your technical skills as an artist, but relying purely upon technical skill alone can be an empty pursuit for most and can even alienate viewers from the artwork. Lastly, be open to the idea of not depending upon art as your primary source of income. If you truly love art and illustration, and you are not motivated purely by financial reasons/pressures, you may flourish more as an artist by creating personal projects/works. Honestly, I think that most artists derive the most satisfaction and meaning from creating works of art that authentically and sincerely express their heartfelt points of view, even if it does not result in more likes or a paycheck at the end of the day. Try not to define success in terms of material/monetary gain. Try to evaluate and focus on your character, motivations, thought life and observe how those things play an integral role in how you conduct your life and express yourself artistically.


What’s your own practice as an artist look like? Early riser? Night owl? Do you have set times of the day you work? Are you more productive in a certain space? And what about inspiration?

I am definitely a night owl but my kids are all early risers (between 5:30 and 6:30 am). This results in a severe lack of sleep on my part. I normally set apart normal work hours between 9am and 5pm to work. I spend the rest of the evening with my wife and kids. This usually entails playing board games, cards, goofing off, putting my youngest 2 kids to bed (story time, Bible Study, and prayer), and taking care of chores. I resume drawing around 10pm and usually head up to bed around 1 am the following morning. I usually work at my desk in my office and remain inspired because there is just too much to learn, explore, experiment with in art! It never bores me or becomes monotonous.

We’d love to see some of your work. Can you share 5 or 6 pieces with us?

The Sheriff. Digitally painted portrait of Peyton Manning for a 600 foot mural commissioned by the NFL. I was asked to contribute 9 illustrations to the mural.

Digitally painted portrait of Bo Jackson for a 600 foot mural commissioned by the NFL. I was asked to contribute 9 illustrations to the mural.

Digitally Painted portrait of Jim Everett, a QB for the LA Rams during the late 1980s. 

Lithe. It started with a concept: Nimble, lithe. I then digitally painted a character that I felt embodied the word.

Together. I submitted this illustration last year to one of SVS's monthly drawing challenges.

Wary. This character was inspired by the movie Red Dawn. It also represents the way in which I viewed the world growing up: as a potential threat and constantly on the brink of disaster.

Last question: What are you dreaming up for the rest of 2022? Travel, new experiences, new art-making?

I just want to be a good steward of the time I have and cultivate the relationships that I have with my family and friends. I don't try to impose my plans on my life anymore. I just try to remain rooted/grounded spiritually and prepared in case opportunities/or crises arise. I strive to represent what I say I believe as earnestly and genuinely as possible, even in the face of my shortcomings. I would love to find more opportunities to mentor and encourage other artists who may be struggling.

Albert, what a gift it’s been for us to get to know you a little better. Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability in the way you’ve shared your story. Looking forward to seeing more of your artwork on Critique Arena and in the SVS community.

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 14 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Hey Everybody!

Just want to give you a heads up that we are taking a little summer vacay here at SVSLearn.com, so there’s no prompt for June. Time to do some much needed rest and relaxation!

But we’ll still do our normally scheduled Critique Arena on June 9 to vote for the winners of the May contest.

And, we’re releasing the July prompt early so you can have some extra time to work on it in between all that lounging by the pool 😎

Hope you all enjoy the summer!

Everybody loves designing characters, but what about the environments where those characters eat, sleep, work and play? A well-designed space can help tell the story of your character.

Illustrating interior environments can be a HUGE challenge because there are so many elements that need to work together for the illustration to look right.

The whole vibe can just feel off when any of the common pitfalls come into play, such as a boring point of view, overly empty spaces, awkwardly placed objects, and inconsistent timeframe or architecture.

Well, we’ve got good news for YOU! Will Terry’s new course, Interior Environment Design, launches TODAY!

In this class you will learn how to:

• Illustrate with interesting and unexpected point-of-view angles

• Rotate and draw a room from various angles to find the perfect POV

• Accurately map out rooms to serve as blueprints for drawings

• Position and overlap objects and furniture to build a believable scene

• Keep the time period and architecture consistent throughout

Will’s class is part of our Foundations Curriculum, which is designed to help artists of all skill levels build a stronger foundation in illustration and master the essential skills needed be a working artist.

Now streaming in our video subscription!

Congrats to the Top 16 from our April art contest! We gotta say, these treehouses are truly tree-mendous 🌲💕 A big thank you to all who submitted!

The prompt for April was: Design the coolest treehouse in the world! We got so many cool designs, we wish we could while away our days in any one of these.

Be sure to check out the Top 16 and get ready to vote for your favorites during the upcoming Critique Arena on May 12.

If you are new around here, Critique Arena is a live event where our members vote for the Top 2 entries from our monthly art contest and our judges critique their work.

Only members can vote and chat during the livestream, but anyone can watch for free on our Youtube channel😊 You don’t have to enter the contest to watch the livestream!

Just a reminder, the format has changed a bit based on your feedback:

1. First, the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make the Top 16 this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

2. We'll be focusing more on the critiques! The voting will take place first, then the judges will do the critiques AFTER the voting is all wrapped up. Please note: The voting goes super quick now, so it’s a good idea to review the Top 16 beforehand!

3. As most of you know, our guys love some good banter. All of that will start 5 minutes BEFORE the event officially starts so be sure to tune in a few minutes early!

Event links have already gone out to members, but will be emailed again on May 12. Hope to see you there!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, May 12

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

It’s almost time for another Critique Arena!

You all created some amazing treehouses for the April contest. A big THANK YOU to all who submitted!

The prompt for April was: Design The Coolest Treehouse In The World.

Some of you used more than wood and nails on this one - we saw pirate ships, RVs in trees and even a few under water!

Look for another email this week giving you a sneak peek at our top picks. Be sure to take a look and get ready to vote for your favorites on Thursday May 12.

Just a reminder about the new format:

1. First, the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make it to the arena this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

2. The voting will take place first, then the judges will do the critiques after the voting is wrapped up. Please note: The voting goes super quick now, so it’s a good idea to review all the entries beforehand!

3. As most of you know, our guys love some good banter. All of that will start 5 minutes BEFORE the event officially starts so be sure to tune in a few minutes early!

Hope to see you there! Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, May 12

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

The prompt for this month is STORM! ⚡️

What kind of storm is brewing in your imagination? Is your character anticipating a thunderstorm, caught in a sea squall, or have they just weathered a winter blizzard? How will you put your own unique twist on this prompt?

We want to see a character (or characters), an environment of some kind, and a STORM! Your illustration should tell a story. That might mean that your character is anticipating a storm, caught in a storm, or has just been in a storm. Be creative, and do something that will make us think.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Grab your umbrella and rain boots, this is gonna be fun.

Requirements

For this type of prompt, remember that concept is king. You need to spend some time identifying a great story before you ever begin sketching. Besides a good story, your illustration also needs to include a character, some kind of environment, and a storm. The format can be a full page or spot illustration.

Not sure how to generate a great concept? Watch last month’s Special Critique Session or take Will Terry’s Developing Great Visual Stories course.

As always, be sure to submit via the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course. Let us know if you have any questions!

We also encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment!

Good luck everyone!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Save your artwork as a JPG. Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size). Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name and social media handles (this bar should be white with black text). Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb. And make sure to include your name and the month in the file name (ex: austin-shurtliff-jan22.jpg). Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course.

• If you would like to submit more than one image, shoot us an email.

• Entries must be submitted by the last day of the month. ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Critique Arena website by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

Jennifer Thornhill

Instagram: @jenniferthornhillillo

Hey Folks - For those that haven’t yet met Jennifer on the SVS forum, here’s an opportunity to get to know one of your fellow students! Most of you will recognize her amazing Riley illustration she did for Critique Arena a couple months ago. Now’s your chance to see more of her work and hear a bit about life in Canada!

—————

To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are from and currently live, family details (including pets of course) and how you spend most of your time.

I grew up in a very small town in Northern Ontario. (Really small... the population was only 400!) The area is known as “Cottage Country” and is the border of Algonquin Park. Growing up I played outside a lot and spend a lot of time in the woods. My twin sister and I were always into art and enjoyed all kinds of creative activities. About 14 years ago, I moved south with my husband and 3 boys. We live in Grafton, Ontario, which is about 1.5 hours east of Toronto and right on the shore of Lake Ontario. My boys are John (26) Davy (23) and Ryan (13). We also have a very cute, but horribly bad black kitten named Shady (Short for Nightshade Furbottom O’Chanter, Fans of The Luck Uglies by Paul Durham will understand the reference.)


What’s your favorite place that you’ve traveled to? What did you love most? 

My absolute favourite place in the world is the Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Before the pandemic, my husband and I would go to Tennessee each year, rent a mountain top cabin, and spend a week photographing black bears. Of course one of my favourite parts of this trip is the week away with my husband, but I also love the food!

Here’s a three-part, short answer question: Books or Movies? Sushi or Pizza? Relaxing Walks or Strenuous Hikes? 

Books... I read a lot and hardly ever watch movies. When I do it is the movie of a book I really liked. Pizza... I have never eaten sushi. Relaxing walks are preferable, but I will not say no to a strenuous hike if there is something at the end I want to see. 

What are some of your other hobbies besides making art? 

There are really way too many to list. Aside from working on illustrations, I spend most of my time doing wildlife photography. I also enjoy writing, cooking, and all kinds of creative activities. 


Who are some of your favorite artists? How have they inspired you? 

The first illustrator I remember being really inspired by is Brenda Clark, who illustrated the Franklin the turtle series. (It might be a Canadian thing...?) I loved her paintings and would try to recreate them from the books I read my kids. Another book that really influenced me was “Something from Nothing” Written and illustrated by Phoebe Gilman. The thing about this book that really stuck with me was the story that the pictures tell, which is not in the text. It is a story about a boy who gets a blanket from his grandfather as a baby. As the boy grows, the blanket wears out, and the grandpa sews it into a coat, then a vest, then a handkerchief, and eventually a button. Each time he cuts away the access fabric, the mice under the floorboards collect the scraps and use them in their house. By the end of the book, the boy has only a memory, but the mice have a fully furnished house.  The mice are never mentioned in the text. It was really this book that made me think I wanted to be an illustrator, I have always liked to write, but when I realized how much storytelling the illustrator gets to do, I knew that was the job for me. 


In terms of being a professional illustrator, what recommendations can you give with regard to young artists attempting to forge their path in this field? 

My advice is to not spend a lot of time trying to figure out what your style is. Don’t waste time trying to draw what everyone else is drawing. Draw the things you like. Draw them with the materials you like to use. Paint with the colors that make you happy. This is your style. You can only find it by being yourself. 


What’s your own practice as an artist look like? Early riser? Night owl? Do you have set times of the day you work? Are you more productive in a certain space? And what about inspiration?

Some days I am an illustrator and some days I am a photographer. It depends on the weather. On days when I am out all day taking pictures, I usually work on illustration in the evening as well. On days when I am illustrating, I usually get up around 7, drink a lot of coffee, and then move to my desk, where I will usually stay until I need to get up and make dinner.  I don’t have a really strict schedule, but I usually give myself a goal to reach each day, and work until at least that is done. I have a separate room in my house where I have my desk, computer, art supplies, etc. I am much more productive working here, away from the distractions of the tv and what everyone else is doing. I do a lot of online illustration classes, and will usually have a video playing while I work. I re-watch a lot of classes and find that it helps to keep me on task, and keeps me inspired to create. I love to watch how other people work. 

We’d love to see some of your work. Can you share 5 or 6 pieces with us?

Jennifer, thanks so much for sharing part of your story with us. In addition to seeing more of your illustration work, I’m also excited to see more of your great wildlife photography! Hope the rest of your 2022 is full of joy, creativity and fun in the outdoors!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 14 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Hey Folks,

Just a heads up that we’re going to be doing something a little different with Critique Arena this Thursday! 

The prompt turned out to be way more challenging than we anticipated, so we are changing up our regular format to better help our students! 

Instead of voting for the Top 16, we decided to do a special critique session to focus on strategies for developing strong concepts.

While we all love a good competition, we feel like this is a great opportunity to take a deep dive into one of the most important aspects of illustration. 

So, rather than narrowing it down to the Top 16, we’ll be opening up the playing field and picking 16 lucky contenders (maybe more!) from the entire pool of 80+ entries. It could be you!

As professional illustrators we’ve all been there. Sometimes it’s just really tough to nail a concept, but that’s what your agents, publishers and clients want. Your ability to translate prompts to successful illustrations in real life is key to your success.

We know you all enjoy our regular format and we don’t make this decision lightly, but we’re sure this is a Critique Arena you won’t want to miss!

Hope to see all of you there!

Will, Lee and Jake

PS: We did choose TWO awesome winning illustrations and they’ll be unveiled on Thursday!

If you are new around here, feel free to join the event! Anyone can watch, even if you didn’t enter the contest😊

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, April 14

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

〰️

Coming Apr 5! 〰️

Drifting Moon Tarot illustrated by Lee White

Drifting Moon Tarot illustrated by Lee White

Drifting Moon Tarot by Lee White

Drifting Moon Tarot illustrated by Lee White

Drifting Moon Tarot illustrated by Lee White

Drifting Moon Tarot illustrated by Lee White

Our very own Lee White is getting ready to launch his new Kickstarter!

It’s a beautifully illustrated tarot deck created with Grace Selene, the writer behind The Moon Tarot and popular newsletters Today’s Energy Reading and This Week’s Energy Reading. Lee is illustrating the deck and Grace is writing the accompanying book.

The tarot deck is called The Drifting Moon Tarot, and it’s been years in the making! As a storyteller, Lee has always wanted to do his own take on the stories of the tarot.

But it wasn’t until he crossed paths with Grace that the project came to life. If you’re a podcast listener, you’ve probably heard updates about it over the last 15 months. And now it’s finally here!

This is Lee’s second Kickstarter. His first was a fancy art book detailing the process behind some of his most popular illustrations.

(For those of you planning on launching your own Kickstarters, he promises to share some of the lessons he learned from running the campaigns soon!)

The campaign launches at 10 am on Apr 5, so be sure to check it out first thing to take advantage of the early bird pricing!

Wouldn’t it be nice to climb above all the chaos, join the birds and squirrels up in the trees, and take a few deep breaths of fresh spring air? For this month’s prompt, we’re going to explore the world of treehouses! The prompt for April is: Design the coolest treehouse in the world!

Don’t let yourself be limited to the supplies you had when you were a kid. While this treehouse should probably be in an actual tree, let your imagination run wild and create a place you’d love to escape to in your own backyard! 

Prompt Requirements

Design your treehouse at a  ¾ view, including the building and tree, but don’t include any other background elements - it should function like a spot illustration.

This prompt is all about environment design, so you might want to check out Jake Parker’s new class Exterior Environment Design to get some inspiration for how you’re going to approach this one. As you work on your design, focus on the overall shape and three-dimensional structure of the building you design and don’t include any background elements.

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Save your artwork as a JPG. Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size). Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name and social media handles (this bar should be white with black text). Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb. And make sure to include your name and the month in the file name (ex: austin-shurtliff-jan22.jpg). Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course.

• If you would like to submit more than one image, shoot us an email.

• Entries must be submitted by the last day of the month. ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Critique Arena website by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

Melissa Bailey

Instagram: @mbaileyart

Most of you have seen quite a few of Melissa’s incredibly cute SVS bunnies on illustrations she’s done for our 3PP Podcast. She’s incredible at illustrating lots of other animals too, including little humans 😂. I think you’re gonna love what Melissa shares about balancing care-giving and art-making, being a professional illustrator, and walking poodles down country roads 🐩.

—————

To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are from and currently live, family details (including pets of course) and how you spend most of your time (work and/or family related). 

I’m from Michigan – moved around a bit but came back to the house I grew up in to help care for my dad. The basement has been converted and my parents live in the downstairs apartment, so we all have our space. We have two poodles who go back and forth as they please. They do not give us space. They also demand at least three walks a day, which helps keep us active since we work from home. I spend a lot of my time in my studio, which used to be the dining room; it has a huge window with a lot of natural light. And we spend a lot of time outside, walking. We live on a dirt road in the country and I love it. So peaceful, except when the coyotes start howling in the middle of the night and get the dogs barking!


What foods do you love the most? What about drinks?

Food: Sushi, cheese, and chocolate top the list. Also a good old-fashioned roast chicken dinner with all the fixins … mmmmm! 

Drinks: Lots and lots of sparkling water. And milk tea.


