Today is my first day back in the freelance game. Tell all your book authors to get familiar.

What I’m working on currently is …

• Live Demos, Crits, and Discussion with Awesome Horse Studios (submit your work for crit at WIP Nation!)
• the Baby’s First Book of Zombies project
• a terrific mentorship with the incomparable Rebecca Guay
• and blogging for the new Best of Illustration rag, Illustration Age, with a great team led by the freelance champion of the world, Thomas James

To celebrate, I drew this hyena

They sleep during the day. They awaken at night. They are among us, and yet not quite fully human. It’s a … ZOMBIE! No, wait, .. it’s a BABY! … Huh?

A Baby’s First Book of Zombies is a new book for young children and their parents, from illustrator Marc Scheff (< -- me) and author Justin Reich. The book playfully explores the parallels between babies and zombies and the process by which parents slowly become zombies during their first year of parenthood. By alternating between scenes which are very silly and scenes that are just a little bit creepy, the book helps young children begin to learn the joys of incorporating monsters into their imaginary worlds.

Get the book, personalized zombie drawings,
and more on Kickstarter >>

From Alex:

These downloads are designed to give the artist a solid yet quick understanding of basic to intermediate digital painting techniques. Each video runs approximately 55 minutes, and comes with a different set of brushes as well as final images. Commentary is provided over the entire duration of all videos, giving the viewer a solid understanding of what is being instructed.

You can grab the videos here, and see more of Alex’s work here.

We artists have to be on the facebook, the twitter, the G+, the DA, cghub, behance, our blogs, portfolios, and more. We have to be everywhere because in our world anyone can be a client. Personally, I try to tweet about stuff I like, more than just me. If I see a pretty thing, I typically put it up somewhere and link back to the creator. I’ve made some good friends this way, and people have sent me some pretty things in return, and I reposted, and around it goes.

The other edge of that sword is that as soon as you update your status or tweet that photo, that information is out in the world. Someone can retweet, repost, remix, cut, copy, quote, and paste. Any and all of this can be done out of context. but more importantly, your future client might see it and decide to not become your future client because you posted that picture from that party you went to where you did that thing you don’t really remember.

My basic rule for the internet: don’t say it unless you want EVERYONE to know you did. They might, someday.

But hey, you don’t have to be a square, man. We’re ARTISTS, we’re supposed to wave that freak flag a little. If you look hard enough you can probably find some photos of me in a cape and little red shorts (you don’t really have to look that hard).

My best advice is to get out there, but make sure you’re saying stuff that you think is interesting and that you think others will too. And if you want to post baby pics or a summary of what you just ate for breakfast, I recommend using your basic friends-only FB account. I have very few clients who care that this cheese is delicious or are avid followers of my son’s recent abilities in using a spoon.

While I’m at it, did you notice the ways you can keep in touch with me over there on the sidebar of my journal? Check it out.

I post updates primarily on:

Twitter
Facebook
DeviantArt
GooglePlus

And finally, if you know of other people who post good, useful, pretty things, please tell me on my Twitter.

You can order yours here.

<– Click to enlarge.

If you missed it, you can download the video here.

The PROJEKT interview: http://theprojekt.artsprojekt.com/post/10771919930/artist-proof-interview-with-artist-marc-scheff

Download the app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/artsprojekt/id433998481?mt=8

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ARTSPROJEKT
Twitter: http://t.co/1pWhvttq

Watching one tonight while I did a quick 40minute sketch of a waterfall. Landscapes are admittedly a weak point. I can hit the basics, but there are subtleties of light and atmosphere that just require more practice. Here are two progress shots from a quickie.

Edit: