One of my Art Directors recently gave me some friendly advice.  He said that I should include more environmental work in my portfolio.

I have always favored the characters in my paintings and I often diminish or overlook the environment entirely.  Its not that I don’t imagine the characters’ environments in my mind, I just simply haven’t spent much time developing them visually.  To be honest, I think I contain a sordid combination of laziness and fear of failure (neither one is a proper complement to good art making).  The good news is, I am getting over it quickly.  In fact, I find myself developing an insatiable addiction to environments.

The last few personal pieces that I have finished have therefore featured an environment in which the character would most often reside.  Home.  It seems that I can really get interested in the details of an environment if I am able to consider how it informs or reveals the character design.