Portfolio Updating Makes Ray a Dull Boy

I’ve spent a fair amount of time the last three or so days working on my portfolio. My linework has gotten a lot better and my color sensibilities have matured a good measure over the last three years. Adding older pieces to round out my portfolio really kills me. I figured, what the hell, I ought to revisit some of these pieces and bring them more in line with my current capabilities. A sort of George Lucas-ing of my old pieces. I redid small bits of linework and updated the colors a tad on the following images (And a few more on my Flickr stream, but I’ll spare you all of them).

In the above recolor, I’m attempting to work some texture and soft shading in with my linework. It’s got a ways to go, but I like the results of the experiment.

While doing this, however, I got stuck in a bit of a rut. Being bombarded by all your foibles over the last few years can hit a guy in his ego! Sometimes, when I need to shake off the cobwebs and get my head back into a creative space, I do something outside of my comfort zone. In this instance, I made a set of “watercolor” tools in Manga Studio and did some portraits of friends. Here’s one such attempt:

I really like the result. I’m just not sure what to do with it. I’ve worked as an art director in the past and I know that if I saw this sitting with the rest of the pieces in my portfolio, I’d be a bit confused. I think consistency of style is important in the way an illustrator markets themselves. I’m a brand, more or less, and there are certain expectations of me. Perhaps I can use it in one of my comics that I’m working on? Maybe I need a pseudonym, eh? Hah.