Yesterday I spoke at a high school in Calgary, giving the students a quick rundown of my creative career and things I wish I'd known when I was their age.
Here's a summary of key points I covered:
• My career is nothing like what I envisioned when I was young, but key parts of it shaped my future.
• Success is separate from satisfaction with the work. Sometimes they line up, but just as often they don't.
• Success has more to do with luck than any of us would like to admit, but persistence and being great to work with gives you the most spins at the roulette wheel to see how it goes.
3 characters floating in a sky surrounded by a golden glow: in the middle, a young Black woman in armor and red cloak, holding a sword and looking powerful and majestic. She is flanked by a young White man also in armor, drawing a sword; and by a young woman of color in a white scaled suit. All three are looking at the viewer.
The Divine Trio
Commissioned character art for "The Last One" and "The Cruel Dawn" by Rachel Howzell Hall (@rachelhowzell.bsky.social ) 💙
Ate the doner kebab. Boy I am alive!
✨ quote repost with your art that has stars ✨
Aww thank you selina, I hope I can show them soon. My NDA folder is criminal...
I finalised three very complex illustrations this week.
Over the next two weeks, I have four more to complete.
I think I deserve a doner kebab today...
The violent jump from 2019 to 2025
The violent jump from 2019 to 2025
In working on the no gen AI directory, I've looked at a LOT of artist portfolios. Like, 350+ of them at this point. And I thought I'd compile what I was seeing done right, what surprised me (positively), and then what I was commonly seeing done wrong. Use this to tweak your own portfolio!
A group of knights on their horses galloping toward the viewer at dusk
My main character injured and very angry, facing some kind of undead creature
Standing in the middle of the street, Elhyana is holding a wanted poster she just ripped from the town board, she looks pissed at the rendition of her face
In a crowded market in a little town, Arthur is looking at a merchant's product, oblivious to what Elhyana is doing walking past him and stealing one of his map in a very slick way
Hey #PortfolioDay !!
I'm Elhyana, french fantasy illustrator, available for work
I also work on my little book project "Tales of the Knights" on my free time
Portfolio: elhyana.carrd.co
E-mail: elhyanart@gmail.com
-Available for work-
Determined Iteration
MTG: Secrets of Strixhaven
AD: Deborah Garcia
#mtg #MTGStrixhaven #MTGArt
Here’s just ONE of the artists Marvel Studios let go today:
Wesley Burt, a brilliant veteran, one of the best in the industry. He made the viral Fantastic Four Valentine’s day card!
He was also pivotal for the look of many films and shows like for example Loki, Black Panther, Avengers and so on!
Another part of Marvel shutting down the Visual Development Team is that Marvel got extremely restrictive of the work the team could show AFTER a project was released.
So this brilliant team could barely show and advertise the work they did. Making a layoff like this even worse.
Hi #PortfolioDay !
My name is Isa, and I am a German illustrator who works with Magic The Gathering, book publishers, and various other commercial clients.
Open for commissions 2026!
Isabeau.Backhaus@outlook.de
isabeaubackhausillustration.de
Hi !
#portfolioday
I'm a freelance artist working in the publishing industry and for Magic the gathering.
I love painting illustrations with movement and emotion.
Hiii #portfolioday!
I’m Quintin, I’m a fantasy illustrator, professor, and art director— currently spending most of my time painting for Magic: the Gathering and really neat book projects! 🖤
Thank you Nele,that means a lot to me that you recognize it. It try my absolute best to push myself to get better :).
Your art has always been an inspiration to me, ever since I started my own artistic journey. :)
Magic the Gathering Artwork 'Eccentric Arachnologist' Batcave influenced Strixhaven Professor with south asian feature and green violett pink dark fantasy clothes weaving a magic spell in green VFX to enlarge a spider on his hand. The students look shocked.
Book Cover Illustration in the world of Das Schwarze Auge. An Achmad'Sunni is looking to the viewer with a torch in her hand. Behind her is a heavy armoured byzantine looking dwarf and lizard folk mage, looking at ancient ruins of a long forgotten temple. Deep in the swamps behind a huge ancient temple complex with a serpent lurking in the shadows.
A digital painting in the style of old master. A still life painting with textured, heavy paintstrokes of a human skull in yellow tinted light. The image is called Vanitas.
Portrait painting of a fantasy medicus or doctor. Brown, short hair, beard, expensive and elegant clothes. He is looking at a glass sphere with ice crystals and cubes inside. It is night time, a window shows blue light. Candles in warm colors. A table with notes. A signet ring on his left pinky.
#Moin #PortfolioDay,
I'm a fantasy illustrator and concept artist based in Hamburg.
I specialize in characters, book cover, and trading card art.
You might know my work from Magic: The Gathering or Das Schwarze Auge. ✨
Open for new projects. 🎨
🌍 www.artstation.com/benmaier
✉️ ben.maier@gmx.eu
yeah I am a gold girly...
Oh danke das gehört auch zu einer meiner persönlichen Serien an der ich gerade arbeite : ). Da kommen noch circa 2-3 dazu.
Ohh thank you it is one of my personal series so I am happy that people seems to like it that much : )
Not doing #PortfolioDay this month but I'll do an #ArtShare to help other artists instead! I'll try to share as many as I can :)
⭐Post your #PortfolioDay post below showcasing your best art
⭐Do not post and leave, interact if you see something you like!
⭐Bonus points if you make dark fantasy :)
Cover illustration for the short fiction anthology Fusion Fragment, showing a young woman surrounded by falling mirror shards. Each mirror shard reflects a different eye, representing the other trapped women in this Blue Beard fairy tale retelling.
Close-up crop of the book jacket for "All that we See or Seem" by Ken Liu, published by The Broken Binding. The main character Julia, 9s surrounded by digital identities belonging to her represented as holographic faces. She's looking up at a towering city scape in teal and purples.
Personal portfolio piece, "The Defeat of Sauron" inspired by The Silmarillion. Luthien and Huan towering over Sauron the sorcerer, banishing him from Tol-in-Gaurhoth.
Interior illustration for "Fangs for Nothing"; a cozy scene of the witchy book club meeting and the silhouette of a man looming in the window.
Somehow, #PortfolioDay has returned
I'm Evelyne, illustrating book covers, endpapers and character art in acrylics - with a focus on high fantasy, vibrant sci-fi, and Gothic horror.
www.evydraws.com/portfolio
evydrawsillustration@gmail.com
Open for new work in the second half of 2026.
Aww thank you some are indeed new :).
ALWAYS SUPPORT REAL ARTISTS. SOME CAN ABSOLUTLY BLOW PEOPLES MINDS
