To close out 2020, we invited SVSLearn students to share a piece that they created in 2020 and how SVSLearn has helped them to improve. This month’s special edition Featured Student post features 20 students. Enjoy!

Miranda Hoover

Instagram: @mirananemone

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

I never had the confidence to pursue art as a career--which lead me to jobs I couldn't put my heart into. A few months ago, I discovered SVS through the 3 Point Perspective podcast, which inspired me to seriously consider art as my career. SVS has given me a sense of direction for my art and a safe space to receive feedback in the forum. I've seen my skills grow so much over the past few months by watching the courses and applying what I've learned to my entries for the monthly contests. 2020 has been a rough year, but being a part of SVS has helped me look forward and keep my chin up!

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

This one was a real challenge for me! I pushed myself to apply all the skills I'd been learning from the SVS courses including color contrast, shape design, and leading lines. The amazing feedback from the forum community also helped me out so much! This piece was an incredible milestone for me since it was selected as one of the winners of the June contest. For the first time, I felt truly confident that I could turn my art into a career if I keep working hard!

Angela Quezada Padron

Website: angelapadron.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

I have been rewatching some courses and watching new ones to refresh my skills. I've also popped into a few of the monthly illustration prompt reviews and have learned a lot from the critiques that Jake, Will and Lee give (due to my busy work schedule I haven't had time to participate but my New Year's Resolution is to start trying in January). I've also learned from others who have posted and commented in the forums. Having a community of illustrators in a virtual setting to learn from is very helpful; there are not many illustrators where I live, so I don't have anyone in my writing critique groups that can really help me critique and improve on my illustrations.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

I was becoming frustrated with my illustration style. It wasn't bold enough or standing out enough. It was too boring. Too many times, I had people push and pull me in different directions with their comments and suggestions as to where I should go with my style. So I listened to "How to Discover Your Style" with Lee White. I did the exercise of thinking about the artists and illustrators that I love or that I'm drawn to, such as Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Van Gogh, Eric Carle, Denise Fleming, and most of Rafael Lopez. When I narrowed it down to 10 pieces, as the exercise said to do, I realized that the common thread was bold colors and shapes and sometimes abstract concepts. Then I started sketching out some ideas for illustrations and experimenting with other ways to do collage. I feel like with the new illustrations and sketches I've done since watching that course, I have a better sense of the style that I want to keep developing. This piece is an example of me moving in that direction and I'm very pleased with it.

Carlianne Tipsey

Instagram: @carliannecreates

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

I found SVSLearn about a year ago when I was feeling really lost as an artist. I had been working professionally for a while, but I didn't I feel like I enjoyed the work I was making and didn't know who I was as an artist, or what my style was. The classes and community at SVSLearn helped me to rediscover my love of illustration and helped me find my personal voice as an illustrator. As a double bonus, following the advice in the Social Media class and the 3 Point perspective podcast, I grew my Instagram from 100 to 14,000 followers! I am so grateful that I found SVS, it really saved me as an artist.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

At the beginning of 2020 I was lucky enough to grab one of the personal critique sessions with Will Terry. He was extremely helpful in helping me figure out the path I wanted to walk on and how to focus my time and energy. One of his suggestions was to explore a broader value range in my illustrations (which I had been avoiding). To tackle his suggestion I took the light and shadow courses as well as the color courses and then used the monthly contest as the prompt to develop this piece. I really felt this piece was a moment of "leveling up" which is all thanks to SVSLearn.

Ciana Malchione

Instagram: @cianamacaroni

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

I only joined SVS a few months ago, but I’ve already made my way through several courses — Creative Composition, Children’s Books, Character Design, etc. Before I joined, I was struggling to teach myself everything on my own and getting caught up on where to start. As an aspiring picture book illustrator with no formal illustration education, I’ve really appreciated SVS as a resource. I’m still a beginner in this field, but SVS has helped me organize my creative process, which has been crucial.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

I followed the approach Anna Daviscourt laid out in her Character Design course, just with a different story (Goldilocks and the Three Bears) and time period (1940s). I played with simple shapes, proportion and wardrobe until I landed on these characters.

Shereen Said

Website: shereensaid.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
I started with SVS only a month ago, but I really was amazed by all those courses and information, I was and still not satisfied with my style and feels that something is missing, so I found the course of Lee White how to find your style and yes it helped me a lot to figure out what I like my style to look like, and now I decided I will start all from the very beginning to improve my skills.

How did SVSlearn impact the creation of this piece?
This piece is the first one I did after Lee White`s course finding your style, and it is some how to close to the style I like.

