I realized after submitting for a pin-up art gig...that I have no pin-up girl illustrations as examples.

Not my best work EVER, but for a few hours of work from start to finish, it's about the best I can do.

(Because Bill Bodden  [ billzilla  ] started this and whatever Bill does I have to do as well...because I roll like that.)

Counting only from July 31st to Today...

I have completed the following:

12 Full Page Illustrations (Published)
8 Half-Page Illustrations (Published)
47 Quarter-Page Illustrations (Published)
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67 Paid Projects

Unpaid projects: 12

Personal projects: 19

In 26 Weeks, that is 3.8 Illustrations / week. (This is taking in to account communication time, getting approvals at various stages of the project). Not bad. I can do better.

Publishers this year: (Contracts signed, work completed within this year, or scheduled for 2009)
Rogue Games
One Bad Egg, LLC
Catalyst Game Labs, LLC
Hero Games
Crafty Games
Atlas Games
Flames Rising. com
Various small press publishers and e-zines.

Next Year:
I have a few things lined up for January (I'm already working on them, trying to get a little ahead of the curve).
Looking to do some more work for myself, fill out the portfolio with stuff Art Directors want to see rather than necessarily published works (as a lot of that is what that particular AD wanted to see. Need to get back on my follow-up system, hammering out follow-up emails to everybody and their brother. I'd like to keep my schedule filled up about a month in advance at all times if at all possible. It'll be nice though to get to post a lot of my work up finally (as it hits the publication date). Ironically as a lot of it gets published, it's already old and my skills have already surpassed it (this is one of the reasons for doing some stuff for me, it hits the gallery ASAP and is the current skillset).

Conventions coming up, and I need to get my schedule sorted out.
More social networking. More SEO stuff. More fishing for work in every niche I can find. Need to expand my client-base. Hopefully shifting gears a bit to the paperback/ novels market.

How is this all possible?
My wife. Straight up. If it weren't for her working at the Sheriff's Dept I'd end up going back to IT and being miserable, doing odd bits of art here and there and that's about it. One of the keys I've learned this year is that when I can do this full-time, every day, I learn a LOT faster and improve almost overnight. The work I did last year and even early to middle of this year is absolute shite in comparison to what I can do right now. All of this from having my hands in it, every day, and learning a new trick or tip with every illustration I do. There's just no substitute for drawing and working in Photoshop every single day. All of this thanks to an awesome wife who affords me this luxury.

There is something awesome about being able to scratch a project off the work-board as "completed" and move on to the next one.

For me, I have a dry erase board sitting in front of me where I keep track of my projects and deadlines. This morning I completed one task and am moving on to the next.

When I'm working on a project, I give it 100%. Every time. No such thing as half-assing Project A to knock it off the list so I can get to the juicy Project B. I do sometimes have to put aside non-paying work in favor of paying work, but I don't cheap out on quality at all. Not ever. The way I look at it: if it has my name on it (or it's credited to me) I need to do work I'm proud of. MY NAME IS ON IT!

I love my job.

One biggie illustration done, came out all right. Not great. Not satisfied on an academic level. Client very happy, so I win regardless. Beat my deadline. Largely I had some issues with the way the composition came together, especially the colors. (I'm almost never satisfied with my work anyhow, so this should all be old news)

My schedule for December is booked solid. January is half full as well.  Yay Team!

Now I'm going to treat myself to a half-day, some housekeeping, some actual food and prepping for some D&D.

It's the 31st and I have uploaded new art to the gallery:
http://www.team-preston.com/words/?page_id=6

Here's one of the images:

Enjoy!