What are some of your other hobbies besides making art?

Going for walks (is that a hobby?). Reading – as long as it’s not too tense, gory, or violent and has a happy ending, I’ll read just about anything. There are so many negative and traumatic things in the world, I’d rather be entertained by something funny or that has a lot of heart. I also write – picture books, novels, percolating some middle grade ideas. Sometimes I crochet but haven’t been doing that lately – Archie (our mini poodle) thinks that snatching the ball of yarn and stringing it throughout the house is a super fun game.


Who are some of your favorite artists? How have they inspired you?

Artists who made an impact on me when I was very young were Beatrix Potter, Eloise Wilkin, and Marguerite de Angeli (she was a Newbery Award-winning author-illustrator who was born in the town I grew up in – they named the local library in her honor). I spent hours upon hours poring over their illustrations, dreaming of growing up and illustrating children’s books but thinking it would never happen.

Current favorites? There are so many! Just a few who inspire me: Erin E. Stead, Jason Chin, Deborah Freedman, Amy June Bates, the Fan brothers, Matthew Forsythe, David Roberts, Molly Idle, Aaron Becker, Brian Lies. And of course, greats like Dan Santat, Jon Klassen, David Wiesner, Jerry Pinkney, William Joyce, and Kadir Nelson.


In terms of being a professional illustrator, what recommendations can you give with regard to young artists attempting to forge their path in this field? 

Look before you leap. Learn all you can about the illustration field you want to pursue and what it entails. What skills will you need? If you don’t have those skills, how can you learn them? Will you be freelancing or hired as an employee of a company? What salary can you expect to make as a new illustrator? Will it pay your bills, or will you need a second job? Will you be able to start making a decent living right away or will you need time to build your career to the point where it can support you (and your family, if that’s your situation)?

Know yourself and what you need. Are you okay taking direction or are you an artist who doesn’t like to make changes to their work? (Most illustration jobs require revisions. Compromise is necessary.) Are you someone who would do well working from home or do you need to be around people or in an office environment? Can you push yourself to work on art even when you’re not feeling inspired? (Because it will happen, trust me. Deadlines don’t wait for inspiration.) Are you okay with the uncertainty that comes with the fluctuating income from freelance illustration, or are you someone who needs a steady income and needs to know exactly how much you’ll be making per week/month? What are your goals? What do you want out of an illustration career?

Be a good communicator. Being able to communicate clearly with a client is an essential skill. It keeps everyone on the same page, helps a project go smoothly, and contributes to a great working experience. Professional, respectful, and honest communication will be appreciated by your clients, they’ll want to continue working with you, and will recommend you to others. If you feel that communication isn’t your strong point, take the time to build that skill. It really will help you in your career.


What’s your own practice as an artist look like? Do you have set times of the day you work? Are you more productive in a certain space? And what about inspiration?

Because of caregiving on and off for the last 9 years, I haven’t really established a set schedule. I try, though! I do have a weekly planner, and that helps me organize and schedule my projects. I work Monday through Friday, usually from around 11 am to 7 - 8 pm, with periodic breaks for walks and meals. If there’s a pressing deadline or if there are too many projects going, I might also work Saturday. But the goal is to have the weekends off. 

Most productive space? My studio, in the afternoon. 

Inspiration? Because my focus is children’s books, inspiration often comes from something intriguing I’ve seen or read, a “what if” moment, and my own memories and experiences. It usually strikes when I’m on a walk or lying in bed, thinking.


We’d love to see some of your work. Can you share 5 or 6 pieces with us?

The cover for Imara’s Tiara, cowritten with Susan R. Stoltz. It’s about a sparkle-obsessed giraffe named Imara trying to snatch Naomi’s sparkly tiara. This is the book I’m most proud of … so far!

Personal work, 2021. Playing around with perspective and lighting.

Personal work, 2021. If this looks familiar, I recycled it to create the illustration for Critique Arena’s fairytale situation prompt. I prefer the brighter palette in this one!

Personal work, but also a test illustration for an upcoming picture book project about a pug who is a superhero in his own mind.

Personal work. Just having fun with movement, camera angle, and cropping.

“Joy” – this was an honorable mention for CYA Conference Award 2021

Melissa, Great work! Love your characters, style and use of color. Thanks for sharing these with us.

Last question: What are you dreaming up for 2022? Travel, new experiences, new art-making?

Well, I set some professional goals at the beginning of 2022 … but right now our family is being buffeted by a health crisis, so those goals are on the back burner, and that’s ok. Right now, my biggest priority is spending as much time with my dad as possible. One day at a time. As We’re Going on a Bear Hunt says: “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh, no! We’ve got to go through it!” Amazing what unexpected wisdom and help one can get from a picture book!

Those professional goals?

1. Diversify my income. I’m looking into setting up an online shop. Possibly some art fairs/book fairs/school visits. Definitely going to expand the book design and publishing services that I’ve been providing for 10+ years, giving that arm of my business its own website. I love the idea of incorporating short term jobs into my schedule to balance out longer term illustration jobs.

2. Get an agent. This is something I’ve been going back and forth on for quite a while. My goal is to grow my illustration career to work with bigger publishers as an author-illustrator. An agent might help facilitate that.

3. Self-publish my own book. What? But what about working with larger publishers? I want to do both and see where it leads. While most of my professional experience has been with self-publishing and though I have published 2 books (as author-illustrator) with a very small publisher, I have yet to completely publish a book all by myself, start to finish, and I that’s something I want to do. Now that I have a game plan in place and have gained contacts that will help give my book a bigger chance of success, it’s time to make it happen. (And being one of the indie publishing advisors for SCBWI-Michigan is added incentive.)

We’ll see what the rest of 2022 brings, and what I’ll have time for … there’s always 2023!

Melissa, thank you for sharing your story with us. I’ll be thinking about you and your family and hoping for the best for all of you. You’re an inspiration to the SVS community and It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 14 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

The prompt for February was really tough, but you all really thought outside of the box✨ Shout out to all who submitted!!

The prompt for February was: The garage was trashed, but Riley made something to be proud of.

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly livestream for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

Congrats to Pamela Fraley and Kim Rosenlof! This is the second win for both Pamela and Kim🏆

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (well done y’all!):

It’s always a challenge to pick just 16, so our judges also picked 5 honorable mentions to critique. It’s only a matter of time before they make it to the Top 16!

Just want to say how impressed we are with the work everyone is doing! Oh fo sho!

via GIPHY

D-O-Double-G!! GIF from Giphy.

Be sure to join us live for our next Critique Arena at 2PM MST on Thu Apr 14!

We’ll be convening Critique Arena to vote for the winners of the March art contest.

You might need the Luck of the Irish to get through this prompt! Spring is just around the corner, and to brighten up our monthly challenge we thought the prompt “Lucky” would only be appropriate.

Event links will be emailed the week of the livestream. You can also watch on our YouTube channel.

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Environment design is about more than just making a cool landscape. It’s a key component of good visual storytelling!

The environment describes the world your character lives in. Where does it take place? Why does it take place there? How does it shape your character’s point of view? It can set the whole tone and mood for the story. 

Characters don’t just exist in a void. At some point they need to go out into the world and live their stories!

In this course, Jake Parker, with help from Will Terry, will guide you through the process of designing appealing exterior environments.

In this class you'll learn how to:

• Apply basic principles of environment design

• Understand proportion and balance

• Use basic shapes as building blocks for environment design

• Create silhouettes to design and refine your environment

• Draw from various points-of-view

• Add tone to your environment to create atmosphere

• Add a personal style to your environments

Jake’s class is part of our Foundations Curriculum, which is designed to help artists of all skill levels build a stronger foundation in illustration and master the essential skills needed be a working artist.

Now streaming in our video subscription!

Congrats to the Top 16 from our February art contest! It was a tough prompt this time, but our Top 16 totally nailed it! 🛠

There were so many great entries, it was tough to pick just 16. Keep up the good work everyone!

Be sure to take a look at the Top 16 and get ready to vote for your favorites during the upcoming Critique Arena on March 10. The prompt for February was: The garage was trashed, but Riley made something to be proud of.

In case you missed it last time, we are changing up the format a bit based on your feedback:

1. First, the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make the Top 16 this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

2. We'll be focusing more on the critiques! The voting will take place first, then the judges will do the critiques AFTER the voting is all wrapped up. Please note: The voting goes super quick now, so it’s a good idea to review the Top 16 beforehand!

3. As most of you know, our guys love some good banter. All of that will start 5 minutes BEFORE the event officially starts so be sure to tune in a few minutes early! 

If you are new around here, feel free to join the event! Anyone can watch, even if you didn’t enter the contest😊

Event links have already gone out, but will be emailed again on March 10. Hope to see you there!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Mar 10

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Well, it was a short month, but Riley was hard at work on an awesome new invention! What did Riley create in that messy garage??

Join us live on Mar 10 to find out! We’ll be convening Critique Arena to vote for our faves from the February art contest.

We just love making stuff, so the prompt for February was: The garage was trashed, but Riley made something to be proud of.

As artists, we all know the creative process is full of surprises, and a whole lot of messes. You never really know how your creation is going to turn out, but that is part of the fun!

This was a tough prompt, but you all really put your creative genius to work! Check out all the awesome entries!

If you missed it last time, we are changing up the format a bit based on your feedback:

1. First, the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make the Top 16 this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

2. The critiques will be separate from the voting.

3. As most of you know, our guys love some good banter. All of that will start 5 minutes BEFORE the event officially starts so be sure to tune in a few minutes early!

Be sure to join us live to cast our votes for the winning entries and hear our judges critique their work 🏆 Good luck everyone!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Mar 10

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

You might need the Luck of the Irish to get through this prompt! Spring is just around the corner, and to brighten up our monthly challenge we thought the prompt “Lucky” would only be appropriate. 

As luck would have it, there are many directions you can go with this prompt: good luck, bad luck, beginner’s luck, Lady Luck, luck of the draw!

Just try not to rely on dumb luck for this challenge!

Stay consistent as you’re learning and growing, and you’ll surely see that luck is on your side. Best of luck everyone!

Prompt Requirements

For this prompt focus on crafting a creative concept with a clear story. Need a little inspiration or some great strategies for doing this? Check out Will Terry’s new course Developing Great Visual Stories. Your illustration can be any format (e.g. spot illustration, full-page illustration, etc.).

Submission Requirements

Remember: You no longer need to use our template to submit your artwork! But all submissions must follow two requirements:

1. The longest side of your submission must be 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size)

2. You must include a bar below your artwork with your name, forum handle or social media handles listed on it (this bar should be white with black text).

As always, be sure to submit via the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course. Let us know if you have any questions!

We also encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment!

Ok team, let’s do this!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Save your artwork as a JPG. Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size). Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name and social media handles (this bar should be white with black text). Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb. And make sure to include your name and the month in the file name (ex: austin-shurtliff-jan22.jpg). Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website. Please note that the Submit Your Art! button will now take you to your SVSLearn student account, where you will be prompted to log in and submit your image in the Critique Arena course.

• If you would like to submit more than one image, shoot us an email.

• Entries must be submitted by Mar 31 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Critique Arena website by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

Chris Akins

Instagram: @chrisakinsart

I’ve been enjoying Chris’ illustrations for quite some time now. He’s had a couple Critique Arena wins and is always a strong contender. Of course, it’s great to meet another teacher and especially cool to see Chris working as a full-time art teacher and still turning out great artwork on the side. Hope you’ll be as inspired as I am by Chris’ creative journey!

—————

To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are from and currently live, family details (including pets of course) and how you spend most of your time (work and/or family related). 

I am from the northern suburbs of Atlanta between Canton and Milton, also known as the best place in the world to live. My wife and I live in a little cottage her uncle built on a two-acre plot in the middle of the country.  We are surrounded by rolling hills and lots of horses. We enjoy looking at all the mini-mansions and farms around us that we don’t have to upkeep! My mother lives with us as well as two dogs.  I tried to talk my wife into chickens and goats but she still resists. 

All of our four children are grown and have moved out. My oldest and only son is married to a lovely woman and they have two kids who are the best granddaughters a man could ask for. They live in Virginia where he attends medical school. My oldest two daughters are also married and live nearby. Their husbands are pretty great, too. My youngest daughter is away at school in Virginia. 

I am an art teacher at a local high school and also a graduate student at Kennesaw State University.  I am working on my dissertation which is about how art teachers experience digital art. I spend most of my time working on these three things, but I do freelance art on the side.  Currently, I am working on a large mural for a church children’s wing.


What foods do you love the most? What about drinks? I love Mexican food and pizza. I am not much of a drinker and pretty much stick to diet sodas.


What are some of your other hobbies besides making art? I enjoy the outdoors and nature as much as I can. I love to hike the foothills around here. I also love kayaking (not rivers but lakes). When we get a chance, we love to camp.  We have a travel trailer and plan to take it to see the world.


Who are some of your favorite artists? How have they inspired you? I grew up with comic books and fantasy art. I initially loved Frank Frazetta even though I think his stuff is pretty dark now. I also loved Bill Sienkiewicz when I was a teenager.  I still love his stuff. I also am a big fan of old school illustrators like N.C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell. As far as children’s illustrators I love Jan Brett, Tomie DiPaola, Steven Kellogg, and Mercer Mayer, Janell Cannon,  and Graeme Base.  I know all of these are old school but most of my favorite children’s books are from my kid’s childhood. 

I love how most of these artists use realism in their work but also add their own flair to it. I am a sucker for dramatic lighting and also for a good dose of humor and wit.


In terms of being a professional illustrator, what recommendations can you give with regard to young artists attempting to forge their path in this field? I’m still new to this field but as an art teacher, I can say that the biggest thing is the need to learn composition and story-telling.  You can be a great artist with mad skills but if you can’t create a good composition then your work always looks off.  My students are always making these cool characters but they don’t know how to create an illustration or tell a story. They pose their cool characters but can’t draw hands or side views or even couches for that matter. I try to teach them to be an observer of the real world and draw things they wouldn’t normally draw.  I am always amazed at how my students don’t recognize how light behaves and how things connect with each other. As a former science teacher, I think having a good grasp of how nature works is so helpful in drawing nature. Be a science student! Know how light behaves, know why things are the color they are. Observe how plants grow and the shapes they take and why. Also, this was and is a struggle for me: learn anatomy! Even if you plan on drawing stylized people, a good understanding of how the body positions itself is so helpful. I have begun to learn that if I take my own reference shots my work looks so much better.


What’s your own practice as an artist look like? Do you have set times of the day you work? Are you more productive in a certain space? And what about inspiration? Due to my day job as a full time art teacher, I usually do my freelance work on nights and weekends.  When I retire, I know that I will do my best work in the mornings.  I have a desk area set up with all my millions of screens. I personally love working on the iPad with Procreate and do the majority of my work on it. I have been hired recently for graphic illustrations for a sports league and for that I used Illustrator on my Huion Tablet. Occasionally I work at the dining room table or on the couch when my family feels like I am ignoring them. 

My biggest inspiration is nature and my faith.  I am always taking pictures of my outdoor adventures. I love seeing God’s good creation and it always inspires me to go be a little creator myself.


We’d love to see some of your work. Can you share 5 or 6 pieces with us?

This was a piece I was hired to do for the Paramount+ show, For Heaven’s Sake. The show is about two friends who investigate the cold case of his missing family member who disappeared during the 1930s. 

These are two little wildcats I designed for a STEM poster for a local elementary school. These are were done in procreate then converted to vector art in illustrator.

This was a true departure from my illustration work but it was so much fun to do. This is the logo for one of the NEPA teams, a virtual reality sports league.

This was created for the All-stars competition and is one of my personal favorites.  It adds a bit of creative humor and that is what I love best.

This last one is one of my Inktober sketches. I love working with ink! This one really resonated with a lot of my students. They laughed at it and told me that this was a very true picture of their teenage life. 

Chris, Great Work!! Pretty amazing how varied your style and subject matter is. Thanks for sharing these with us!

Last question: What are you dreaming up for 2022? Travel, new experiences, new art-making?

I dream of finishing my doctorate this year so I can devote more time to grow my freelance business.  I would love to send out postcards by the end of the year and get representation and do some bona fide books. So far, all my work has been by word of mouth or through social media.

Chris, thank you for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 14 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Have you always wanted to create a children’s book? Are you in the process, and dying with questions on how to go about it?

