Weekend Scribbles

I spent the weekend with some old friends, made some new ones, and spent more money than I should have. I found time to put some visual notes down as I went, and the scan is below. The average size for these sketches is one square centimeter- I've really fallen in love with doing concept work at this size. As time becomes available I'll be transferring some of these to concept turnarounds as I prepare for IlluXcon in November. I'll be updating as I complete those pieces- I hope you stay tuned to see the finished work!
-Dan

Self.

The past few days made me really appreciate electricity.
To get myself back into the rhythm of working with the tablet, self portrait with flashlight.

July Colors Sketches

I havent been posting as much as I'd like, so to make up for it, I'm sharing some of the better sketches done on the DS.

Whitechip's Revenge

Part of a series of art for friends, this is for my good friend Jonathan Vair. Based off a character from one of his 3d paintings, Whitechip seems to always be in hostile environments that we don't get to know much about.

Process

As the campaign for a career continues, I find there is a lot I'm not doing efficiently as an artist. Because I (regrettably) spent the first 2 years of college as a graphic designer, the last two as a fledgling illustrator, and the middle two years as a web designer, my portfolio is broad and diverse but it isn't strong or professional (to my standards), and it doesn't represent me or the direction I want to go anymore.
This summer/fall is dedicated to building a portfolio strong enough to net me one of the 3 positions I'm eyeing currently. The first step towards that goal is to establish a reliable and effective process that gets me a solid sketch from which I can work.
I've been using a sketchbook in combination with a hacked Nintendo DS running Colors as a digital sketchbook. Shown below is the NDS with an in-process sketch.
Below that is a picture of my workspace- I have a solid view of the Appalachians from my seat (so i dont have to look at the screen while I read and re-read 'Generating Full Resolution Composite'), and I've been applying techniques I used to color t-shirt designs years ago to the early stages of my digital pieces. It's been fun and exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time. I'll hopefully post some Colors work this weekend, and ideally a finished piece towards the end of next week.