Painting Progress

I've been painting the sketch of the swamp from my previous post. Below are a couple of versions along the way so far. I'm far from being done, but I'm having a great time with it.

And a little further along:

Here is the next scenery piece I'll be doing when the swamp is finished:

I may use the above as my postcard mailer if I am pleased with the outcome. 

Plans, Goals and Works in Progress

A fun personal project I've been working on

My goal is to be working as a full time freelance illustrator by the end of 2013. I have become spontaneously ambitious in the last few months; suddenly at the beginning of this year I felt the push to get serious about this, so here we go! 

Steps I've taken so far:

1. I have a continually growing mailing list of over 100 companies so far that I would like to do freelance work for. It is divided into 4 categories: Books, Magazines, Greeting Cards, and Organizations. 

2. I have a website that I'm happy with, finally.


Things I need to accomplish:

1. My current portfolio has a lot of gaps. As of now it is comprised of mostly zoological and editorial illustrations- I'm happy with the quality of the work, but I am capable of a broader range. My end goal is to be doing children's books, so there are some big holes needing to be filled. I am going to be adding:
                  - character sheets
                  - scenery illustrations (beginnings of one painting below)
                  - more narrative work

   Super excited to paint this!

2. Remake a promo mailer. The one I did in college is not so great. When this is done, I will send them out to magazine publishers to begin with.


3. Design my business materials--contracts, timesheets, invoices, etc. If you are looking for wonderful tips on starting up as an illustrator, I highly recommend Heather Castles' blog, especially her "Tips for Illustrators" page. She is a wealth of knowledge!


There are many more things I need to do and I will be documenting my journey on a monthly basis!