Sunday Share: Building Your Children’s Illustration Portfolio & Embracing JOMO

Use what you have!

In this one;

1. Embrace JOMO (The Joy of Missing Out)

2. Ten Minute Artist Prompt

3. Sundays Share

Happy Sunday,

JOMO

For the past 5 years, I’ve been taking courses and seminars.

This might be a Skillshare course, 5-day email course or a multi-day event! And I’ve gotten the ROI from each of them. And I’m always looking for that next area to grow, that next skill to add.

And there is no end to that.

Sometimes…

That feels like a bad thing, oh man, now I need to learn this next thing, urgh!

And I think that is a faulty mindset that is based on this idea that one day I will be complete. One day I will know all the things, and everything will be easy. Or if I just get this one skill then I will be content

Ofcourse you won’t we love to grow and there is no end to that, but…

Pace yourself!

Don’t go at somebody else’s pace, and don’t try to keep up with all the things it’s literally impossible.

Learn to be intentional, figure out what you need, invest in that, then use it! When I took

Lilla Rogers

, ‘my year of artschool’, I got so much out of it, there was way more to get through than I could in a year, but I didn’t make completing every module my goal.

This is not school.

But I did make it my goal to squeeze out everything I needed out of it, in some modules I followed every instruction to a T. In other’s I customised it for what I needed. If you’ve heard of FOMO, you might have heard of JOMO too, the nicer twin sister! The Joy of Missing Out.

There’s only so much you can fit into a day, a week a month, a year.

Make sure you’re making the most of what you already have.

Imagine a 3 year old with a great toy looking at another kid’s toy wanting that instead… sometimes I’m that 3 year old. You got to learn to play well with your own toys. Be a master at them. You can have a storeroom full of junk, or you can have one worn out basketball.

I’m writing this today as a reminder to myself, to fully use what I have be for converting the next shiny thing.

But also because I know I’m offering you a lot, and I will continue too, but I want to make it clear I’m not pressuring you, I’m inviting the people who need it right now, and if that’s not you, then it’s just for you to know it’s there when you need it.

JOMO: Play well with your on toys and experience the Joy of Missing Out!

TEN MINUTE ARTIST PROMPT

How can you play better with the toys you already have

Is there a book you should finish reading before buying a new one?

An art gym workshop replay that you could do?

A sketchbook that is begging to be filled?

A tennis racquet…

Make a list of 3-6 of your favourite ‘toys’ you’re not using well. Decide which of these toys will serve your needs best right now. Schedule play time today or in the coming week to use them.

In the comments, share what you picked!

Sundays Share

Anny Chen

is a Ten Minute Artist.

She read a post and has been drawing everyday(ish) for 500+ Days. During that time she’s found her agent, discovered stories and characters, and built an amazing portfolio.

She shares so much about her art journey on her LinkedIn, great follow.

She’s created a guidebook about putting together a Children’s Portfolio and it’s so complete and helpful, easy to follow and offers great tips, about things you might not even think about for instance the proportions of kids bodies and faces at different ages and how to get it right every time, or composition tips, and so much more.

There’s so much to say about this topic, but having it in a handy guidebook, is so useful. I bought it as soon as it was available and am going to use it to guide my next few portfolio pieces.

I find peer learning one of the most effective ways to learn, because:

1. It’s realtime

2. It broadens your perspective

3. And most importantly it fills in your blindspots.

Get Anny’s Guidebook. (She doesn’t know I’m telling you about it)

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If you’ve made something you want to tell the community about, the Chat is a great place to tell people about it, if you are a paid subscriber you have the ability to start chat’s go ahead and tell us what you’re doing, it’s a great way for me to learn about what you do for future Sunday Shares too!

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This week we’ve been doing drawings inspired by the last

Art Gym: Live Drawing Workshops & Illustration Tutorials

session, plus some of the final pieces from our Hobbit series:

I started with the simple human form (shapes and lines), then used a dog reference image to trace the dog’s form over the frame, and then I went back to the original reference to add the uniform and helmet in the final trace. -

Sonya Hammond

Drawing the characters with short limbs playing sports is challenging for -

Yumiko Kitazono

Can’t lie, I’ve been waiting for this one. I did draw a lot of horses when I was a kid, but I probably drew way more dinosaurs and dragons haha. I decided to bejewel Smaug and pose him in a very proud way as he described himself to Bilbo. -

Selina Silvas

Basketballspielerin im Angriff -

Roswitha Lautenschläger

First time to be here! -

Junco

Jason Chatfield

👀

I'm finding these poses very difficult, especially keeping the proportions right. I spend a lot more than 10 mins on each and I'm not happy with most of them. But I persevere, trying to get better. I'm now using a character for a book I'm thinking of.

Virginia Neely

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