Lisa Rush

Website: lisarushgallery.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
SVS has so helped me to improve this year, I have printed off a check list of Lee's and use it when I start an illustration, especially thumbnailing, it has propelled my work! And I still use the idea of "puzzles for a dumb guy" from the ideation class.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
SVS was the reason for the creation of this piece. I submitted earlier to the monthly contest with Lee's prompt word "superstition." It is completely different now to what I submitted. I went back using David Hohn’s perspective class to work on the clock. And re-fleshing out the character was a combination of classes: Jake's character class, Will's lessons on color, etc. And the birds were an inspiration from another artist, since Lee White said we can stand on the backs of giants. Cheers everyone!

Dorothea Schmuck

Instagram: @dorothea_schmuck

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
I started with SVSLearn at the end of last year and was amazed at all the resources offered. But as I was starting a new job and realised that I hardly had time to spend working on it beginning of February, I stopped my subscription. But one thing that stuck with me was making the characters pop. Before, they often did not stand out as much as they should have. I often did not have enough contrast. Now I joined again in November and took the class for character creation, and I love how much variety in characters I will be able to create for future projects. Additionally I learned a lot about tackling bigger projects. The importance about the planning phase and setting up deadlines.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
On this one I really looked into having the characters pop and getting the contrasts right.

Fanny Wen

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

I learned a lot about children's illustration through SVSLearn’s online courses. I had felt so frustrated before because my style mostly looks like animation style. I know I still have many things to improve and I will keep learning through SVSLearn. Thank you SVSLearn!

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

This piece I recreated from one of my old works. I learned a lot about basic character design that I never knew before through Anna Daviscourt's course about character design. There is so much fun in learning with SVSLearn! Thank you!

Juventia Yuli

Portfolio: behance.net/juventia_

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

There are a lot of things that I didn't recognize before I joined this SVS class, no wonder I look at my drawing and realize there was something missing from it. I tried to fix it starting from the basic things and fundamentals such as the background story of each piece. After trying some sketches and artworks, I looked at it again and was amazed that I actually enjoyed it and am sure that this is the career path that I want to take. My artwork becomes more lively, meaningful, and beautiful in terms of color and drawings.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

In this piece, the story was about a family capturing their togetherness in times, such as now during the pandemic, which might be unfavorable. After deciding the story, I decided what might be my focal point, how my colors would enhance the focal point, and importantly how the audience looks at it. Thank you SVSLearn can't describe how much I'm thankful to find SVSLearn!

Kristin Wauson

Website: kristinwauson.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
COVID has made this year difficult and discouraging. My first book project went out on submission at end end of 2019 and and by the time publishers started responding in 2020, COVID was already starting to have a negative impact on the book industry. Any interest that was shown seemed to fizzle out as meetings were being canceled and employees were being furloughed. This year, I had a hard time finding the motivation and focus to create. It felt like ... what's the point? But SVS was like the old friend I could count on to keep me grounded. When I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, SVS was there with a new class or a skill or a challenge for me to work on. When felt isolated I could turn on the 3 Point Perspective Podcast and my friends Will, Jake and Lee were there to cheer me up. If not for SVS, I would have made a lot less work this year and if you don't make work, you can't improve.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
This is a piece I made for Folktale Week based on a story from John Bauer's Swedish Folktales book. The style I'm working in now is something I've been developing for a long time, but Will Terry is the first person who introduced me to the idea of mixing traditional and digital in his mixed media class. I still use the texture downloads he provided for the class in almost all of my work, including this one. I keep thinking I should make my own, but I worry I won't like them as much. Don't tell anyone. 

Shawn Turek

Website: drawnbyshawn.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

The main way I've made use of SVS this year has been submitting artwork to the monthly contests. Getting critiques from professionals during the monthly critique arenas has probably been the most valuable thing for me. It is also interesting to see how others approach the prompt and how the judges react to those entries too.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

While I do know that things like composition and color choices were impacted by what I either picked up in SVS courses or in monthly contest critiques, the thing that stays with me the most is the idea that WHAT you draw is more important that HOW you draw it. I'm not exactly sure where I heard that – an SVS course, the podcast, or maybe during the critiques. In fact, the sentiment has probably come up in all three places. So when I'm brainstorming ideas for the monthly prompt I'm always trying to find a unique or interesting take on it. For me personally, the April 2020 prompt was a good example of this. I discarded a number of early ideas, but I eventually landed on this one that I was pretty happy with. (For reference, the April 2020 prompt was "Lisa's robot invention worked great, until it did this...")

Dave Leek

Instagram: @daveleekart

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

Having access to SVSlearn has helped me improve by having a community to feel a part of and to bounce ideas back and forth with. On top of that there has been plenty of motivation by seeing some fellow artists who are really great and almost painting a picture of where I’d like to move towards with my craft.

