Finalish Children's Book pic

[bestow]

Hey team, heres one of my almost finished childrens book pics, tell me whatcha think!

and a quick abstract piece for good measure.

[Seedling]

I think that you are making the assumption that children either require unsophisticated art, or because they are children, they don’t care whether the images are crafted well. That assumption is leading you to make rushed and sloppy images. The colors are arbitrary, the lighting is all wrong, the composition is not leading the eyes to the important parts, the story-telling is almost absent, the abstractions seem like a result of carelessness rather than intelligent decision-making, and the mark-making suggests this is your first ever use of this medium. All of these things indicate that you need practice with the academic basics of art. If you would like some help with that, click on "Concept Art 101" in my sig.


You must have respect for your audience, even if they are four years old, if you want to get published. If you are interested in making art for children's books, I suggest you spend some time in the library or book-store looking at the illustrations of published children’s books. There's a ton of fun, inspirational art to be found there!

[bestow]

hummm,

unsophisticated, no lighting or shading to your specifications, sloppy and careless.

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8600000/8606008.jpg

art shouldnt be about petty details, a checklist, or your rep from all the great classes you took,

its about feeling, and expressing yourself.

maybe you can learn something from me, mr. teacher.

[Dyao]

Well I liked the second image, but I have no idea what the context is.

While the cover you quoted isn't sophisticated, all the lines and strokes used are there for a reason. Your first image features a lot of elements that seem to be applied without rhyme or reason making it look sloppy.

On the cover of "it's Simple, Said Simon" there is very minimal use of line. There's great variance in line thickness which emphasizes depth well. This is lacking in your picture. Try cutting back on the use of lines and not using a uniform thickness.

Just my two cents.

[Elwell]

maybe you can learn something from me, mr. teacher.
The fact you can't tell the fundamental differences between what you posted and that piece shows that you still have a LOT to learn. You owe MS. Seedling an apology.

[squidmonk3j]

this is a joke, right?

right?!

[bestow]

There's great variance in line thickness which emphasizes depth well. This is lacking in your picture. Try cutting back on the use of lines and not using a uniform thickness.

Just my two cents.

thanks for the critique, i'll keep this in mind, i've never gotten the pressure on my tablet to work right $25 aiptek, no wacom :blah:

[yamchops]

it looks like all this took almost no time whatsoever.

[Shortydiva]

art shouldnt be about petty details, a checklist, or your rep from all the great classes you took,

its about feeling, and expressing yourself.

maybe you can learn something from me, mr. teacher.

Yes, but then disregarding the fundamentals just to make it in your desired way without the knowledge needed to do so makes it seem you're just clueless about how to create it. Yes, art is about expressing yourself, but if you don't give a flack on the fundamentals and push around with that attitude, you're gonna have a tough time in the art world, buddy.

I must agree with Seedling. You rush through your images with the thought of "it's a children's book, so who cares if it doesn't look right" and maybe an "it's just my style" mentality. You don't quite understand the fundamentals enough to 'break the rules'. Study more on lighting, colors, and draw more from real life. Don't rush through in digital drawings right now because they look far from good at the moment. A little bit of googling for CG tutorials might help you out.

[Anthis]

I'm not sure about this whole unsophisticated/sloppy thing, so I'll refrain from commenting on that.
However, I do agree when people say you should master the basics first. Once you know how to use your media, and got the fundamentals down, you can always adjust your style for a children's book. I'm sure there are at least some guidelines for that too, for example that it should be easy on the eye and understandable for children. I believe Dryao had some good points too.

[Seedling]

How old are you, bestow? I’ve seen the work that you have posted in the teen challenge area, so that indicates to me that you are still in highschool. This afternoon I’m going to be giving a lecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. That, perhaps, might give you an idea that I know what I am talking about, and that I have a strong interest in helping students like you to achieve their full potential as artists.

No image needs to contain proper lighting AND perspective AND a complex story AND whathaveyou. At its minimum, a picture just needs to have in it something that is interesting to look at, and that interesting thing needs to not have other bad stuff taking attention away from it. A smudge on a page can be made to be interesting either by skill, or by luck. You are still at the stage of relying on luck in your art-making.

Using luck as a means for generating images is an acceptable way to make art, but it means you have to make loads and loads of images from which you can pick out the one lucky one that actually has something interesting going on in it. In order to work this way, though, you need to have the skill to identify and articulate why one thing is aesthetically pleasing and another isn’t. Photographers work with luck in this manner – they take hundreds of exposures and only develop the best one or two as final photographs. Illustrators typically don’t, because it takes so much longer to draw an image than to point and shoot.

Meilo So works in a tradition of Asian ink-painting which is a lot like watercolor. Both mediums involve a lot of control, and an acceptance that the medium is often just going to do what it wants to despite that control. They are difficult mediums to use. Meilo, I can guarantee you, has done hundreds of such paintings in order to achieve the right balance of spontaneity and control. This tiger image is more sophisticated than you think.

Would you like to challenge yourself, and perhaps prove me wrong? Get a set of watercolors and try to duplicate Mielo’s image.

[ninj]

Shortydiva took the words right out of my mouth. Remember: genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. No one ever got anything meaningful done without hard work.

It would also do you a lot of good to listen to Seedling's advice. Children aren't just swayed by bright colours and swirly patterns, they are able to discern good art from bad and they really do like art that has a lot of work put into it.
Don't feel obliged to hold back just because they're children. Take for instance Stephen Gammell, who illustrates children's books. I remember being in 1st or 2nd grade and in sheer awe of his work.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v457/Ninj/1178792980674.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v457/Ninj/1178790204115.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v457/Ninj/9780064401777.jpg

So it doesn't have to be so intricate or creepy and it seems to me like you're drawing for a younger age group, but the point is, treat children like adults as far as artistic quality goes.

[Grimey]

i think if you ask for critique you should be accepting of whatever someone chooses to say in an attempt to help you out. This doesn't mean you need to take their advice, but at least be respectful of it.
wacoms do help, but a knowledge of brushes and settings will also help your painting.
try using a color scheme of sorts, and you need perspective and lighting help.
the back wall should not be a flat color when the light source is a fireplace. If the light source is the fireplace, then shouldn't the top of the mantle and the painting on the wall be in shadow?