Join us for a live Q&A with Jake Parker, Will Terry, and Lee White, the creators of our new Children’s Book Pro class. They’ll be on hand to answer all your questions about our upcoming class!

Enrollment is happening now, and the class officially kicks off Feb 28!

The Details

What: Q&A about Children's Book Pro

Date: Thursday, Feb 17

Time: 7 PM to 8 PM MST (check here for times around the world)

Who: Aspiring children's book illustrators

Where: Live on our YouTube channel

Our new course on children's book illustration is back!

If you dream of becoming a children’s book illustrator, this class is for you.

Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White have taken everything they learned from illustrating more than 75 children’s books, and put it into a new course just for you. This class will show you everything you need to know, from making a book dummy all the way to getting published.

The self-guided class runs for 10 weeks, but you'll always have access to the content so you can keep learning at your own pace.

New content will be added to the class on a weekly basis, and to help keep you motivated, we'll do a live Zoom session weekly too.

The cost is $597, and includes:

• 5 bonus courses

• a weekly Zoom check in to answer questions

• a dedicated social community so you can meet your fellow students

• 3 finished manuscripts to choose from

• easy-to-follow assignments and checklists

• 3 instructors who have taught at the university level and are also working illustrators

This is gonna be fun! Hope to see you in class!

THE DETAILS

Course: Children’s Book Pro

What: Learn everything you need to know to become a children’s book illustrator!

Instructors: Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White

Open enrollment: Feb 14 - Feb 21

Start Date: Feb 28

End Date: May 5

Cost: $597

Weekly Zoom Sessions: Thursdays, alternating between 10 am PDT and 6 pm PDT

We got 100+ entries for our first Critique Arena of the year, a big thank you to all who submitted in the January art contest!

2022 is the year of the tiger, so the prompt was: Tiger🐯

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly livestream for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut! It was a real cat fight!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

Congrats to Josh White and Mag Takac! This is win number 2 for Josh, and win number 4 for Mag🥳 Both have entered the arena many times, so their experience seems to be paying off!

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (great job everyone!):

With so many stellar entries, it was tough to narrow the field, so our judges also picked 5 honorable mentions this time. They were so close to making the cut!

We could not be more impressed with the work y’all are doing! Way to go!

via GIPHY

Yeah!! GIF from Giphy.

Be sure to join us live for our next Critique Arena at 2PM MST on Thu Mar 10!

We’ll be convening Critique Arena to vote for the winners of the February art contest.

For February, we are helping Riley create something awesome: The garage was trashed, but Riley made something to be proud of.

Event links will be emailed the week of the livestream. You can also watch on our YouTube channel.

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Since it's a new year, we thought it would be fun to change things up a bit, so here's a sneak peek at our Top 16!

Be sure to take a look and get ready to vote during the upcoming Critique Arena on Feb 10. The prompt for January was: Tiger🐯

Also, just so you know, we listened to your feedback and we’re making a few changes: 

First, the judges will be selecting some Honorable Mentions, so if you didn’t make the Top 16 this time, tune in and you might still get a critique!

We'll be focusing more on the critiques! The critiques will be given AFTER the voting is done.

As most of you know, our guys love some good banter. All of that will start 5 minutes BEFORE the event officially starts so be sure to tune in a few minutes early! 

Event links will be emailed today and tomorrow. Hope to see you there!

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Feb 10

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Well, we are off to a grrrreat start!

We got 90+ entries for our first Critique Arena of the year , a big thank you to all who submitted in the January art contest! Join us live on Feb 10 to vote for your faves🧡

Since we are heading into the year of the Tiger, the prompt for January was: Tiger🐯

The Tiger symbolizes strength, courage and power - all qualities we’ll need to face the challenges ahead.

The competition was fierce! Check out all the awesome entries!

Be sure to join us live to see who made Top 16, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Feb 10

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Josh White

Instagram: @joshwhiteillustration

Josh White does LOTS of cool stuff. He doesn’t want you to feel like a slacker after reading this interview, but if you’re anything like me you might 😂. In addition to being impressed by Josh’s plethora of skills and interests, I’m most excited for everyone who reads this to take to heart the incredible advice he gives folks that are on the path to becoming a professional illustrator.

—————

To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are from and currently live, family details (including pets of course) and how you spend most of your time (work and/or family related).

I originally hail from Carson City, Nevada but moved to Tucson, Arizona when I was a kid and have been here since. My original intention was to become a 3d animator for movies like Toy Story. I even had a school picked out that I was going to apply for. It wasn't until I had an acquaintance introduce me to some people doing that job for some pretty big movies that I realized that was definitely not the job I wanted after all. I ended up going into visual communications and then into a lot of web based design. Today I run a design company that does web, graphic design and branding.

I traveled the world quite a bit in my early 20s. I spent a little under 2 years abroad in Europe and Southeast Asia. I think having a better understanding of how different people live around the world really helps you see things from other perspectives. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

I am married to the fetching Mrs. White and we have 3 kiddos, ages 8, 12 and 13. Our dog, Dot, is a bit too smart for her own good and we're pretty sure she thinks that she's one of the kids. Anyone with young kids knows how hectic things can get, and it doesn't particularly slow down as they get older as they accumulate interests and get into activities! My wife runs her own small business as well, so work keeps us pretty busy! So when we're not working or ferrying kids around to activities, I'm either drawing, playing video games with the kids or friends, playing board games or doing various crafts and maintenance around the house.

What foods do you love the most? What about drinks?

Honestly I like it all! But living in the Southwest, we're kind of spoiled when it comes to great Mexican food, so I'd have to put that in my top choice. In #2 is probably going to be all things sandwiches. My go-to sandwich is going to either be a french dip or a reuben.

I think my favorite all around drink is a recipe for a home-made soda that's based on the original recipe for Ting, which is a grapefruit soda that's similar to Squirt if you're in the States. You have to make it with fresh grapefruit so it's kind of a pain, but it's super refreshing! Besides that I love a good IPA.

What are some of your other hobbies besides making art?

I've played drums in a variety of bands for over 25 years, so music has always had a significant place in my life. Woodworking is a hobby I inherited from my dad and go on pretty substantial binges making coffee tables, bookcases, beds or other furniture around the house. A few years ago I got into building miniature dioramas, which evolved into learning how to wire up lighting, battery packs and chargers. After visiting Disneyland I thought certainly I could make a better lightsaber than what was in the Star Wars toy shop! So I went on a research kick and ended up building an aluminum body lightsaber with a sound board so it could make sounds when you wave it around and hit things with it.

I now have a 3d printer, which has vastly changed the types of things I can make so I don't even know where that's going to lead! I think for the most part I enjoy making things with my hands and learning new things to build. If you've ever followed Adam Savage, you might say he's my crafting Spirit Animal!

Who are some of your favorite artists? How have they inspired you?

It's tough because I feel like my "favorite" artist changes over the years as different styles catch your eye or even genres. As a kid I was way into video game art, comics and graphic novels and later into things like animated movies and concept art. I grew up looking up to artists like Todd Mcfarlane and Jim Lee, and then I got really into game design art and then concept design art. There are a ton of artists like Feng Zhu, Tyler Edlin, and Jason Chan who did a lot of art for games like League of Legends or concept design art that continues to inspire me today.

Growing up we had a family friend, John Shaw, who was an artist that did World War II aviation pieces that had a big impact on my interest in art. Today I look at his art and have a much greater appreciation for how insanely good it is, especially since he did everything with traditional mediums like airbrush and oils.

When my kids were very young, I started to really get into the picture books we'd buy to read to them. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed them way more than the kids did! I started discovering all these new artists that I hadn't really been exposed to. People like Dan Santat, Max Lang and Joy Ang are artists whose styles really resonated with me. That's really the point where I became more interested in seriously pursuing illustration professionally. That was when I began doing a lot more intentional growth in my skills, discovering people like Jake Parker and Will Terry on YouTube, which then led to discovering SVS and starting to take classes and so on.

In terms of being a professional illustrator, what recommendations can you give with regard to young artists attempting to forge their path in this field?

I can't emphasize enough to young professionals that communication is everything. Even if it's bad news, clients just want to know what's going on. Always be the first one to reach out because if a client feels like they have to chase you down to know what's happening then they think twice about hiring you again. Be super intentional about keeping your clients updated so they can't wait to work with you again.

Do your best not to take rejection personally. The essence of what artists and illustrators do is highly personal - we're pouring everything we have into our work. So when someone doesn't pick it, or it gets rejected or someone wants to change it we tend to take it very personally. And while we're thinking personally, they're thinking professionally. They're not rejecting you (at least, not usually lol), they're rejecting what was made for that specific requirement. We've got to be able to take comments from clients about our work and make meaningful revisions that give clients what they want while also allowing you to be proud of your work.

Get connected! Join communities, discord channels, local sketch groups, etc. The world is now even more adapted to remote work, which means that as a freelancer you will likely find yourself working by yourself a lot, even if you're part of a team. Being a part of a community can not only push you as an artist, but it can keep you from feeling isolated.

What’s your own practice as an artist look like? Do you have set times of the day you work? Are you more productive in a certain space? And what about inspiration?

Even though I'm self-employed, it's kind of like I'm working around a day job because I have obligations and client work that needs to be finished. But it's much more flexible than if I had a standard 9 to 5, which means I can sometimes afford to spend an entire afternoon working on illustrations, but sometimes that means I might go several days being too busy to do anything else. It can be a double edged sword. I split my workflow pretty evenly between a Wacom 16 and an iPad. I've been using Photoshop professionally for about 20 years, but I think Procreate is my favorite painting app.

As someone who's self-employed, I've got a lot of practice intentionally walling off work-time and off-time because of how easy you can fall into the trap of working all the time and you feel like you're on call. I rent a small space just to keep that healthy separation, and I'm probably most productive at the office.

The way I normally try to structure my day is to keep it from being fragmented. The longer I can spend on one task type at a time, the more productive I am. For example, I try to handle all communication, invoicing and busy work in the morning. I'll then make phone calls. Unless something urgent comes up, I don't email or call anyone until the next day. I want the rest of the day dedicated to whatever design projects I'm actively working on.

I try to set aside at least a couple of hours a week to learn something new, or to improve a skill. I regularly look for videos from established artists on YouTube that break down processes, or how they might tackle a particular problem, or even just look at livestreams of pro artists and set it to 4x speed just so you can see how they approach art. Or I'll buy a class series from someone like Aaron Blaise on shadows and lighting or whatever and spend the next 8 weeks doing bits of it. I think continually pushing yourself and adding more tools to your toolbox is important.

Inspiration is an interesting concept. Sometimes we talk about it like it "strikes" and then it's gone. At least for me personally, I feel like the lack of inspiration is more a symptom of being too stressed, too busy or experiencing some level of burnout. If I'm in a good place emotionally/physically/spiritually, it feels like inspiration comes from all over the place - movies, other people's art, my kids, cartoons, music, nature, new experiences... all of those things seem to be capable of inspiring if I'm able to let it.

We’d love to see some of your work. What do you have for us?

This is one of the frogs I had made last year in a big series of drawings for "Ambibrurary". This was the Holy Cross frog, which was one of my favorites. He was based conceptually on the frog character from the old game Chronotrigger for the Super Nintendo system.

I've always loved the Zelda games as a kid. I remember buying the very first Zelda game that ever came out so it's always been one of my go-to games to play. This is part of a series of fanart pieces I did for the Legend of Zelda with the Toon Link look.

Here is part of a page spread for one of my personal projects I'm working on that I'm hoping to launch sometime in 2022.

This is one of the page spreads I had made from the CBP class that was based on the Little Red Riding Hood tale. This is the part where Little Red encounters the wolf in the forest.

This was a piece I had submitted to one of the critique arena contests. It didn't win, but I still really loved the way it turned out and I thought it was a ton of fun to make!

Josh, Great Work!! You’re visual storytelling is on point! Thanks for sharing these with us.

Last question: What are you dreaming up for 2022? Travel, new experiences, new art-making?

I'm going to be working hard to develop professionally in 2022 as an illustrator. I'm in a somewhat adjacent field, but the type of clients I work with don't offer many opportunities to cross the divide to illustrative work, which basically means I'm building a business from the ground up again. The last 18 months have felt like a lot of things were put on hold just to stabilize everything through all the challenges. So I'm planning to work hard to make significant headway to replacing my "day job" income with income from art and illustration projects. I'll continue to grow as an artist through classes, challenges, learning new techniques, and developing more skillsets, but building professional relationships and looking for work is going to take a front seat.

I had some personal projects that I was holding close to my chest for when I actually had a chance to talk to publishers or agents about them, but a mentor of mine encouraged me to just make what I want to make. Keep developing new ideas, but don't hold back waiting for something to happen if you're excited about a project. I have plans to break ground on some of my own personal projects this year that maybe I'll just self publish them and see what happens.

I sure hope we do some more traveling this year. It feels to me like travel is still a little bit uncertain. Hopefully what we see is a return to some sort of normal in the next 6 to 8 months!

Josh, thank you for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 14 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Time to get those creative gears turning! ⚙️

For this month’s prompt, we are gonna channel our inner inventors and make something awesome!

So the prompt for February is: The garage was trashed, but Riley made something to be proud of

As artists, we all know the creative process is full of surprises, and a whole lot of messes. You never really know how your creation is going to turn out, but that is part of the fun! What did your character create, and why?

Prompt Requirements

For this prompt, we want to know the story behind the creation, so we are looking for a full page illustration. Good luck team!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Save your artwork as a JPG. Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size). Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name and social media handles (this bar should be white with black text). Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb. And make sure to include your name and the month in the file name (ex: austin-shurtliff-jan22.jpg). You can use this template to help prep your art to submit. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website.

• Submit as many times as you like! (If you want to resubmit a newer version of artwork you’ve already submitted, please send it to this email)

• Entries must be posted by Feb 28 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

Opening the door to a new adventure can bring up ALL the feelings. Curiosity. Excitement. Fear. Self-doubt.

It’s all too easy to imagine the obstacles and pitfalls ahead. What if I’m not ready? What if it’s too challenging? What if I don’t get there?

But if you truly love children’s books, and want nothing more than to be a children’s book illustrator, the only way to get there is to go ahead and take the first step.

That’s why the makers of SVSLearn created a special course for all aspiring children’s book illustrators out there.

It’s called Children’s Book Pro, and it’s designed to guide you step-by-step through the process of illustrating a children’s book, so you can take the first step and confidently face the challenges ahead.

Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White have taken everything they learned from illustrating more than 75 children’s books, and put it in this course just for you. Enrollment kicks off in February!

If you haven't already, be sure to sign up now for a FREE preview! It’ll include some helpful tips for illustrating children's books that you can start using right away.

Holy Moly! We are turning 100! 100 episodes old, that is😂

It’s hard to believe, but we started this adventure way back in April 2018! We had no idea it would still be kicking around almost 4 years later🤯

We just want to say thank you for listening to us banter all these years! If it weren’t for all of you, we wouldn’t be here today💕

To celebrate, we are gonna throw a party, and you’re invited!

We’d love it if you would come join the livestream of our 100th episode on our Youtube channel. You’ll be able to connect with fellow artists, ask questions in the chat and maybe even win one of our awesome giveaways!

That’s right! As a thank you to all our listeners out there, three winners picked at random will get:

• a 2-year subscription to SVSLearn.com

• a book set from Lee, Jake and Will

• a personal portfolio critique and

• a 3PP T-shirt.

So be sure to join the livestream and be part of SVSLearn history! The recording of the 100th episode will be pushed out to our podcast platforms on Tue Jan 18.

Please note: You don’t have to be an SVSLearn subscriber to join the livestream. Anyone can attend. Tell your friends!

The Details

What: Livestream of the 100th Episode of the 3 Point Perspective podcast

Date: Thursday, January 13th

Time: 2pm MST (click here to see other time zones)

Who: Everyone! Invite your friends

Where: Our Youtube channel!

How To Enter

• Join our 100th episode livestream on Youtube at 2pm MST on Thu Jan 13!

• Fill out the form posted during the live event.

• Winners will be selected at random.

• You must be on the livestream to win.

• Winners will be notified on Thu Jan 13.

The Fine Print

• Open to US residents only.

• Must be 18+.

• Void where prohibited.

• 3 winners selected at random will receive: a book set, a two-year subscription to SVSLearn.com, a portfolio review and a T-shirt.

• No purchase necessary to enter or win. A purchase does not increase the chance of winning.

• The prizes are non-transferable.