The Curriculum addition this past year has been great as well. It’s nice to get a clear cut direction and order of sequence as to where to develop your skills as recommended by three accomplished illustrators.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

Well, first off, this was created for one of the SVS Critique Arena submissions so without SVS, I wouldn’t have even been prompted to make this cover mock up. Secondly, this piece was impacted by all of the techniques I’ve learned so far from the various courses through SVS as well as Jake, Lee and Terry and their individual YouTube videos. It was fun to play with some newly learned skills involving shadow and light, foreground and background and even hidden foreshadowing (the witch in the clouds).

So far it’s been a blast picking up new skills and working to apply them in every new piece that I design. SVS has been for a while, and will continue to be a strong influence in the work I create for years to come. Thanks guys.

Marek Halko

Instagram: @daveleekart

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

I think, i have learned the most this year from Lee White's class on Storytelling techniques. To understand that story is the driving mechanism of every part of the picture, helps me a lot with thumbnail, character and prop design and with color and light.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

This picture was originally done for the Inktober challenge (prompt SLEEP). Even though done digitally, it was heavily influenced by some techniques in new SVSLearn classes for inking. They were a big push to do Inktober this year.

Norman Morana

Website: normanmoranaillustration.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

Thanks to SVS I've been putting more energy into questioning the concept and story of an illustration, in order to make sure it's solid. There has been a lot of joy in creating and solving the visual puzzles that are a part of making an illustration. Thinking more about concept and story has not only helped me in my own process but also when analyzing and studying the work of another illustrator.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

Through the Podcast and Critique Arenas, SVS has really enforced the importance of the "the viewer" and thinking about what they're seeing when they look at a piece. I was constantly asking myself that question with planning out this illustration. I wanted the viewer to have fun putting together what happened to Lisa's Robot in this garage and why she looks worried about these tire tracks.

Li Xin

Website: lixin.no

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
I learned so much by hanging out at SVSLearn forum. The forum provides a place to discuss the process of making art. It is not only a place for me to get critiques of my artwork, but also helped me to shift away from the obsession of presenting the final polished artwork (on social media), to focus on the joy of making. I am always so happy that I can show someone a thumbnail, and we start a meaningful conversation based on that. Sometimes the topic went to the direction that I have never thought about, and made me learn something new. In some ways, art making itself becomes a conversation, a way for me to connect with other human beings.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
The piece was created for a competition hosted by www.picturehooks.org.uk. I posted the WIP on the SVSLearn forum, and I have received feedback on composition, value, color, character posture and even draw-overs during my process of making this image. All the conversations really helped me to complete, and improve this piece.

Freya Chakour

Instagram: @fyra.c

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
At the beginning of the year I discovered the podcast "three point perspective" and that was a total eye opener. I studied fine arts, but after that I realized that I would rather work in the field of illustration. It felt like a complete new start, even though after years I finally found my way back to what I never stopped doing as a child: drawing. Except for the fact that I wanted to improve my drawing skills and try out conventions and would love to illustrate childrensbooks, I had no idea what possibilities there were, how anything works in this field, which areas might suit me and the podcast helped me a lot with all these questions.

After I was done with the podcast, my hunger for information was just awakened. I now knew what I wanted to learn and I must say that all the courses I have seen at SVS have been extremely helpful. I love the "Portfolio Perfection Course" and "Creative Composition" so it really was time that I finally learn how to use perspective and draw backgrounds, and understand color theory - so I'm currently working through all the courses on these topics.

The other day I said to my husband: "This is exactly how I imagined studying at a university when I was at school. It is a wonderful feeling to want to learn on your own initiative and to know what you are learning for. "

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
The monthly competitions are extremely important to me. They give me a framework and the opportunity to compare my work with others. It is so fascinating to see how different topics can be interpreted, how different styles are and I learn a lot from the other members here.

The book cover of "The Wizard of Oz" has changed my work a lot.I have never put so much work into an illustration, researched, thumbnailed, and really tried to stay focused until the end. To push the image as far as I could. I am super proud that I have achieved this.

Chris Philpot

Instagram: @chrisphilpotpicturebooks

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
I'm new to the entire world of picture book illustration so the emphasis on story has been a revelation. It's not just about style or technique (though I have lots of room to improve there too of course.) I've learned how important it is to have others confirm the storytelling is working. Lots of ideas work in my brain but don't read correctly to everyone on their own. I've also learned I need to build real rest into my schedule after listening to the burnout podcast episode.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
I tried to be as direct and simple with the story as possible. I tried to make the composition interesting without distracting the viewer from the important story elements. It's not my most ambitious effort, but I think it's the most successful monthly contest entry so far.

