After a first week full of excitement and disappointment and a day or two of working through those emotions (a great lesson in not letting it get to you), week two started with another great theme. This week was all about expressions and by the end we would all have a great piece of work showing our characters range of emotions.

Working on my character also included some rework based on the feedback of the review on Monday, and it was interesting to see the development of the characters and of my style. As I have not a super distinctive style yet, and like to experiment, I am curious where I will land in the end. Surely I will have to redo the first assignments to make everything more cohesive.

While sketching little faces with big eyes, I pondered about the review and about the amount of feedback we got. It was so much to take in, and so much that stuck with me. Creating my page, I had several lightbulb moments, and I felt something click regarding my drawing and my approach of the subject. I cannot quite grasp what it is, but I have been on a creative high since last week. And this is, despite being sick (the perks of having a toddler around) and being tired all day.

I sketched and doodled a lot, and came up with a first draft of what I wanted to do by Thursday evening.

I was surprised by the version of Erin that emerged. This is much more of a comic style than I usually have, but I went with it. I think, it has to do with the eyes. They have to be quite big for a child character, and so they came out very comic or animated like.

I took one expression at a time and started reworking them, bearing all the feedback in mind, and I also included bear. On Saturday morning, I had made it to this stage, where I was more or less happy with the faces, but not so happy with the layout and the page being so crowded. I left it for a while and did some other painting and some family time before coming back.

After submitting this to the amazing MATS Facebook group, I got some valuable feedback. It is just outstanding to have such a creative, encouraging and constructive community to work with. I went into phase three rework, cuddled up on the couch with tea and snacks (the stupid toddler virus was hitting hart by then).

This is the final piece I submitted to the gallery. I edited some faces, rearranged a lot and toned down the background colour. I was mostly happy with it. Initially, I thought about doing some more, but I tend to overwork things and get lost in the details. So I stopped at one point and just submitted it to the gallery. Erin’s face still does not feel like my style (the bear comes much easier) but I am gonna work on that this week.

The Review

Monday, October 23, 6pm was review time. And boy was I excited. The gallery was so full of goodness and amazing pieces by all my fellow MATS students. There would be so much great feedback again. And I was not disappointed. Even more so, because my piece was on Lilla’s Top picks slide sheet 🥳.

What I took away from this review:

1. Try even more to be my own creative self and do a piece that feels right for my portfolio (still take the feedback into account, but on a more technical level).

2. Create emotion and connection between the characters - make it believable.

3. Practice, practice, practice the small stuff - how does a child’s face look, what do they do with their body…

4. DO THE SQUINT TEST!

I am at awe how much I learn about creating children’s books, but also about myself. I’ve felt so much growths within these last two weeks, and it makes me so happy to have this opportunity of learning again.

From the sketchbook