• No cash or other prize substitutions permitted.

• This giveaway is the sole responsibility of SVSLearn.com and is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, YouTube or Meta.

Happy New Year! We made it to 2022!

Since we are heading into the year of the Tiger, what better way to kick off the first prompt of the year??

The Tiger symbolizes strength, courage and power - all qualities we’ll need to face the challenges ahead. So the prompt for January is: Tiger🐯

We are all about visual storytelling, so be sure to come up with a creative concept!

Please note! There's a few changes to the submission guidelines, hopefully it's a little easier now!

You no longer need to use our template to submit your artwork! But all submissions must follow two requirements: 

1. The longest side of your submission must be 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size)

2. You must include a bar below your artwork with your name, forum handle or social media handles listed on it (this bar should be white with black text).

You can still use this template to help get your artwork ready to submit, but it’s not required. If you run into issues, shoot us an email!

While you must submit via the Critique Arena website to officially qualify, we do encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment! As always, if you want feedback on a Work In Progress, please start a new thread.

Ok team, let’s do this!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month.⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Save your artwork as a JPG. Make sure the longest side of your submission is 1200 pixels (you will need to create a scaled down version of your original artwork to fit this size). Be sure to include a bar below your artwork with your name and social media handles (this bar should be white with black text). Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb. And make sure to include your name and the month in the file name (ex: austin-shurtliff-jan22.jpg). You can use this template to help prep your art to submit. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom or are not the right size will not be uploaded to the website.

• Submit your final illustration on the Critique Arena website.

• Submit as many times as you like! (If you want to resubmit a newer version of artwork you’ve already submitted, please send it to this email)

• Entries must be posted by Jan 31 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork in the arena, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• Honorable Mentions: a live critique of your artwork in the arena

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted via our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom will not be included on the site. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our website and YouTube channel.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active at the time the artwork was submitted. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries may be promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

via GIPHY

Liz Orton

Instagram: @lizardillo

Can't decide what I love most about Liz's work; her beautifully crafted animal characters, all the incredible little details she puts into her work, or the humor infused into each illustration. I think you'll find inspiration in her artistic process and practice. Enjoy this interview that SVS Producer, David Braud, conducted with Liz.

—————

Liz, we are super excited to get to know you a little better. To start out, tell us a little bit about yourself - where you are from and currently live and how you spend most of your time. 

I live with my fiancé in Tamworth, Staffordshire, right in the middle of England. I have lived here all of my life. Tamworth is a town steeped in history and has a Saxon/Norman castle in the town centre which, growing up here, seems completely normal. I forget that not everyone can see a castle from their window.

We spend a lot of our time outside when possible. We love walking, hiking, mountains, coast paths, forests and nature reserves. I spend a lot of my time covered in mud. We like to travel around the country in our little 20 year-old Japanese imported campervan, a Mazda Bongo Friendee (actual real model name!). It’s named ‘Baz’ and we have to give it shouts of encouragement for it to get up hills. I find it really funny.

My partner is a very keen birdwatcher so we are often visiting places where there is something rare or interesting to see. I take my camera with me to do a spot of bird photography. My favourites to photograph are puffins, they are such great characters and extremely photogenic.

I have pretty much drawn all of my life, even to the point where I used to get told off at school for over-illustrating all of my work instead of actually writing it. I would sit for hours on end drawing and painting. My birthday and Christmas presents were pens, watercolour paints, pencils, pastels and paper. We used to have a small art shop in town where I spent a lot of my time when I was young. I used a lot of my spare time at school down in the art department wearing an old shirt covered in acrylic paint and getting messy. Art was my favourite subject. This is still the case today apart from watercolours and pencils seem to have been replaced by Wacom and iPad.

I was planning to do animation, illustration or a wildlife illustration degree at university but I ended up taking a graphic design course. I have been a graphic designer by trade for nearly 20 years and have been working in design agencies both as an employee and as a freelancer. I really enjoy it and I have worked on some amazing brands with great people. Luckily I am in a position where I can combine both design and illustration disciplines. My job can involve creating icons, logos and illustrations to follow brand guidelines so I have learned to create anything in any style over the years.

2020 really put a halt on my agency design work so I took the chance to work on my own illustration in addition to any remaining jobs I had. This is when I started SVS classes after listening to the podcasts for a couple of years. I have been doing a lot of personal work lately aimed at a younger audience, which I really enjoy. I've been working really hard on learning and developing to be able to pursue this kind of work. I hope that 2022 may just be the year it happens (fingers crossed!).

Are fish and chips your favorite? Cottage Pie? Curry? What foods do you love the most? What about drinks?

Even though fish and chips are a British tradition, I’m not that fussed about them. I don’t really like fish. I’m a spice addict and love a nice Jalfrezi or Dhansak curry. Thai food is also a favourite of mine and I would happily eat pizza for every meal, including breakfast. A good Sunday roast dinner is always a winner too.

I love cooking and over our UK lockdown tried to solve my Japanese food craving by learning to make sushi (veg, no fish involved). I’m actually getting quite good at it. We both love our real ale and continental beers and have a great selection of pubs in the town which we like to visit with friends. This ‘research’ did help with my SVS contest entry ‘The Buzz Inn’.

Animals seem to be a huge part of your portfolio. Can you tell us a bit about your love for illustrating animals?

I have always loved animals and I have always loved drawing them. They are so varied and interesting, I used to be obsessed with drawing horses as a young child, to the point where I was told to stop putting them in every bit of schoolwork. 

My parents had a set of Reader’s Digest field guide books of birds, animals, insects, trees etc. with absolutely beautiful illustrations which I used to draw and paint all of the time. I very nearly did a wildlife illustration university course to become the person who actually creates those illustrations before taking the graphic design route. I had pet cats which I used to draw too (mainly asleep!). 

My favourite characters have always been animals. I have always liked and created anthropomorphic characters in preference to human characters. It’s fun to express their personality and behaviours in unexpected ways. I feel I can convey a message or story much better via a squirrel or panda than an adult or child. My favourite animations were animal based too, Dangermouse, Count Duckula, Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds to name a few (all 90’s UK references sorry!). I used to like to draw these characters. The first books I ever bought with my own money when I was 6 or 7 years old were Garfield books, in fact every time the book fair came to school I ONLY bought Garfield books.

Nowadays we are often out in the countryside or at RSPB nature reserves. Birds feature in my art a lot because we spend a lot of time looking at them.

Your work is also infused with lots of humor. What drives this aspect of your art-making?

I used to watch a lot of British classic comedy as a child with my Grandad, he had a great sense of humour and was always telling jokes and playing tricks. I like comedians such as Eddie Izzard who are surreal and alternative. I watch stand-up comedy, humorous quiz shows and comedy sketch shows. I also have family and friends who are equally as silly as me so we all like to have a laugh.

I grew up reading Garfield, Peanuts, The Perishers and other comics. I absolutely love Aardman animations and feature films (Morph, Creature Comforts, Wallace and Gromit etc..). The concepts, humorous hidden jokes and details in Aardman’s animations are just amazing. It would be my dream to work on an Aardman feature film. I have an Art of Aardman book which is fantastic and shows all of the concept work and processes. I thoroughly recommend it.

I’ve always loved making other people laugh and be happy. I found that I can make people smile with my illustrations and it is a great way to try and bring a little joy to someone.

In terms of being a professional illustrator, what recommendations can you give with regard to young artists attempting to forge their path in this field? 

Draw, draw and draw some more! Take or watch tutorials. If you are at art school or college then try to learn as much as you can while you have the chance. Ask for help, ask for feedback, get reviews. Don’t take it to heart if the feedback is trying to correct something, listen to it, take it on board and use it to help develop. It’s all part of the learning process.

Do something you enjoy when you have a chance. If you like to draw dogs riding skateboards while eating exotic looking ice-cream then do it. If your school or work life doesn’t allow this then do it as a personal project (I think there’s a 99.9% chance this will not be a live brief). Doing your own work is a good way of finding your style and building on your formal learning. Sometimes you can learn one thing from doing another. Struggling with perspective? Then draw the dog skating towards you from an angle using a perspective grid and blocks. Now it’s fun AND learning at the same time. Commercial jobs can sometimes be quite restrictive so it’s good to let loose once in a while. Personal work gives you the chance to learn in a less formal way and you can always apply these skills to your academic course or a professional job later on.

Join a community, in-person (hopefully) or online. Create a network even if it's just people from your course or friends. Support and advice from peers is invaluable. I have really enjoyed being part of the SVS community and have met some wonderfully supportive people there.

This may be quite obvious but always be polite and professional. I am a freelancer and it’s amazing how many people I’ve worked with repeatedly over the years because we work well together. No-one really wants to work with someone they don’t like, no matter how great their work is. It’s a big world out there but it’s amazing how many people know each other in the business, especially in an industry where people move jobs quite frequently. Word-of-mouth is one of the best (and cheapest) ways of promotion. A recommendation can be better than a job application in many cases.

Be patient. You may be lucky and things just happen. You may get setback after setback, but if you think about it, every setback is a learning opportunity. So keep developing and keep trying. 

What’s your own practice as an artist look like? Do you have set times of the day you work? Are you more productive in a certain space? And what about inspiration?

When I am not freelancing at an agency I work at home (which is most of the time now). I have used a Wacom Cintiq 22HD for the past 7 or 8 years, mainly using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Recently it’s my iPad and Procreate which are being preferred. I love the fact you can just work anywhere, like the sofa, or even in a campervan on the Outer Hebrides.

I’m not a morning person. I listen to people explaining how they get up early and go for a run and then have loads of work done by 8am. No way can I do that. I’m always half asleep in the morning. I can’t really eat until 10am (unless I’m at a hotel and there’s a breakfast buffet - that’s the exception to the rule). I’ve always been a night owl. I start around 9am normally if I am doing my own work and tend to do tasks that are not that creative first, I’m most creative in the afternoon/evenings when I’ve kicked into gear. I would work until the early hours of the morning if it was a realistic option. I think I may be living in the wrong time zone.

Lately I have been looking on Instagram for inspiration. I like to discover work and artists that I would never come across normally. The same goes for Pinterest when researching for a project, one thing can lead to another and can end up with me searching for their IG account and following them. I have discovered so much via socials. I like buying artist’s art books. My most recent purchases are Derek Laufman and The Etherington Brothers ‘How to Think When You Draw’ series. Both were Kickstarter campaigns. I also subscribe to Character Design Quarterly magazine.

I watch SVS classes, artist’s process videos, animations (if you have the My Neighbour Totoro DVD and it has the option of watching the film as the artist’s sketched storyboards, then watch it, it’s amazing!). I also listen to music and podcasts (3PP is one of those) while I work. I set a bit of time aside if I can to enter art prompts to challenge myself to follow a brief, which I really enjoy. 

I have a very overactive imagination, it’s hard to reign it in, I think that may help the creative process as sometimes I see things in a completely opposite direction, whether that is a good or bad thing I’m not sure!

We’d love to see some of your work. Can you share 5 or 6 pieces with us?

Buzz-Bee was a SVS monthly prompt entry for a Fairy-tale character. I had a lot of helpful feedback from the SVS forums to help with elements of this character, for which I was very thankful. (Created in Photoshop) Buzz-Bee Illustration is at the top of the post.

Below is ‘The Buzz Inn’. SVS monthly prompt entry for a Fairy-tale Inn. Inventing funny pub names is a great game. As the prompt needed to relate to the bee character from the previous month it was a great chance to have a bit of fun and really go for it with the bee related puns. Elements of the design are based on local pubs in my town and the UK in general. (Procreate and finished in Photoshop)

‘Chaffy’s Bird Box’. It’s always exciting when Chaffy comes to town. With a variety of treats from seeds to worms there’s something for everyone. Keep your eyes on the sky. If you see him flying past then give him a wave or a shriek; he’ll be right down with something tasty for your beak. (Procreate)

This was one of a series of designs that I created for a company called Industry & Supply. They create illustrated merchandise featuring classic bikes, 4x4s and cars. I created a set of designs for the younger market to be used on tshirts, hoodies and stickers. (Adobe Illustrator)

I love drawing food. I think watching episodes of Man v Food was the inspiration for this. This was an exercise to try and add some movement to an otherwise static object. (Procreate)

I started sketching the word sushi that was made of sushi with a ballpoint pen in my notebook while working at an agency. I went on to try and create it into a full illustration as a personal project so I could practise perspective where you create basic boxes to make complex shapes. It's not all technically sushi but I used some artistic licence to create the letters. This is a different style to my other work but it was a perspective exercise predominantly. I may redraw it when I have time as I like the concept more than the finished image. (Procreate)

Liz, You’re art is fantastic!! So fun to look at, so many details. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Last question: What are you dreaming up for 2022? Travel, new experiences, new art-making?

I’m really looking forward to 2022. I’m kicking it off with a three month illustration mentorship program to help to develop my style, find my niche, improve on my weaknesses and develop my strengths. I’m so excited about this. I’m hoping it will help me to make that final jump from ‘designer who illustrates’ to ‘illustrator with design experience’. I would love to do work for games, animation and perhaps editorial and packaging. I definitely need to work on environments and, my nemesis, drawing PEOPLE! (Aaaarrgghh!) I have already had some portfolio advice and was recommended to reconfigure my website to promote the kind of direction I would like to pursue, which is illustration. I’m in the process of that now so there’s no going back!

I started a small online shop at the end of 2021 so I am going to give that a revamp and create some new illustrated products this year. I would love to create some collectable characters.

We will hopefully be exploring the Scottish Shetland and Orkney Islands in good ol’ ‘Bazza the Bongo’ campervan.

Most excitingly we will be planning our wedding!

** Happy new year everyone, hope you have a great 2022 **

Liz, thank you for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 14 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Usually these kinds of posts start with reflections of the past year, but to be honest, we’re not really sure what to say about 2021! It was a crazy year, and we just feel grateful to have survived 😅

But, if there’s anything we learned from 2021, it’s that you never know what the future may hold. So, looking ahead into 2022, right now seems like as good a time as any to chase all those dreams.

With that in mind, we plan to go full steam ahead with our mission of helping fellow illustrators reach their art goals. We’ll continue running our new Children’s Book Pro class, building out our Foundations curriculum and recording more podcast episodes!

And we have you to thank! It’s so inspiring to see you overcome challenges and make progress on your creative journeys. Thank you all for being a part of the SVSLearn community!

Wishing you a joyful and magical year ahead! Happy New Year!

Will, Jake, Lee and all of us at SVSLearn 😄

Ready to kickstart those art goals?? Get unlimited art classes FREE for 30 days!

2021 was quite a year, but recording the podcast was one of the things we always looked forward to. We hope you enjoyed the podcast as much as we enjoyed making it!

And we just want to say thanks to everyone for listening😆👂 Collectively, you’ve downloaded the podcast more than 1.2 million times!! We’re humbled that you would take the time to listen to us “banter.”

We didn’t know what we were getting into when we started this whole adventure, but it’s been a blast and we’re so glad you’re here with us 😊

Here’s the 5 top episodes of 2021, starting with number 5:

If you are new to the podcast, maybe give these a listen. They were our top downloads of the year! And if you’ve already heard them, it might be fun to walk down memory lane.

And if you’ve made it this far, just a heads up that we are moving to a weekly schedule next year! Yay!

Happy New Year to you all!

We love a good competition, so we thought it would be fun to invite all our previous contest winners from 2021 to battle it out in the Critique Arena. Their prompt was the same as for our November art contest: Star.

Sixteen of the previous winners answered the call. They went head to head during a special edition of our Critique Arena contest, the Critique Arena All Stars. Our judges seeded the contestants, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 3 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, which you can find on our YouTube Channel. But in the meantime here are the Top 3 entries:

And here’s the rest of the best! We are starstruck!🤩

A big thank you to all who took part! You are best of the best!

via GIPHY

Happy dance! GIF from Giphy.

Just a reminder that there is no prompt for December, and therefore there will be no Critique Arena in January.

However! We will be releasing a prompt for January soon! Then you’ll have all of January to work on it, before we convene the next Critique Arena in February. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

And see you next year in the arena…the Critique Arena!

OK everybody! Get ready for a special edition of Critique Arena!

For our last competition of the year, we invited all the previous winners from 2021 to throw down in an all star battle royale ⚔️ These contenders are the best of the best. Who will be the last one standing??

