I received my first significant check from my first significant freelance job not too long ago... and then this morning i also received two copies of said work inside the pages of one of Paizos Pathfinder books. That came as a complete surprise as I didnt know id get to see the actual work in print form, that was pretty neat. In any case gave me an excuse and safe bet to show a piece from that art order: This was a half page illo wherein i had to show some creepy town just doing its creepy thang...
The funny thing about receiving this art job was that I consider myself primarily a character artist.... figurative work... and this piece which payed the best of the bunch had no mention of any characters... (obviously you see i snuck a partial one in :P) so it was both a surprise to get it given that my portfolio has no scenes in it nor really any backgrounds for that matter, but I also took it as a challenge and nod to the art director for seeing through just the surface details and into what i was capable of. :) This i hear is not quite the norm with ADs because they dont really care for guess work when choosing artists for their particular project(s). They want to see as close to what the art job requires as possible and hire therein accordingly...
In any case it was fun to push myself and I think it came out pretty decent and made me want to push myself further to better my backgrounds in pieces thereafter.
Ill probably post some more of what Ive been working on as they are being published soon... in the mean time when I have a chance, hopefully ill be able to whip out some new portfolio pieces as I really want in with some D&D action and or Magic.... maybe get in on some WOW bidness..... but ultimately some cover work for say maybe.... Tor? ... all in good time. ;)