Heather Boyd

Website: heatherboydillustration.wordpress.com

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

SVSlearn's class Light and Shadow by Lee White opened me up to stylizing my work that helps me best tell the story I want to tell. Also understanding local tone/colour was incredibly helpful. I am finally getting the hang of light on dark and vice versa. I appreciated David Hohn's and Will Terry's classes on perspective which has helped me understand how to find the horizon line whether looking at an image or in real life. Overall I have been able to begin a style that I enjoy and can develop further as I have transitioned back to traditional tools. I have been encouraged by SVSLearn and forum members to develop a style that I can reasonably reproduce.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

This piece was created for Will Terry's October feast work. I treated this work like a Slowvember work. I made thumbnails and I had just recently started the prop class and thought I could transfer the designing of props to the designing of characters. I found pigs and wolves designed by others and played around with what I liked and what I'd do different. I also set up goals like I wanted characters that interacted with each other and I wanted to push gestures. I actually did 4-5 colour studies and found a minimal pallet was best and I used a lot more pencil than I had first thought. Adding the shadows under the characters was the final piece but I didn't want it everywhere (thanks Lee White).

Denise Tonner

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?
SVS courses are so helpful and I have recommended them to many friends. I like the fact that the lessons are always there and they get updated. The critiques in the interactive classes and the contests are great. I find that problems are often not visible to me until someone points them out. I am developing a better eye.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?
I had never tried this medium before (screenprinting ink) and I love it. The video took me step by step through the process.

Laura Alderson

Instagram: @lauraintorino

How has SVSLearn helped you improve this year?

First of all, I have tried to watch as many Critique Arenas as possible. Trying to guess which illustrations will make it into the Final 16, which ones will win, and then comparing my guesses with what actually gets chosen and listening to the subsequent live critiques has been very educational. The take-home has been: story, story, story!!! And focus in order to tell the story! Critique Arena occurs fairly late in the evening where I live, so sometimes afterwards I am so geared up I can’t sleep, but whenever possible I like to watch it live, and vote, regardless.

Since I knew from Critique Arena that I needed work on storytelling, I took the Sterling Hundley Ideation course this year. I have also been working through the Foundations course track, recently completing the entire gesture and perspective courses, and watching large parts of other courses as I have had time.

In addition, I am currently working on setting up a website and so have used the portfolio course checklist to decide what gaps I need to fill. It turned out that I needed a narrative sequence, so I used Slowvember to work on one of three pieces for this sequence. In the process my Slovember illustration became a Draw 50 Thingspiece (actually 25, but that was an option in the course) which subsequently turned it into a Slow-cember piece, but I’m experimenting and learning a lot as I go.

So far my illustration journey feels like the golf swing that Will talks about, and has for about four years now. I love a challenge, but sometimes wonder whether my style and process will ever gel, especially since I am not young. Late last year I competed Lee's Dream Portfolio Exercise to that end and have been referring to it this year. But I have faith that through the process of intelligent practice and hard work, my style and process will eventually come together. The main thing that keeps me going when I get discouraged is that I do see progress!

Another recent thing that is helping me to keep faith in the process is the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, which Jake recommended on the Three Point Perspective Podcast episode Books Every Illustrator Should Read. It has a lot of insight into the nature of our fears about the art process, and since people working alone sometimes can feel like they’re stabbing around in the dark, that is very helpful.

Next year’s goal is to continue with this year’s goals, but also to work faster. I’m working on streamlining my process, because being slow makes me miss so many opportunities! (Like using my Slowvember piece for this gallery, for example.) But I know some of the slowness is because I experiment so much with style and technique, so I have faith that if I keep putting in the work, eventually things will settle out.

How did SVSLearn impact the creation of this piece?

This piece was created for Childhood Week (the prompt was “Mission”), but using a lot of ideas from SVS Learn. I put it on the forums and on my critique group early on to see whether the story read clearly, because it was tricky to portray a pretend game and yet make it clear what was happening. When I got feedback that it didn't read well, I completely ditched my first composition and came back with a lower camera angle that increased the sense of urgency (I don't remember which course that was from, maybe Creative Composition, but I know I learned it on SVS!).

A major goal besides storytelling and increased efficiency (mentioned above) has been to work on complex environments, so I took the Building Backgrounds live class with Brian Ahjar last year. This piece and my Slowvember piece this year both use a lot of ideas from that class. I exaggerated the gestures more than I usually do to in order to enhance the storytelling (Building Backgrounds class), but in the end, I also hit on the idea of using the blanket to double as pretend waves (Ideation class).

I also used the idea of grouping items according to color and value from Draw 50 Things. And the perspective courses helped a lot as well.

But the real test is in the viewer: Can you tell what is going on here, and does it make you care? That is the main thing I have learned from SVS this year, and what I tried to keep in mind most of all while creating this piece.

Thanks for sharing y’all!