The prompt for the 2021 winners was the same as for our November art contest. As the year winds down, and we look ahead to 2022, there’s so much reason for hope. So the prompt for November was: Star 🌟

It’ll be our last live stream of the year, so be sure to join us live to see who made the cut, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

PLEASE NOTE! The upcoming Critique Arena is scheduled for TUESDAY, not the usual Thursday.

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Tuesday, Dec 14

Time: 2 PM MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

For our last prompt of 2021, we see so much reason for hope. So the prompt for November was: Star 🌟

We got so many great entries this time, our contestants really reached for the stars! A big thank you to all who submitted!

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly live event for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

This is win number four for Miranda, which means she joins a very select group in the Four Score club! And this is a first time win for Josh, who has come up through the ranks this year!

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (gold stars for everyone!):

High fives to all who submitted in the contest, coach would be proud!

via GIPHY

Coach approves! GIF from Giphy.

Be sure to join us live for a special edition of Critique Arena at 2PM MST on Tue Dec 14!

We invited all the previous winners from 2021 to battle it out in a special All Star competition💪 Who will win the 2021 Championship title??

Event links will be emailed this week. You can also watch on our YouTube channel.

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Is it just us, or did November pass by in a flash??

But here we are, already 3 days into December, and getting ready to do another round of Critique Arena!

Be sure to join us live this TUESDAY, DEC 7 to vote for your favorites from the November art contest!

As the year winds down, and we look ahead to 2022, there’s so much reason for hope. So the prompt for November was: Star 🌟

Our contestants really reached for the stars this time! Check out all the entries!

Be sure to join us live to see who made Top 16, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

PLEASE NOTE! The upcoming Critique Arena is scheduled for TUESDAY, not the usual Thursday.

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Tuesday, Dec 7

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members of SVSLearn

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

Laura Alderson

• Instagram: @lauraintorino

Below is an awesome Q&A that SVS Producer, David Braud, conducted with Laura.

Laura and I both went to art school at the University of Georgia, we’ve both lived in NYC, but she managed to escape to Italy while I’m stuck here in Tennessee. Always great to meet a fellow UGA Bulldog and I think you guys will really enjoy getting to know Laura and her work a bit more.

Hi Laura! Could you share a little bit about yourself?

Something unusual about me is that I have lived in three very different places: One is the American south where I was born. I was one of those kids who hid books under my desk in class and bumped into doors while reading. Being labeled as eccentric in the American south can make you self-conscious, but it can also leave you quite determined.

My second long-term home was Manhattan, where my husband and I lived for 14 years and where my daughter mostly grew up. Sometimes I had a love/hate relationship with the city, but New York really enriched our understanding of the world. Do you realize just how many films and children’s books are set in Manhattan?! I didn’t realize how many until I got there and started recognizing images I had grown up with. New York remains an important influence.

My home for the last ten years has been Torino (Turin), Italy. Our family’s transition to a very different culture and language was hard for many reasons, but I now I feel at home here. And Italy is ultimately the reason I rediscovered book illustration!

The fact that I am not young anymore gives me a sense of urgency in my work, but I hope that having had adventures along the way will ultimately make it more interesting. 

What are some of your favorite foods, films or things to do?

I love going out with friends, taking day trips to see nearby castles and abbeys, hiking in the mountains, walking around the city and observing details, volunteering at a local soup kitchen, and I love finally having a full second language. 

My favorite film isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but an Italian comedy from the ‘90s, Pane e tulipani (Bread and Tulips). It’s about a klutzy housewife who winds up in Venice almost by accident, makes some quirky friends, and learns to enjoy life. I probably see some of myself in Rosalba, but mostly the film just makes me smile!

Tell us about your journey as an artist. 

Like many illustrators, I have drawn ever since I can remember. I even began college with the idea of being a children’s book illustrator in mind, but didn’t really find much support and so bounced around doing different things for a long time. My parents didn’t want to send me to art school, so I found the best compromise I could at the University of Georgia. Since UGA didn’t have an illustration program, I studied abstract/conceptual/postmodern painting, but I didn’t know how to make a sustainable life out of it after graduation. So I added a second major, worked as an interior designer for a while to earn a living, and then it occurred to me that I could do oil portraits, because I liked figure painting and besides, portraits are already sold! After about about five years, I had started growing a nice clientele, but then my husband and I left the Atlanta area, where portrait painting was a strong tradition, and moved to NYC, where the nanny would have made as much as I did. So I quit painting for years and just concentrated on family life. To get out of our small apartment, though, my daughter and I would go to the Metropolitan Museum and pretend we lived in the period rooms, so I never stopped thinking about art. 

Years later I found myself in Italy. After my daughter went to school, I started looking around for a way to restart my art career. I quickly realized, however, that portraiture wasn’t going to be at all practical from overseas. An offer to illustrate a self-published book (which I didn’t take in the end) not only got me thinking that digital illustration was a good way to work from a distance, but it made me remember how much joy books had brought me as a child. As I was getting started, I stumbled across Will Terry’s YouTube channel and discovered SVS Learn. It has taken a while to shift my skills and build new ones, and I have gone through several “Are you crazy?” stages, but gradual improvement keeps me at it. Illustrating children’s books is such a multi-faceted challenge! In many ways it’s like being a director. My daughter and son-in-law make films, so we talk about the similarities.

Tell us about your artistic style - how it has evolved and where do you see it going?

It took me a long time figure out a style, and it’s still morphing. For starters, my taste in book illustration has always been extremely varied. But since I was used to painting realistically in oils to do portraiture, naturally my first pieces came out very rendered. A sort of linear, though still relatively realistic, style followed. Lately, though, I have been pushing hard on the story telling (thanks, SVS!) and at the same time my work is becoming more spontaneous. I do love observation, though, so I will probably retain at least some level of realism. The real world is so varied and interesting! And lately I have started to work on whole stories and book dummies as well.

Do you have any stories of people encouraging you in your art-making?

My middle school librarian, who was also a cousin, really encouraged my interests. She used to give my sister and me autographed children’s books every year, and she also made a deal with the gym teacher in which I could sometimes skip gym class to copy book covers as posters for the library (things were still very analogue back then). It wasn’t bad training and I got to avoid being hit with the ball as well. 

I don’t have a local art community in Italy at the moment, but I have a nice critique group, and that helps a lot. I also seek out live classes, portfolio reviews and mentorships. I figure they are always a worthwhile investment, because I always see a jump in my ability when I get professional feedback. 

Also, I keep thinking about Will saying it takes ten years to become an illustrator. As much as I would like to speed that along, at least I have a realistic idea. I really do appreciate all the good business ideas on the site and podcast. 

How would you encourage others in their art-making?

I would say that when you are starting out, it can be encouraging to compare your present work to your past work. You will realize you are getting better and that helps to keep you from getting too discouraged. There will be days when you just think you are wasting your time. Your job really is just to create a whole lot of art and don’t worry if it’s bad at first, or even for a long time, as long as you are working actively on your skills. This is what the SVS guys say, and I have seen how true it is.

I still haven’t published a book yet, but a few years ago it wouldn’t even have been a realistic possibility. Now it is, and daily practice and learning, and asking for honest feedback, have made the difference.

Laura, we’d love to see some pieces you’ve been working on. What do you have for us? 

“That’s enough, pigeons!": This is one of the most recent pieces. It was inspired by an American-Italian family on my street who recently opened a bagel shop. The New Yorker in me was delighted to find a good source of bagels, but I also generally love street life and new friends, and since all the windows in my apartment are also doors, brazen pigeons keep walking right into my kitchen! This piece is black and white because I did it for Inktober (sort of), but I’m in the process of adding color to it.

Edmund meets the White Witch: I did three illustrations from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe last year because I loved the books as a child. Amusingly, one of them got picked up and shared extensively by Portuguese-speaking Narnia fans, and also a non-profit recently bought one to use as a thank you gift for one of their mentors. I like this one because it’s so dramatic. There are two more on my website.

At the Beaver’s House: This is another of the Narnia pieces. It depicts the moment in which Edmund decides to betray the others by going to the White Witch. Mr. Beaver is getting excited about Aslan, so I tried to make the others look realistically distracted. And the former interior designer in me had fun planning the house so that I could draw it from different angles as necessary. 

Roadtrip Rules: This was from Childhood Week a couple of years ago. It was the first week-long social media event I participated in and it really upped the ante for me. All the pieces were based on real memories, but this was my favorite because it’s such a classic vacation moment. I think you can guess which sister I am.

When Dante Met Beatrice: Dante is as known in the Italian world as Shakespeare is in the English world, and while I can’t say I’ve gotten through the entire Divina Commedia, I have really enjoyed learning all about it during his 700th anniversary celebration this year. I like how Dante took a heartbreaking situation and made something beautiful out of it. Also, I like researching all things medieval. Even the flowers in this piece have symbolic meaning. The scene is the May Day party at which the two allegedly first met when they were children.

This illustration is from the Children’s Book Pro course. I chose Hansel and Gretel as my tale and am now doing the book dummy. The scene is from the moment just before Gretel pushes the witch into the oven, in which she is transitioning from terrified to courageous. I was struck by how dark the tale is and decided to let that show. I read that Hansel and Gretel originated in the medieval Black Forest, so I set it there instead of the usual 19th century. The witch is part owl.

Laura, thank you for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 30 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

The prompt for October was: Sprout🌱

You might recognize it from Day 20 of the official Inktober prompt list!

Our contestants really grew as artists with this prompt. Check out all the entries!

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly live event for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

This is a first time win for Aurelia and a third time win for Norman! Woohoo!

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (such great work all around!):

A big thank you to all who submitted, we are so impressed with the work you are doing!

via GIPHY

Loki is impressed! GIF from Giphy.

Be sure to enter our November art contest for a chance to win a live art critique and all the glory 💪

As the year winds down, there’s so much reason for hope! So the prompt for November is: Star 🌟

We’ll be doing TWO Critique Arenas this time, Classic and All Star. Classic is run like our usual Critique Arena, and All Star is for just the winners from the previous year. Entries for the Classic version are due Nov 30. Be sure to submit on the Forum and the Critique Arena website!

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Marek Halko

• Instagram: @marek.halko

Below is an awesome Q&A that SVS Producer, David Braud, conducted with Marek.

When you look at Marek’s artwork you probably wouldn’t think, “I bet an anesthesiologist created that.” It’s the job of an anesthesiologist to put people to sleep but Marek’s work wakes us up! His use of fun bright colors and shapes are anything but sleepy. And now enjoy getting to know Marek and his work a bit more.

Hi Marek! Could you share a little bit about yourself?

I am in my mid thirties, coming from Czech republic, living in Germany with my wife and small daughter, working as an anaesthesiologist, making people fall asleep, and scribling on a drawing tablet after work, before sleep gets to me as well.

What are some of your favorite foods, films or things to do?

Foods: Anything I can cook and eat with company. Would never decline cocoa milk at any digestible temperature.

Films: The Little Mole (an old Czech cartoon by Zdenek Miller), that I watch with my daughter, Red Dwarf (British sci-fi comedy series from 90’s) or Mel Brooks comedies, that my wife endures watching with me. I love Coraline, Paranorman, My neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away among other animated movies. The list is way too long.

Other things I do: Pretending I ate all the wisdom of the world, watching a cube of sugar sink into foam of milk coffee, hearing my daughter laugh and mumble her first words.

Tell us about your journey as an artist. 

I like to draw and paint, make something and show it. I decided to make a living as a grown up by doing something wiser and more helpful than drawing (so i thought) and decided to study medicine. Didn’t really know what one can do as an artist. A couple of years ago I saw a video with a guy called Jake Parker, clicked on the link to svslearn and found a whole new world to explore. Since then I am learning how to make pictures, that would be fun to look at. Part time daily job since last month helps me to find more time for drawing now. Hope with some more effort, there will be some illustrating jobs for me in the future. The path is long though and there is much more to learn.

Tell us about your artistic style - how it has evolved and where do you see it going?

Don’t know, if i have any artistic style, but i can say what I search and try to put in my pictures. Clear graphic shapes, sense of light, colors and composition fitting the story. I like drawing animals and I do stylize a lot. I used to put a lot of weight on rendering, now I am trying to reduce it as much as possible. I like a lot of Japanese illustrators (they have great skills in composition, colors, shapes), so maybe that is where I am heading.

Do you have any stories of people encouraging you in your art-making?

My wife reminds me constantly to draw. She is happy for every small success I have with drawing. My family and friends regularly ask if I have something new to show. That means a lot to me.

How would you encourage others in their art-making?

Draw. Study. Have fun. There will be reward waiting. And road blocks as well sometimes. If it is still fun, it is worth it to go on.

Marek, we’d love to see some pieces you’ve been working on. What do you have for us?

This first one is an older piece. Would definitely draw it much differently now. Just thought , it might be fun to have Godzilla defeated by something so sweet and unexpected as an unicorn.

Picture for SVS contest for a book cover. Still like it, here I first tried to simplify things and work more with simple shapes.

I quess my favourite picture. Also for SVS contest. Just wanted to put a lot of excitement, fun and warmth on the canvas.

More recent one. Very simple. Experimenting with flat opaque colors. Tried to connect with character and his curiosity and nervousness when entering a new place.

One of newer sketches. Getting on a very odd train where passangers are (becoming) frogs. Who is gonna be next? I tried to use a color scheme to get a very strange place feeling.

Also recent one. I thought, everybody might stop and make some photos on the way when travelling.

Marek, thank you for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 30 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

As 2021 winds down, we can’t help but look back on the year we’ve had.  And what a year it’s been!

2021 brought us another year of pandemic, the capitol riots, deadly winter storms, mass shootings, the rollout of the Covid vaccine, deadly floods, unending political strife and deadly wildfires. And that’s just in the US! 😱😵😭

But there’s still so much reason for hope! So the prompt for November is: Star 🌟

A star can be so many things - a starfish, the finishing touch on a Christmas tree, a gold star from your teacher. Think about the role they can play in your own storytelling.

Because this is the final prompt this year, we are gonna do TWO Critique Arenas: Classic and All Star.

Classic: This is just like our usual Critique Arena, except NONE of the 2021 winners will be in the competition. They will be competing in the All Star competition. So, strategy-wise, if you’ve been a contender in the past, this would be a good time to submit since the top contenders will be out of the picture! Entries are due Nov 30, and should be submitted via the Critique Arena website. The Classic Critique Arena will be Tue, Dec 7.

All Star: We’ll also be inviting all the previous winners from 2021 to battle it out in a special All Star competition! The prompt is the same. For the All Star competition, there is cash money on the line! The top 3 win cash - $100 for 3rd, $200 for 2nd and $300 for 1st🤑 Entries are due Dec 7. All previous 2021 winners will receive an email with instructions on how to submit. The All Star Critique Arena will be Tue, Dec 14.

Ok everybody, eyes on the prize! Let’s go!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• If you are submitting to Critique Arena Classic, download the template and follow the instructions listed in the file to insert your artwork. Be sure to include your name, your Forum name and social media handle at the bottom of the template. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Also, make sure to include your name and the month in the file name. If you are submitting to Critique Arena All Stars, we will be in touch!

• Submit your final illustration, using the template, on the Critique Arena website.

• The file you submit should measure 1200 x 1200 pixels, so your artwork will need to be scaled to fit in the template. Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb.

• Submit as many illustrations as you like!

• Entries must be posted by Nov 30 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted using the template on our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our video subscription.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active on the day of Critique Arena. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free 30 day trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries maybe promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

via GIPHY

Reach for the stars! GIF from Giphy.

Whew! Another Inktober for the books!

It was so awesome seeing all that inky energy jam packed into a very short 31 days. High fives to everyone who gave it a go! Even if you didn’t finish the whole challenge, just showing up makes a difference💪

Since our October prompt was a tribute to Inktober, we thought it would be fun to hold Critique Arena a week early! Yay!

The prompt was actually Day 20 from the official Inktober prompt list: Sprout 🌱. We picked it because we really wanted to see your art skills sprout and grow!

The challengers were really brusselin’ this time, check out all the awesome entries!

Be sure to join us live on Thu, Nov 4 to see who made the cut, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Nov 4

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members only (don’t worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend

It doesn’t matter if you are just a beginner or a seasoned pro. If you are an illustrator, sooner or later someone is gonna ask you to design a logo!

But just because you can draw, doesn’t necessarily mean you can design a successful logo. That’s why Tannie Smith created this class, to help illustrators develop a better sense of design and add another tool to their toolbox.

