#PBDummy Challenge - Final week of step five

We have arrived at the final week of step five, rendering tight, full-sized sketches.  I am determined to have my loose - half sized sketches completed in time for the deadline which will put me in pretty good shape for step six.  It seems pretty quiet out there the more the weeks pass by, which is of course expected. These challenges are hard to keep up with. But out of curiosity, how many of our 37 challengers are still with us??

Please post a comment if you are still working on your PB Dummy and let us know how you are doing!!


Just as a side note, I have taken the plunge and signed up for a new course. You may be interested so I'm going to put a plug in for Will Terry. He has created a LIVE online 5 week course on Visual Storytelling. I am super excited about it, I'm a big fan of Will and he is teaching this course with another extremely talented illustrator -  Jake Parker. Find out more about these talented illustrators here.

If you are interested, you'll have to sign up fast, so go and check it out!!

#PBDummy Challenge - two weeks left in step five

So my PBDummy friends...how many of you will be completing step 5 on time?  I hate to admit it, having been so adamant that I would complete this challenge on time, but I am not going to have all my full sketches complete. When I look back and think about the last six weeks I can't think of anything specifically that's kept me from completing this step, just the business of life I suppose. So it's a good lesson learned. Our art has to be made a priority and not left to 'when we have time' to get to it.  And admittedly, the last few weeks that's what has happened to me. I have come to the conclusion that for me, right now with three young boys, I am going to have to get up early in the morning and start my day working on my illustrations to ensure that time is made everyday to fulfill this dream of becoming an illustrator.


On a positive note, I did get some great feedback from Matt at DTO who holds crits for his students each Monday. He reviewed one of my full-spread compositions and gave me lots of great suggestions for improvements.  Below are the two ideas I submitted, starting with working through the compositional shapes to a rough tonal sketch.

Best of luck to all my PBDummy buddies who are working their hearts out to get there sketches finished!!

#PBDummy Challenge - Progress on Step 5

Three weeks into step five, and admittedly I don't have much to show for it yet. This is the step where I fell off the challenge last year, and non-completion is not an option this year! My boys have had spring break and we've enjoyed Easter which has been wonderful, but has put me off my regular schedule. However I'm recharged and hopefully mentally prepared to get things done over the next five weeks.

I re-read Mark Mitchell's 2012 post on the kitlitart blog which has put me in a better frame of mind. Mark is so good at encouraging his students/readers and offering baby steps through the process. So hopefully following his wisdom I'm going to be a proud owner of a full-sized dummy by May 5th!!

My biggest challenge is not letting the rest of my responsibilities take over my drawing time. Lately life continues to steal that time away. Where are you finding time to illustrate? Do you get up early? Stay up late?...I'm curious.

(loving this sketch by Mark Mitchell)

Wishing the rest of you challengers luck over the next 5 weeks!!

LT