This is a screen shot of my DA portfolio. The system for making one works pretty well, and it looks a lot better than the regular DA profile page. You get a lot of options to work with when you make the portfolio, like background color, text color, serif or sans serif type, and some layout options, but it's still pretty limited compared to designing a webpage in something like Dreamweaver. The main benefit of using the feature is how fast and easy it is to make the portfolio and edit it later. Since the editing tools are all built into the website you can make changes from any computer with internet access. You also get your own domain name even with the free version. There are some benefits to upgrading to the premium version, like unlimited gallery space and no DeviantArt logos, but I think the free version works just fine. I'm still planning on making my own website with Dreamweaver so that I have complete control over everything, but this works really well as a temporary site until I have the good one finished.
This is my fourth master study. The original is by Mikko Eerola. I found it at DeviantArt. My next project is going to be an environment concept, and I wanted to get the hang of painterly brushwork. The image below is a speed painting I did earlier in the class where I was experimenting with painterly oil brushes. I think I've made a lot progress working in this technique. The master study is obviously a huge improvement over the earlier speed painting.
I'm almost done with my third project. I finished painting the characters and decided on the original pencil lines over the blob brush lines. I improved the background some with more detailed clouds. I also tried making the characters in the back fade away into the smoke a little bit, but I'm not sure if it looks better this way or not.
This is what I have so far for my third project. Right now I'm using the original line drawing for the line work. I'm still working on inking the drawing in Illustrator with the blob brush. I started coloring in photoshop and didn't like the results I was getting, so I started all over in Painter X. Painter is really good for coloring this kind of work, it speeds up the process a lot as well. To finish the painting I still need to add the highlights and shadows, plus some detail work and maybe some textures. I was originally only planning on doing some vague cloudy shapes for the background, but now that I see it half done I'm wondering if that's going to work. It seems like it might need something else but I can't think of what that should be.
This is the progress I've made on my first project so far. It's actually almost done. I fixed the lightning effects, added more detail to the rocks and generally polished it up in most places. I also extended the light area of the fog up to the top left corner of the frame to keep it from becoming a dead spot in the composition.
This is my second project so far. I used the pen tool to trace the shapes and then made selections out of them to paint in. The biggest problem I've had so far with this project is the perspective of the reflection. I improved the perspective some by making a Sculpey model and then drawing from that. This took a very long time and only achieved moderately satisfying results as the perspective of the reflection and the car are still not quite accurate. I may try learning some 3D applications in the future to solve this problem better. I think what the painting needs now is just more refinement and detail. I might try introducing color into it before I'm done as well.
This is my third master study. The original image is by UdonCrew. I got it off of DevianArt.com. I'm planning on doing something with line work and cel shading for my next project. I used this example of those techniques just to practice the brush tool in illustrator. I ended up using the blob brush after practicing for awhile because it had more natural effects than the regular brush. I colored it in Photoshop. 
This is my second master study. I got the original image from Deviantart.com. The artist is Stanley "Artgerm" Lau. For this study I was trying to do basically the opposite of my last study. Instead of working on using brush textures, I'm trying to make smooth gradations that look like they make sense instead of producing the typical blurry photoshop look that so many digital paintings have. My next project is going to be a concept design for a futuristic looking car. I want to use metallic looking gradations like the study image without any brush work being visible. So far the technique I've been using for this effect is to simply use hard brushes when I'm working near an edge and then switch to a soft brush for the majority of an area. This technique works okay but I think there is probably more I can do to make it look right without wasting so much time going over the same area so manytimes to get it really smooth.
I started by blocking in the local colors as you can see in the image at the top. I've been working on color composition and lighting effects in the other one. The piece still needs a lot of work in those areas. 
This is my first master study(bottom right picture). The original painting at the top is by Andrew Hou and I got it off of CGhub.com. My first project is going to be a simple concept design for a fantasy character. The main thing that I want to get from this painting is the effect of the intense lighting from the lantern shining on the ragged fabric. The painting also has very hard edge looking brush marks that I like a lot. Most of my paintings tend to look to soft even though I have the hardness of my brushes set to 100%. I think the problem may come from building up too many transparent layers. I'm going to experiment with more opaque brush techniques to see if that works.