Tannie, who also created our Branding For Creatives class, ran her own branding company for 10 years before switching gears to become an illustrator.

In this class, you will learn:

• The elements of good vs. bad logo design

• How to effectively communicate with a client throughout the logo making process

• How to build your own logo from the ground up, using step-by-step instructions and real world examples

• How to ensure brand consistency by creating a style guide for your logo

• The correct way to prep your files and present to your client

Now streaming in the video subscription!🎬

The prompt for September was to design a character for Inktober 🖤 The idea was to come up with a main character to star in your daily Inktober drawings.

Our contestants came up with some really amazing character designs! Check out all the entries!

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly live event for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

This is a first time win for BOTH Ayla and Katherine! Nice to see some newbies in the arena!

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (it was so hard to pick just 16!):

This time, the judges had a tough time narrowing it down to the Top 16, so they picked 12 more for honorable mention!

A big thank you to all who submitted, we are so proud of the work you are doing! Yay for you!

via GIPHY

Yay for you! GIF from Giphy.

Be sure to enter our October art contest for a chance to win a live art critique and all the glory 💪

Since it’s that inky time of year, the prompt for this month is a tribute to Inktober🖤 The prompt is: Sprout.

Entries are due October 31. Be sure to submit on the Forum and the Critique Arena website!

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Yes! It’s finally time to decide who has the strength of character to win our September art contest!

Join us live on Oct 14 to cast your votes✅ We’ll be convening Critique Arena to reveal the top 16 contenders and pick the top 2.

The prompt for September was to design a character for Inktober 🖤 The idea was to come up with a main character to star in your daily Inktober drawings.

Our contestants came up with some really awesome characters! Check out all the entries!

Be sure to join us live to see who made the cut, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Oct 14

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Anyone

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend, or you can watch for free on our YouTube channel

If you think perspective is scary👻, our latest class from David Hohn will put your fears to rest!

It’s called Advanced Perspective, and it’s the follow up to his Basic Perspective Drawing class.

In the basic class, we focused on 1-point and 2-point perspective. In the advanced class, we pick up where the basic class left off and focus on the dreaded 3-point perspective 😱

What is 3-point perspective? It’s when 3 vanishing points are used to convey a sense of depth. It’s how we actually the see the world. It can also be used to create extreme viewpoints, to give the impression of looking up at a focal point from below, or looking down at a focal point from above.

Once you master the rules of perspective, then you can use it to break the rules! It can help add another layer of visual storytelling to your work.

In this class you will learn:

• How to draw the world the way we actually see it

• How to use simple shapes as the groundwork for any object

• How to draw those simple shapes in perspective

• How those shapes can be used to construct a tree, car, or character and virtually anything

• How the under-drawing is essential to drawing complex objects

• How to troubleshoot when perspective goes wrong

David’s class is part of our Foundations Curriculum, which is designed to help artists of all skill levels build a stronger foundation in illustration and master the essential skills needed be a working artist.

Perspective is one of those skills that you will use over and over again, so if this is something you struggle with, be sure to take all our Foundations classes on perspective:

• Basic Perspective Drawing

• Visualizing Drawing In Perspective

• Advanced Perspective by David Hohn

Now streaming in the video subscription!🎬

Since it’s that inky time of year, the prompt for this month is a tribute to Inktober🖤 The prompt is: Sprout.

You might recognize it from Day 20 of the official prompt list! We picked it because we really want to see your art skills sprout and grow!🌱

If you’re new to Inktober, it’s annual art challenge to do an ink drawing each day for the entire month of October. The idea is to help you improve as an artist and get into the habit of drawing.

And since it’s Inktober, here’s a few extra requirements just to get in the spirit of things:

• Must be ink, or look like ink.

• Must be black and white.

• And, just for fun, you can add one spot color if you want!

Extra bonus points if you use your character design from the September art contest. But, if you didn’t submit for September, or would rather go with a different character design, go right ahead! You do you😊

While you must submit via the Critique Arena website to officially qualify, we do encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment! As always, if you want feedback on a Work In Progress, please start a new thread.

Ok gang, let’s spill some ink!!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Download the template and follow the instructions listed in the file to insert your artwork. Be sure to include your name, your Forum name and social media handle at the bottom of the template. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Also, make sure to include your name and the month in the file name.

• Submit your final illustration, using the template, on the Critique Arena website.

• The file you submit should measure 1200 x 1200 pixels, so your artwork will need to be scaled to fit in the template. Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb.

• Submit as many illustrations as you like!

• Entries must be posted by October 31 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted using the template on our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our video subscription.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active on the day of Critique Arena. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free 30 day trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries maybe promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

GOOD LUCK!

via GIPHY

Sprout wishes you good luck! GIF from Giphy.

Julia Hegetusch

• Instagram: @juliamoanamaureen

Below is an awesome Q&A that SVS Producer, David Braud, conducted with Julia.

It’s often assumed that we’re supposed to figure what we’re going to do with our life by the time we’re 18… or 25… or even 30. Didn’t work that way for me, and it didn’t work that way for Julia either. If you’re feeling “stuck” in a job or on a path that leaves you unfulfilled, our interview with Julia should be an encouragement to keep creating; to keep grinding away, knowing that you are getting closer to your dream one day at a time.

Hi Julia! Could you share a little bit about yourself?

Hi, my name is Julia, I am currently living in Munich, Germany with my daughter and life partner. I was born in New Zealand, moved to Germany with my parents at age one, moved back to New Zealand at age 7 with my mum, then returned to Germany at the age of 15 to move in with my Dad and have been living in Germany since then. But I am planning on moving back to NZ in a years time ( with daughter and partner). Throughout life I've travelled back and forth between countries.  

What are some of your favorite foods, films or things to do?

One of my favourite dishes is Kimchi soup, a Korean soup, which my Stepmother, who is Korean used to make when I was growing up at my Father’s place. Favourite movies that first come to mind are Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro (and most Ghibli films), The Labyrinth with David Bowie and I loved Strictly Ballroom when it came out and even enrolled in dance courses after that. In my free time I like to get out into the nature, be it the mountains, the beach or forest.

Tell us about your journey as an artist. 

My father gave up his career as an Architect at the age of 40 to become a full time artist. I remember sitting in his atelier as a child and watching him work.  He would take me to a lot of museums and to his own exhibitions so art was always a part of my life since I was a small child. Growing up I never knew what I wanted to become, only that it should be something creative. I remember at the age of about 17 years playing with the thought of becoming an Illustrator. I always loved reading books and being creative so I thought this would be the perfect profession for me. I was very shy and being an Illustrator would suit my character. Unfortunately this was just a vague idea and I didn't know a lot about it so I let myself be talked out of this career choice. Instead I made a lot of bad career choices and never seemed to find a good fit. I would paint and draw in my free time experimenting with abstract art and I loved creating different textures with all sorts of materials. 

Slowly I started to transition from abstract art (which mostly came through my fathers influence) to figurative art. I had participated in a few art courses like still life drawing and figure drawing. In my twenties I tried applying for the Fine Art Academy in Munich. I would always make it into the next round of applicants but then in the final round be told my work doesn't quite fit in. So after failing in the only thing I felt I was good in I stopped doing anything art related for a long time, went back to school, studied early childhood education and became an early childhood teacher. At first I felt like a total alien in the social sector. But over time it taught me a lot of social skills I was lacking. 

I started  sketching again and working on my drawing skills. I would search the internet for ways to make a living with art. I tried an online photography course but that didn't hold my interest for very long. Then I tried graphic design and really disliked it. About the same time the pandemic came and I could work from home. 

With the pandemic keeping people at home, I began creating little films for my preschool class. I took old fairytales as inspiration and rewrote them. Then I Illustrated the story backgrounds and made cut out figures for the characters. My daughter and I did the voices and found music and sound effects on the internet. I put it all together using Adobe Premier and uploaded it to the platform that was created for the parents and children that had to stay home during the lockdown.  

So that was my first experience with illustration and I was instantly hooked. I worked all through my two weeks of holidays so I would get the little movie finished on time. The time I was able to spend working at home really opened my eyes and made me realize how unhappy I was in my profession. It was time for change.  I was still searching the internet for ideas when I stumbled over Will Terry’s YouTube videos about being an Illustrator. I started watching his videos, listening to three point perspective podcast and then signed up for SVS Learn. So after a long journey I came back to the idea of becoming a professional illustrator. Currently I am working part time as an early childhood teacher and I’m enjoying the work. When I come home I start working on building a portfolio and on just getting better. 

Tell us about your artistic style - how it has evolved and where do you see it going?

Coming from a family of abstract artists (my stepmother is also an artist), abstract art is what I did for a long time until I discovered that I have a much bigger fascination for Illustration. I enjoy having a story to illustrate compared to rendering abstract concepts.

At the moment I am focusing on children’s illustrations and would love to be able to break into the market some day. Because I am very knew to this field I don't have a clearly defined personal style, I find one day I am fascinated by an Illustrator and the next by a different one. I never liked having to paint in just one specific way and I find the work we do always evolves with us. I am always changing and so is my work. The most recent Illustators I've been looking at are Emilia Dziubak, Djamila Knopf, the Tonko House founders, Julia Green and Julia Sarda. I instantly fell in love with the book,  “The Wolf’s Secret,” so now my most recent Illustration, which I haven't finished yet, has a more graphic style.

Do you have any stories of people encouraging you in your art-making?

The most encouraging person for me has  been my life partner. Without his support I would not have been able to start working part time in order to have more time on becoming an illustrator.

How would you encourage others in their art-making?

I find the most important thing is to find time everyday to work on your art. When I wasn't working I decided to work everyday on my art so that when I did go back to work, making art would be part of my daily routine. By the time I was working again as a teacher, illustrating had become such a big part of my everyday life there was no way  I was going to give up making art again. Also I try to envision myself in ten years time. The first version is me not giving the illustration career a shot. In this version I am definitely not living from my art and everything stays the same. The second version is me giving it the best shot I have, continuously working on my illustrations everyday. In ten years, how can there not be any changes for the better? 

Julia, we’d love to see some pieces you’ve been working on. What do you have for us?

Here are a few of my recent illustrations:

When I am in the colouring stage of an illustration I will always try and sketch somethig first. Because otherwise a week or two could pass without me actually sketching anything. And then I find myself being able to only draw stick figures ;) Here are a couple of recent sketches.

Julia, thank you for sharing your story with us. It’s wonderful to hear about your journey as an artist and we wish you the best as you continue on this path!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 30 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Drawing is better with friends! So what better way to kick off Inktober than with our fellow art buddies?

Since Inktober officially starts on Friday, we thought it would be fun to jump into the challenge and do our first drawing together!✍️💕

Sometimes getting the motivation to draw can be tough. But friends can help motivate you to put in the work, especially if they are doing it too!

This event is open to all subscribers. Even if you don’t plan on doing the whole challenge, you can still take part!

This is just a fun, casual event to get some sketch time in and connect with friends. Hope to see you there!

THE DETAILS

What: Jump Into Inktober

Date: Friday, Oct 1

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members only (don’t worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend

PS - If you aren’t already a member, check out our FREE trial!

You’ll get instant access to Inktober Bootcamp, plus a bunch of other classes that will be sure to get your ink flowing!!

If you need help getting ready for Inktober, our new Inktober Bootcamp is here to pump 👏 you up!

It’s a fun new course designed to help you get the most out of your Inktober challenge💪 We took all the most useful info from our inking classes and distilled it into this 5-day intensive class. It’s just the good stuff, no fluff.

Each day, you’ll watch between 20-30 minutes of video instruction and do 15-20 minutes of exercises. In this class, you’ll learn how to:

• Build a plan for your Inktober project

• Review inking tools to use for the challenge

• Practice inking with multiple exercises

• Learn about line width and line weight

• Practice inking in several different styles

• Prepare for possible challenges, like burnout

Now in the video subscription!

PS - If you aren’t already a member, check out our FREE trial!

You’ll get instant access to Inktober Bootcamp, plus a bunch of other classes that will be sure to get your ink flowing!!

Here’s a little perspective on perspective. We know it can be scary 👻, but it’s still something every illustrator needs to know!

Lucky for you, pro illustrator David Hohn has created a new class to help you master this skill. It’s called Advanced Perspective, and it’s the follow up to his Basic Perspective Drawing class.

If you ever struggled with drawing a room full of furniture, this class will show you how to bring order to the mess.

Coming to the video subscription soon!

It’s go time! Enrollment for Children’s Book Pro is now open 🙌

If you want to become a children’s book illustrator, this class will show you everything you need to know, from the anatomy of a children’s book all the way to getting published. It’ll cover:

• manuscript pagination

• character design

• composition

• picture book dummies

• book cover design

• prepping files for print

• submitting manuscripts to publishers

• and so much more!

The self-guided class runs for 10 weeks, but you'll always have access to the content so you can keep learning at your own pace.

New content will be added to the class on a weekly basis, and to help keep you motivated, we'll do a live Zoom session weekly too.

The cost is $597, and includes:

• 5 bonus courses

• a weekly Zoom check in to answer questions

• a dedicated social community so you can meet your fellow students

• easy to follow assignments and checklists

• 3 instructors who have taught at the university level and are also working illustrators

This is gonna be fun! Hope to see you in class!

The Details

Course: Children’s Book Pro

What: Everything you need to know to become a children’s book illustrator

Instructors: Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White

Open enrollment: Sept 13 - Sept 20

Start Date: Sept 21

End Date: Nov 23

Cost: $597

Weekly Zoom Sessions: Thursdays at 10 am PDT and 6 pm PDT

PS: If you want to get a feel for the class, check out this FREE video series!

The prompt for August was to draw Albert, the character from our June contest, on his first day of school. Albert was a wild animal that is now living with a family, so how does he feel about going to school? Is he excited? Nervous? Eager? Fearful? Has he ever even been to school?

Our contestants really captured those first day of school vibes! Check out all the entries!

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly live event for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

If you can believe it, this is the FOURTH win for Marek! He’s definitely one to watch 🙌And this is a first time win for Beverly, glad to see some new faces in the mix!

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (so proud of the work they are doing!):

As always, a big thank you to all the folks who submitted! Y’all are amazing!

via GIPHY

Be sure to enter our September art contest for a chance to win a live art critique and all the glory 💪

Since Inktober is just around the corner, the prompt for September is to design a character for Inktober!🖤The idea is to design a main character that would star in your daily Inktober drawings.

Entries are due September 30. Be sure to submit on the Forum and the Critique Arena website!

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Who will make the honor roll??

Join us live on Sept 9 to find out! We’ll be convening Critique Arena to reveal the top 16 contenders and vote for the top 2 from our August art contest.

The prompt for August was to draw Albert on his first day of school. Albert was a wild animal that is now living with a family, so how does he feel about going to school? Is he excited? Nervous? Eager? Fearful? Has he ever even been to school?

Our contestants really captured those first day of school vibes! Check out all the entries!

Be sure to join us live to see who made the cut, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

This event is for members only, be sure to check your email for the event link! They will be going out this week.

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, Sept 9

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members only (don’t worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend

Janette Hill

• Website: JanetteHill.com

• Instagram: @janettehillart

Below is an awesome Q&A that our friend Katy Adebayo, conducted with Jannete.

In this era of pressure, doubts and competition, stories like the one shared here by Janette Hill can be like a buoy of reassurance in the unsympathetic sea. If the noise around you is saying, “You’re not good enough!” and you’re wondering if you should join the choir, take a moment to read about Janette’s triumph over those voices and be refreshed by this brilliant, hilarious and down-to-earth memoir.

Hi! Could you share a little bit about yourself?

I'm Janette. Originally from England, I moved to the US in 2004, and aside from a few years in Minnesota, I've mainly lived in southern Wisconsin. American's can't understand a word I say, then when I go back to England, everyone tells me I sound American. I can't win! I work as a freelance illustrator and artist, and have done for the whole time I've been in the States, sometimes full time, sometimes part time. Right now, it's full time, baby!

Did you become an artist easily? What’s your story?

When I was little and grown-ups asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always answered 'An Artist'. Might have well have said I wanted to earn a living spelunking. But, art was the only thing I was any good at in school. At least, the only subject I was better at than my friends. I was a rubbish at sport —despite going to all the netball and hockey practices. Numbers were—and still are—a challenge for me, and everything else, I was just mediocre at. Except Art.  I loved it.

