Painting Blues and Portfolio Prep

I was recently at a rough spot with my work where I would find myself thinking "it's time to sit down and do some artwork"...and that's as far as I would get. There was one day where I spent a good 6 hours sitting in front of my computer, stylus in hand, scribbling random nothingness on a blank Photoshop canvas just getting more and more frustrated that I couldn't come up with anything I liked. I had no real direction in mind, no focus, and I felt like that was the biggest part holding me back. Most of the time, when I sit down to do a portfolio piece, I don't ever think about what I should do, I just hop right into working because I usually end up feeling like I'm just wasting time if my hand isn't drawing something. I decided to take a few days off to get out of my head and stop getting so anxious about not getting anything done and I decided I need to come up with a real work-plan in order to maximize my productivity.

After reading up some of the posts from Jon Schindehette's online Portfolio Building Class on ArtOrder, I took a serious look at my portfolio and tried to figure out what I need to do to start advancing in my career the way I want. I realized that I as much as I say that I want to work for Paizo and D&D, my portfolio doesn't really show that I want that at all. So I decided I'm going to make every piece I do for a while to be focused at the needs of Paizo and D&D.

Owlbear

The above image is the first piece I created with this new perspective in mind, and my attitude about working is getting better and I don't feel so lost anymore. I hope you enjoy the piece and can see where I'm trying to go with it. I'm already working on the next one and I hope to have it done soon so I can post it up. Thanks for stopping by.