I am embarking on a new trip, not a physical trip but rather a personal set of goals to focus on myself as an artist, to expand my portfolios and to hopefully in the process gain gallery representation, and illustration work. I have given myself a broad goal of being able to make a substantial livable income from my art in I choose to do it full time within 2yrs. I am taking the first steps for this by doing research.

There is an insane amount of talent out there. I have spent the day going from one illustrator’s/artist’s site to another, lost in virtual reality of skill, hoping all of the world, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, USA and so many more places. Unique, different, strange, beautiful it seems that there is nothing left untried, unused.

During this exploration I have discovered a few things about illustration, is it seems most people either work entirely digitally, or they sketch and scan to Photoshop and then color digitally. It seems very few illustrators work 100% in traditional mediums, but a few do. One advantage of digital is that it can be easily and quickly corrected with small changes that a client wants, another advantage is that the color will be correct (more then likely) for traditional printing.

My conclusion is that I do need to learn more about Photoshop, some of the tricks etc…and practice with coloring digital, perhaps also learn Illustrator. Another conclusion I have made is that I still love working in traditional mediums, doing my x-ray work I work primarily digitally though of course I am working with photography and scanned items putting it all together, in that process I sometimes forget how much I love the slop of paint, the mess, the layers. But working digitally also has its advantages and I plan to do some more exploring with this technique, in the process I am hoping that I will discover some new tools for my x-ray work as well. Since I have some new plans for some of that style along with expanding my illustration portfolio. There is a lot more research to do. A huge amount of work to accomplish in a very short period of time, particularly since for the next 7-8 months I am still in school completing my MBA. I have done a ton of new drawings that I am scanning and updating so take a look at my illustration tab to see what I have been up to.

One of my next steps is to look for a mentor in the art world some that can give me good criticisms, yet still support and encourage. Someone that is willing to share the things they have learned, and push me to grow and expand my style. I am not sure how to go about this besides to write a lot of people I admire and hope one takes pity on me and agrees to mentor me. So the word is out officially, I am looking for an illustration/art mentor. I am scared but I said it so here we go off on the search. Do you think I will succeed?