And so, naturally, I went on to fail Art in school. To be fair, our teacher wasn't exactly dedicated to his students, and the whole class failed aside from 2 kids who got the lowest possible pass grade. I was 18. I also failed Biology, so, seeing as I now earn my living as an artist, technically, I could have ended up a brain surgeon. 

I ended up enrolling in a Graphic Design course at the local college for an Associates degree. It was fine. I was terrified of the new Apple Macs they had there. I was enrolled in college, but wasn't actually there much and managed to pass that course by the skin of my teeth! My lecturers had seen that I had more of an interest in illustration, but I was told I wasn't good enough. It was too competitive, and did I really want to spend days dragging my big old portfolio around the streets of London, to all the different publishing houses and agencies, begging for work, like some starving artist Oliver Twist.

It was an encouraging time.

My folks, weren't too happy with my plans either. Who can blame them? And I wasn't exactly proving my passion by studying hard and giving it my all. I think most parents are a bit scared when their child wants to be an artist for a job.

So, anyway, I left college, had an interview with a local Advertising agency for a graphic design position, got the job, bought some smart clothes and a briefcase, learnt not to be scared of a Mac, made lots of mistakes, did some horrendous design work, made a LOT of coffee for people, and drew a bit. Didn't really like it. Designing brochures for cookers didn't really light my fire.

But then ... but then I got a job in a publishing company and moved away from my home town! It was also a graphic design position, but my Manager saw that I had a sketch book and liked to illustrate. The company produced educational books and so used a lot of outside illustrators. I'll forever be grateful that someone finally seemed to see some potential in me and I started to do a few illustrations. Then my manager was told by the owner of the company to not let me do any more illustrations because I wasn't good enough. This was a huge blow to me. It was like I had to finally realise that I just wasn't good enough to be an illustrator.

Everyone had told me that. People that know stuff. I felt like I had no choice but to just give up. It felt like an important moment in my life. Did I actually have to give up my dream? A few months later, a new primary book needed to be done and new characters created. I persuaded my Manager to let me try. He agreed, and so I submitted my clown character design, along with his friends and family. The board in charge of selecting the style had my submission and 4 other outside illustrators. They chose mine. Yep. Happy dance. Then, I had to design, layout, and illustrate a whole pupils book in ONE MONTH. But hey, they CHOSE me!

After that, things just kept going. I illustrated more and more for them. I think part of the problem that lead to the initial rejection was that I was trying to do a style I couldn't do at the time - realistic. But let me create cartoons, and I was off!

I worked there for 6.5 years before I moved to the US. It made sense to see if I could work freelance when I came here, and I've been doing that ever since. I've illustrated over 20 story books, and loads of educational spot illustrations. Some years ago I got involved with my local art community and started to produce more fine art. Something I'd never done before. At first I had a hard time not needing direction. I had to have an artwork brief! But gradually, I found my voice and these days selling my abstract paintings has become a large part of my income. 

It always blows my mind that I could have given it all up. But to be honest, I don't know what else I would have done. I suppose stay in the graphic design field. I still do that, and have the background and experience to take books from concept, to design and layout, through illustration, to print ready files. So, it's been a huge benefit. But I'm so glad I didn't listen to all the negative comments and actually believed in myself. It's a story I always tell kids when I go to schools to talk about what I do. It's important to me.

Sorry, that was soooo long!

That is an incredible story! Could we see some of your art? 

Sure! The first one, is one of many abstract watercolor and ink paintings I do. I sell these at galleries locally and art markets. I think at some point I need to combine the children's book style and this abstract style, but I haven't quite worked out how to do that yet.

The sweaty armpits guy is from a book I illustrated when the Olympics were in England. It was called Animal Antics, published by Red Robin Books ltd. So, it's old, but it cracks me up, because - I feel ya, hyperhidrosis guy!  I ended up having it framed. It was done with Prismacolor pencils. I probably wouldn't do another book in coloured pencils because it took about 54.5 years to complete. 

The lumberjack guy was a vector illustration. I loved him because I got to do him when I was working primarily as a graphic designer for a high-end mens shirt company, and they asked me to create a mascot. I've been really fortunate like that, that I've had the opportunity to do illustration in my design jobs in the past.

I couldn't not include a plate I drew on!

And then finally, probably my favourite to date. Albert T. Red. From the June prompt :)

I love that you embrace your diverse interests - illustration, fine art, graphic design, plate painting and family portraits to name a few - and that you embrace the different styles that you use, even within the category of illustration. What are your thoughts on “finding a style”? How has the freedom you’ve given yourself to experiment impacted your career so far?

Maybe it's because I'm self-taught, maybe it's because I always think other artists are better than me, maybe it's because I have crippling self doubt, but I have A LOT of different styles. I've gone through my career wanting to always draw like the next person I thought was amazing. Whether that was highly successful illustrators, or just my artistic peers. I've tried almost every different style and technique. It's a problem. It sometimes drives me a little bonkers, and sometimes I like it. I think I get bored easily, so I love being able to move from my laptop or ipad, and go paint with acrylics or watercolours. I love using dip pen and inks. I love creating stupidly intricate abstract art, and drawing millions of individual hairs on a dog portrait. Needle felting, wood whittling, sculpey clay, realistic pencil portraits, I've done it all. Except oils. Oils suck. And yes, a few years ago I started drawing on plates. No one invites me over for dinner anymore for fear I'll start decorating their dinner plates. I still do graphic design work too. So, yes, sometimes it annoys me that I don't have one set style that is 'me', but lately, I've realised I just need to embrace that. It's all me. And all of the things I do influence each other. And to be honest, now I've been back to 100% self employed since March this year, about half of my income has been from selling paintings, so I'm not going to stop doing it. I just love creating. I love trying new techniques.

So, I don't know if I have thoughts on finding a style. I would probably tell my younger self to stop copying others and trust your own instinct. But then, that's how I taught myself. When I heard the guys talk about that on the podcast, and mention that in no other training or studying, are you expected to not learn and copy others —like musicians, that really helped me be a bit kinder to myself about it all.

On the one hand, being so diverse has been good for me. Authors say, I want this or that kind of style, and I can do it. Except oils. Oils suck. I've been able to pay bills by doing copycat work when there's too much for a lead illustrator to handle for an educational series. Some people think that's selling out. I saw it as learning more and being able to eat and buy shoes. 

On the other hand, maybe if I had a set style 20 years ago, I might be much further along in my career than I am right now. But, you can't change the past. So here I am, at 46, finally pushing myself to get in with bigger publishing companies. 

You have a lot of children’s books and other projects under your belt. Do you have favorite projects that you’ve done? It would be great to hear more about one of them and what was special about that experience.  

I actually really enjoyed working with the self publishing authors. They were so excited about it all. Like a child! That's always fun. I love my job. I have the sense of humour of a 13 year old boy, so being able to draw a seagull pooping on a parrot on the cover of The Jolly Dodgers, cracks me up everytime I see it. I love adding funny little details into the illustrations. Many of the books I've done have had toys made to go with the book. It's amazing to see a character you created, made into a soft toy, or a puppet. It's just brilliant!

Could we also hear more about the endeavor that you mention on your website called “Reasons For My Love”? What an interesting idea!

Oh, that was an idea from a friend of mine. People could order custom illustrations for their loved ones, stating the reasons why they loved them. Customers could order as many 'pages' as they liked and they could be like a subscription. It would all be presented in fancy packaging. It appeared in a magazine in Florida, but I haven't actually done any yet. To be fair, I haven't promoted it too much either. It's a fun idea.

Finally, what’s the most important thing anyone has ever said to you, or done for you, that has been a source of encouragement for your art career?

Definitely that old Manager from my publishing job in England. He was the first person to encourage me to illustrate. I'll never forget that. We are still friends and he now owns his own small publishing company, and I've done many books through him. He's my go-to person when I have a question about printing books. Cheers Dave!

More recently, when I was considering leaving my part-time graphic design job at the beginning of this year, to go back to 100% freelance as an illustrator, I was having huge doubts. One of my friends said, 'You can stay where you are, and continue what you're doing now, and it'll be... fine. But you'll never grow.' I quit my job that week. And, I haven't regretted it once! If you don't do the scary things, the easy things make you sleepy.

It has been an honor and joy to hear your stories. Thanks so much, Janette!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 30 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Okay, we know technically it’s still summer 🌞

But when that calendar switches to September, we start dreaming about fall leaves, pumpkin spice and INK 🍁🎃🖋

And that also means Inktober will be here before you know it! So we thought it would be fun to start prepping for the 31-day challenge with an ink-inspired prompt.

This month, the challenge is to design a character for Inktober!🖤The idea is to design a main character to star in your daily Inktober drawings.

If you’re new to Inktober, it’s annual art challenge to do an ink drawing each day for the entire month of October. You can draw whatever you want, or something based on the official prompt list. But creating a main character for the challenge will help you tell a story.

Every entry must have 5 drawings on ONE page:

• 1 neutral pose front, 3/4 view

• 1 neutral post back, 3/4 view

• 1 walking or running pose

• 1 sitting pose (ground or chair)

• 1 close up of face

Also, be sure to include some “traits” about your character. Such as name? Age? Favorite pastimes? Show us how these traits drive their character design.

And since it’s Inktober, here’s a few extra requirements just to get in the spirit of things:

• Must be ink, or look like ink.

• Must be black and white.

If you’re not used to working in black and white, this could be a fun challenge to get out of your comfort zone!

While you must submit via the Critique Arena website to officially qualify, we do encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment! As always, if you want feedback on a Work In Progress, please start a new thread.

Go Team!!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Download the template and follow the instructions listed in the file to insert your artwork. Be sure to include your name, your Forum name and social media handle at the bottom of the template. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Also, make sure to include your name and the month in the file name.

• Submit your final illustration, using the template, on the Critique Arena website.

• The file you submit should measure 1200 x 1200 pixels, so your artwork will need to be scaled to fit in the template. Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb.

• Submit as many illustrations as you like!

• Entries must be posted by September 30 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted using the template on our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our video subscription.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active on the day of Critique Arena. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free 30 day trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries maybe promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

GOOD LUCK!

via GIPHY

Time to spill some ink! GIF from Giphy.

Are you gonna do Inktober this year???

The official Inktober prompt list is here, so that means Inktober is just around the corner! Time to start prepping and getting ready for the challenge ahead💪

If you need some help, we’ll be rolling out some fun stuff to keep you motivated!

If you aren’t already a member, be sure to sign up for a free trial:

https://courses.svslearn.com/bundles/30-days-free

And, as always, be sure to hashtag #svslearninktober2021 so we can share our favorites. Can’t wait to see all your inky creations!

It’s time for another picture book break down!

This is where we pick a favorite picture book and analyze the storytelling from the illustrator point of view🤔🎨It’s ALL about the illustrations!

This time David Hohn will be walking us through the Caldecott-winning Wolf In the Snow, written and illustrated by Matthew Cordell. It's a beautiful story of a girl and a baby wolf lost in the snow, told without words🤯

We'll get started at our usual time of 2 pm MDT. Emails with the event link will go out Aug 26.

Hope to see you then!

THE DETAILS

What: Live stream with David Hohn

Date: Thursday, Aug 26

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for times outside the US)

Who: Members only (don't worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Zoom (members will get an email with the Zoom link on Aug 26)

Hey all you aspiring kidlit artists!

If you missed it the first time, our new course on children's book illustration is back!

Will Terry, Jake Parker and Lee White have taken everything they learned from illustrating more than 50 children’s books, and put it into a new course just for you.

You’ll get decades of industry knowledge distilled into one comprehensive course, with weekly Zoom check-ins to help you stay on schedule.

The self-guided class runs for 10 weeks, but you'll always have access to the content so you can keep learning at your own pace.

The cost is $597, and includes:

• 5 bonus courses

• a weekly Zoom check in to answer questions

• a dedicated social community so you can meet your fellow students

• easy to follow assignments and checklists

• 3 instructors who have taught at the university level and are also working illustrators

Open enrollment begins Sept 13, and class kicks off Tuesday Sept 21, so be sure to mark your calendars!

This is gonna be fun! Hope to see you in class!

PS - If you want to get a preview of the class, sign up below to get access to a free video series about illustrating children’s books!

The Details

What: Children’s Book Pro

Cost: $597

Instructors: Lee White, Will Terry and Jake Parker

Open Enrollment: Sept 13-Sept 20

Class Start: Sept 21

Weekly Zoom Sessions: Thursdays at 10am PST and 6pm PST. If you need help converting time zones, check out this handy website!

Duration: 10 weeks if you follow the weekly schedule, but you can also do it at your own pace.

The prompt for July was to design a sweet home in the ‘burbs for Albert, the cute but mischievous character from our June contest.

We got so many sweet entries, it was a challenge to pick the sweetest!

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly live event for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

This is the second win for Chris, woohoo! And this is the first time in the winner’s circle for Iain!

And here are the rest of the entries that made the Sweet 16 (great job everyone!):

As always, a big thank you to all the folks who submitted! High fives all around!

Be sure to enter our August art contest for a chance to win a live art critique and all the glory 💪

Since we are heading back to school, the prompt for August is to draw Albert on his first day of school 🍎📚✏️Entries are due August 31. Be sure to submit on the Forum and the Critique Arena website!

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Hope you all had a lovely summer vacay!🌞But now it’s time to shift gears and get ready for school🤓

For this month’s prompt, your homework is to draw Albert on his first day of school ✏️📚🍎

Albert was a wild animal that is now living with a family, so how does he feel about going to school? Is he excited? Nervous? Eager? Fearful? Has he ever even been to school?

In June, the challenge was to design a cute but mischievous little character named Albert, that could potentially be turned into a book, a PBS animated series, a plushie, and a learning app for kids.

In July, we designed a sweet home in the ‘burbs where Albert would live with his new family.

And this month, we are building on his story and creating a full page illustration of Albert’s adventures at school.

Just to clarify: don't worry if you haven't submitted in the previous Albert contests, you can still do this prompt! Just treat it as if it's a stand alone prompt🤓

So for example, if you haven’t already designed an Albert character, just come up with one. And by the same token, if you already designed an Albert character, but would like to change it, go right ahead!

While you must submit via the Critique Arena website to officially qualify, we do encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment! As always, if you want feedback on a Work In Progress, please start a new thread.

Good luck everybody! Class dismissed 🤓

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Download the template and follow the instructions listed in the file to insert your artwork. Be sure to include your name, your Forum name and social media handle at the bottom of the template. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Also, make sure to include your name and the month in the file name.

• Submit your final illustration, using the template, on the Critique Arena website.

• The file you submit should measure 1200 x 1200 pixels, so your artwork will need to be scaled to fit in the template. Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb.

• Submit as many illustrations as you like!

• Entries must be posted by August 31 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted using the template on our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our video subscription.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active on the day of Critique Arena. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free 30 day trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries maybe promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

via GIPHY

Where is home sweet home for Albert??🏠💕

Join us live on August 12 to vote for the sweetest homes from our July art contest.

The July prompt was to design a home for a cute character by the name of Albert. Albert was a wild animal that is now living with a family, so it should look suburban, but with details and a flair that make it the perfect abode for Albert and his family. Should be cute and playful!

Our contestants came up with some super sweet homes! Check out all the entries!

Be sure to join us live to see who made the cut, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

This event is for members only, be sure to check your email for the event link! They will be going out this week.

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, August 12

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members only (don’t worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend

Giorgos Christopoulos

• Website: G-Chris

• Instagram: @g.chris.artwork

Below is an awesome Q&A that our friend Katy Adebayo, conducted with Giorgos.

What motivates someone to be a martial artist by day and a graphic artist by night? Giorgos Christopoulos would know! In the following interview he not only describes the enthusiastic attitude he has towards his professions, but he also shares his most treasured advice, some of his goals, and what causes his fire for creativity to be kindled. 

Could you tell us a bit about yourself? 

Sure! My name is Giorgos Christopoulos and I am an artist and martial arts teacher for kids and adults, from Athens, Greece! I have two masters, one in Physical Therapy and one as a Taekwondo Performance Instructor. I’m always learning new things in both those domains as well as in art!

I am the owner of two Taekwondo clubs, so that plays the role of my day job (removing the financial anxiety of the art world), but when the night comes I put my mask on and my artistic journey resumes! I also run my upcoming brand G.Chris.Artwork!

I am 31 years old and I try to balance both my occupations, since I love them both from the bottom of my heart!

If you already have a day job that you love, what motivates you to make art as a profession?

The truth is, I really want to make an impact on my family with my art some day. I want to communicate my thoughts and feelings to them for all the years to come with my art. And my chosen vehicle for that endeavor is drawing!

Plus I really like to show my skills to kids! I mean who doesn't love seeing a kid get inspired to draw, when seeing an adult do it?

What are three goals of yours as an artist? 

Well, first I really want to illustrate my first mixed style children’s book (with elements from both the children's book and the comic book worlds) and see it published!

Secondly, I strive to find the perfect balance between my day job, my artistic job, and my personal life. So finding that balance is a goal of its own.

And lastly, I really want to illustrate a story that I am gonna be proud of and leave it as a legacy for my kids. I want them to hold a book made from their dad, that will give them some insight to what's going on inside their pop’s mind. 

What would you say are some sources of motivation behind your work? Do you have other artists you are inspired by? 

My motivation is clearly just one. I love to draw things. Even when freelancing work and commissions are scarce, I draw every day. I love drawing my own things and I also find real pleasure in drawing nostalgic fanart or redesigns of things that inspired me as a kid.

As for artists that inspire me, there are tons. My steady sources of inspiration, whose art I am never tired of looking at, are:

Albert Uderzo, Jim Davis, Jeff Smith, Skottie Young, Mike Mignola (I am so intimidated by his heavy inks), Eichiro Oda (Onepiece), Akira Toriyama (Dragonball), Horikoshi Kohei (My hero academia) and SVS’ very own, Jake Parker. But in the end, whenever I see art, I am simply drawn to it, and I love seeing artists perform.

Could we see some of your work?

Of course! I wish I could show you all of my work and get feedback on it! Well, since I can't do that, here are some of my most enjoyable pieces. (They are not the most complicated or technical ones, but some that emit a warm feeling and some nice memories when I created them!)

"Witnessing the fight"  This piece was a gift for a client which depicts his son and his dog. I was so happy to draw this, and my client made a canvas out of it!

"We all can be somebody's hero"

Commission for a client's kids. Apparently the big brother was learning how to be responsible for his little sister! Found the idea cute!

"Demons"

Personal piece; pretty self-explanatory.

''Final Goal"

Personal piece featuring my favourite mantra/quote

"Storm"

Day 17 from Inktober 2020

What's the most important thing anyone has ever done to encourage you?

I love my wife's constant support. I can be pretty harsh and judgmental toward myself so I need the voice of a person I care about saying encouraging things about my art. Artists tend to be really hard on themselves and on each other. We might stick to technical details like perspective, tone, design etc., all in good spirit, and in the end, we forget the most important part of art.

Art is made to be shared not only with other artists, but with "simple" non-artistic humans. 

And seeing my wife's smile and wide eyes when I show her a piece that I have drawn for 4-5 hours (and got tired of looking at, partly hating it...) constantly reminds me that it is worth it!

If you could share one piece of advice with other artists, what would it be? 

Don't be intimidated by other artists’ work. Learn to love the results of others, not envy them. A lot of times, we tend to compare others' finished illustrations with our own warm-ups. This is a cruel and nasty feeling. You can be a fan of the way an artist draws robots, and another artist draws monsters, and not be jealous of them. I am pretty sure Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts) loved watching other artists perform, without feeling inferior to them! If you love art, you can be a fan of other artists' work without burdening yourselves!!!

And finally, what would you say to yourself that you would like to read again five years down the road? 

" Be the man that your future self would be proud of. "

Thanks so much, Giorgos, for this interview! 

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 30 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Ready for another picture book break down??

This is where we pick a favorite picture book and analyze the storytelling from the illustrator point of view🤔🎨It’s ALL about the illustrations!

For this week’s session, David Hohn will be walking us through Waiting for Mama, a beautiful picture book written by Lee Tae-Jun and illustrated by Kim Dong Seong.

It’s a classic Korean story about a child waiting for his mama at the train station. The story was originally published as a short story in a Korean newspaper in 1938, and updated in 2004 with illustrations by Kim Dong-Seong. The US edition was released in 2007 and includes both Korean and English text.

It’s a fascinating look at cultural differences in storytelling!

The live event kicks off at 2pm MDT. We’ll be emailing the event link to subscribers the week of July 26. Hope to see you then!

THE DETAILS

What: Live stream with David Hohn

Date: Thursday, July 29

Time: 2pm MDT (check here for times outside the US)

Who: Members only (don't worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Zoom (members will get an email with the Zoom link, look for the email the week of July 26)

Hey gang! We are so excited for this new class! 

It’s called Illustrator for Illustrators, from kidlit artist Sarah LuAnn Perkins. It’s all about how to use Adobe Illustrator to create full blown illustrations, not just logos, icons and clip art. The title says it all!

Wait, so what is Adobe Illustrator again? It’s a vector-based software that lets you create digital art that is perfectly scalable at any size, which is a pretty neat trick, especially when you are creating art for various different platforms! 

Digital artists often tend to gravitate to either Adobe Photoshop or Procreate to create their art, mainly because it is a bit more like traditional drawing, where you “draw” on a layer or surface.

But Adobe Illustrator is another versatile tool to put in your tool kit. It allows you to create digital art that can be easily manipulated, without losing quality no matter how you scale it. It’s not just for graphic designers!

Sarah uses Illustrator in unexpected ways to make gorgeous digital illustrations that look just like linocut art. You would never guess that most of her work is vector-based! This is her first class with SVSLearn.

In this class you will learn:

• The differences between raster and vector images and some distinct advantages of vector images in digital illustration

• How to create and navigate documents, workspaces and artboards

• How to create, group and combine various shapes

• How to use the pathfinder tool, pen tool, pencil tool and so much more

• How to use the type tool to create and modify text

Now streaming in the video subscription!🎬

The prompt for the June art contest was to design a cute character by the name of Albert. He’s furry, fun, and always getting into trouble. The challenge was to design a character that could potentially be turned into a book, a PBS animated series, a plushie, and a learning app for kids.

We got so many cute entries, it was so hard to pick the cutest!

The winners were picked during Critique Arena, our monthly live event for members. Our judges seeded the top 16 against each other, and the audience voted for their favorites. Sixteen battled it out in the arena, but only 2 made the final cut!

You can experience all the drama in the recording of the event, but in the meantime here are the two winning entries:

In a crazy twist, this is the third win for BOTH Mag and Melissa!! They are totally crushing it!!

As always, a big thank you to all who submitted! Y’all did an awesome job!

Awesome! GIF from Giphy.

Be sure to enter our July art contest for a chance to win a live art critique and all the glory 💪

The prompt for July is to design the perfect abode for Albert and his family. If environment design is your weak spot, this would be a good one to go for!

Entries are due July 31.

See you next time in the arena…the Critique Arena!

Our little friend Albert needs a place to call home!

Last month the challenge was to design a cute but mischievous little character named Albert.

This month we are going to build on that and design a home for him!

Albert was a wild animal that is now living with a family, so it should look suburban, but with details and a flair that make it the perfect abode for Albert and his family. Should be cute and playful!

For this challenge, the building should be at a 3/4 angle.

While you must submit via the Critique Arena website to officially qualify, we do encourage you to post your final entry in the forum as well so everyone can see and comment! As always, if you want feedback on a Work In Progress, please start a new thread.

OK good luck y’all!

HOW TO ENTER

• Read through the prompt for this month⬆️

• Create something awesome!

• Download the template and follow the instructions listed in the file to insert your artwork. Be sure to include your name, your Forum name and social media handle at the bottom of the template. Submissions that are missing a name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Also, make sure to include your name and the month in the file name.

• Submit your final illustration, using the template, on the Critique Arena website.

• The file you submit should measure 1200 x 1200 pixels, so your artwork will need to be scaled to fit in the template. Keep the file size to no more than 500 kb.

• Submit as many illustrations as you like!

• Entries must be posted by July 31 at the stroke of midnight ⌛️

PRIZES

• Winner 1: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• Winner 2: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to do a paid illustration gig

• All 16 Finalists: a live critique of your artwork, your artwork shared on all our online channels, plus the chance to be a featured artist for SVSLearn.com

• All Entries: your artwork included in that month’s submission gallery for the whole world to see!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Critique Arena is sponsored by SVSLearn.com, an online resource for artists of all skill levels.

• Critique Arena is a monthly art challenge. A new prompt is released at the beginning of each month, and contestants have the whole month to create and submit artwork based on the prompt.

• Entries must be submitted using the template on our Submit Your Art! page by the deadline in order to qualify. Submissions that are missing the name at the bottom of the template will not be included on the website. Entries will be accepted until the last day of the month in which the prompt was announced.

• Judges will pick the Top 16 based on skill. On the second Thursday following the submission deadline, the Top 16 will face off during Critique Arena, a live event where subscribers of SVSLearn cast their votes to decide who will win. In the case of a tie, the judges decide who win.

• No monkey business! Any entries considered questionable, inappropriate or spammy may be disqualified.

• Only submit if you are OK with receiving a critique from our judges during a live event, which will be recorded and added to our video subscription.

• You must be at least 18 to play.

• No purchase necessary to enter. However, please note the Top 16 will be selected from active subscribers at SVSLearn.com. Contestants must be active on the day of Critique Arena. (Not a member? That’s ok! You can sign up for a free 30 day trial!)

• We do not own the rights to your work, you do! But we reserve the right to promote your work on our online platforms. Contest entries maybe promoted on critiquearena.com and SVSLearn.com, and their associated email lists and social media.

• Void where prohibited by law.

via GIPHY

We all know that cute wins, but only the cutest can win Critique Arena!

Join us live on July 8 to vote for the cutest of the cute from our June art contest 😻

The June prompt was to design a cute character by the name of Albert. He’s furry, fun, and always getting into trouble. The challenge was to design a character that could potentially be turned into a book, a PBS animated series, a plushie, and a learning app for kids.

Our contestants came up with some super cute characters! Check out all the entries!

Be sure to join us live to see who made the top 16, hear our judges critique their work and cast your votes for the winning entries 🏆

This event is for members only, be sure to check your email for the event link! They will be going out this week.

THE DETAILS

What: Live critiques with the founders of SVSLearn

Date: Thursday, July 8

Time: 2pm MST (check here for event times around the world)

Who: Members only (don’t worry, we have a free trial right now!)

Where: Members will be emailed an event link to attend

Joel Cockrell

• Website: joellaneart.com

• Instagram: @joel_cockrell

Below is an awesome Q&A that our friend Katy Adebayo, conducted with Joel.

When an artist can call themselves both a teacher and a student, they are probably making great progress. In this interview, illustrator and arts professor Joel Cockrell shares how much can be learned from being immersed in art from both perspectives. A gem of a story finishes this one off as Joel describes what sparked his love of words and images as a small child.

Hi! Could you tell us a bit about yourself? 

Hello! My name is Joel. I am almost 30 and I am an Illustrator and a Studio and Digital Art professor at a university. I have been teaching at the college level for 5 years. I live in central Virginia with my wife (who is also an amazing artist) and our 7-year-old Vizsla. Apart from art, my hobbies include anything in the outdoors (backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, trail running) and hanging out with my best friend (that’s my wife). 

What stage are you at in your career? Do you see that shifting at all in the future?

I would describe myself as being in an intermediate stage of freelancing. I have been doing freelance jobs for the last few years since most of my time has gone to teaching, however, I do see that shifting! In the last two years, I have illustrated my first two children’s books, been to my first book launch, and have begun sending out postcards/promotional materials for the first time. I am hoping to illustrate more, pick up more book deals, and teach less moving forward. This positive shift has been influenced greatly by SVS. 

Could we see some of your art? What do you see as a strength in your work?

Line work is a strength of mine. I have always had a love for lines in illustration. The fluidity, the emotion, and the style that line can have. I often saw that as a disadvantage in the past since I am not as strong of a painter. However, I now see it as a strength, realizing that some artists can paint and render beautifully, but struggle to draw. Whether clean, rough, textured, smooth, creating interesting lines that show character movement and emotions is a strength I continue to hone. 

This is the cover for my second Children’s Book “Adventure Ted: Dancing on the Moon” that recently wrapped up and will be printed soon. 

This is an interior page from the book “Adventure Ted: Dancing on the Moon” where Ted the Teddy Bear takes Ella on an inspiring adventure to the moon. 

These scenes were all created in the last couple of months as personal portfolio pieces, and to experiment with some custom crayon brushes I created. 

What inspires your art? And what role does nature and exploring the world play in your life?

Watching others create inspires me. I love being a teacher because I have to opportunity to show others how to create, and in turn, watching them create fills up my inspiration tank. It makes me want to produce more work as well. 

Exploring the world is a big part of my life, both personally, and artistically. I believe anyone who is going to stare at a screen all day creating, should get outside and exercise. It is good for the body, the mind, and the spirit. Some of the most inspirational moments in my life, that have directly influenced my artwork, have taken place on cold rivers, in hot canyons, on windy mountain tops, and quiet walks around my neighborhood. If you ever find yourself creatively stuck, just take a quick walk around your house or apartment - it works for me. 

From an art perspective, what has been the hardest challenge you’ve faced in the last year or so, and how did you tackle it?

The hardest challenge I have faced has been prioritizing my time and setting boundaries between too much and too little. As a professor, my schedule can quickly jump from very busy and working constantly, to totally free with nothing to do. Because of this, in the slow times (especially now in the summer) I get this stifling feeling that I am not doing enough. I feel, and I must assume other artists do as well, a deep sense of dread when I am not creating. My brain tells me that when I am not drawing, someone else is, and that they will soon pass me with superior skills. However, I have many more responsibilities in life than just practicing art. We all should put at least some pressure on ourselves to create, but at a slow steady climb, not all at once. I have been implementing a schedule that allows me to create in certain time frames, so I don’t feel guilty for not creating in my “off time.” 

You catch a glimpse into many artists’ lives as an art professor, so I’m curious, what patterns do you see among students who end up being the most “successful”? And what exactly does “success” mean to you? :)

That is a great question. It is a difficult question, since people measure success in different avenues. I see students who are successful in their careers, and students who are successful in their skills. Career success originates from the students who have genuine passion for their art. If I did not give them homework or projects, they would still go home and create. Not because someone asked them to, or told them to, but because of their internal motivation. When I was learning to draw, I would draw for 4-5 hours straight, I would stay awake until 3 am, and then I would get up the next day and do the same again. I had to draw; it wasn’t something someone expected of me. The same is the key for those who wish to be successful in their careers. They must have that drive. Some students don’t have that drive, nor do they want it. And that is okay! They might not be successful in a specific career, but if they are learning and growing, I still count it as successful. If you are growing as an artist, then you are a successful one. 

As a final question, is there a story that comes to mind that exemplifies why you are an artist? For example, the effect your art has had on yourself or somebody else?

I didn’t want to read as a kid. I hated the idea of reading, and I was insecure because I didn’t think I was smart enough. One day, my mom took me to the library and told me to pick out a book to read. When she returned later, she found me in a remote corner of the room, reading Peanuts comics, and laughing to myself. She got excited, and said, “See, you can read!” I responded by saying “But these are just cartoons, this isn’t a book.” She empathetically responded to me by saying “Well, there are some words here. It’s a good place to start.” It was a simple moment, but it grew in me a love of words and images together. Two halves creating a whole. Telling a story that neither could do alone. Since that day, drawing “cartoons” has been a passion, and it has always taught me that I could learn any skill, even reading, if I put enough time and effort into it.

Thanks so much, Joel! Best wishes for the future!

Featured students are selected from our amazing group of members! Want a chance to improve your illustration skills? Become an SVSLearn member today for 30 days with our free trial and take the next step on your journey to becoming a working illustrator.

Do you find Adobe Illustrator to be kind of scary??👻

If this is you, we are hard at work on a new class that will put your fears to rest!

It’s called Illustrator for Illustrators, from kidlit artist Sarah LuAnn Perkins. Sarah uses Illustrator in unexpected ways to make gorgeous digital illustrations that look just like linocut art. You would never guess that most of her work is vector-based!

Digital artists often tend to gravitate to either Adobe Photoshop or Procreate to create their art, but Adobe Illustrator is another versatile tool to put in your tool kit. It allows you to create digital art that can be easily manipulated, without losing quality no matter how you scale it.

Sarah will teach you everything you need to know to use this powerful, yet oft-misunderstood tool. Coming soon to the video subscription!