Very inspiring and deep interview with the founder of GNOMON school.
Of course, the focus is on digital art for entertainment industry but what he says applies to any person wanting to have a job as an illustrator. Hope you like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl37_C0OI0o

@tianlian Wow!!! Thanks! Yeah, as I was planning this illustration I did other sketches of the main character (the furry one catching the light). May be turning it into some story!

Thanks @TessaW
I am glad you liked it!

It was an idea me and my wife had. Creatures living in two different worlds, but somehow connected.

Finally finished this piece!

When is the deadline for the application?
If there is some time, you should create more concept art pieces and add them to your portfolio. If not, then just apply and don't worry. If you get it it's a "YAY!" If you don't get it it's a "continue doing/improving your art, keep your job (if you have one) and keep trying"

Hope your style fits the company style.

Also think about it in this way: if you have little experience in concept art and they were going to hire you and get you to start work on a good project this coming Monday (for wathever feature animation/movie or AAA game they may be producing), would you feel like you are able to do the job?

If you have little time to add some concept art to your portfolio, do it thinking about this situation. Because in the industry, you may be given 5hrs to finish a full piece for your team to add to the product or to give to some client. And if that is the potential case for this company, your portfolio should show them you can do it!

This is how the progress is going. I still have a lot that I want to work on the painting. Already took me about 12 hours (but spread over a few days).

Some crafting can be just technical. You just reproduce something, whether it came from your mind or someone else gave you the directions. For example, you sculpt dolls and make dozens of the same model to sell... Maybe some creativity process was involved in making the first doll or the concept drawing used for the sculpting.

In the case of the painter/illustrator. If you just decide that you want to copy something, like the face of someone in a photo or someone that is posing for you, then there is no creativity in your decision to make that (remember, you just said: "I am gonna draw you and that is it"). What can make some of these paintings/drawings valuable is the high level of technical work that goes into them.

If you decide to find something interesting, take a photo of that and draw it very realistically, your creativity is in finding the thing, not in drawing it, which just relies on the technical skill you have.

If you try to find new ways to solve a challenging drawing, even if it is going to be a realistic reproduction of a person face, finding the solution is the creative part of it. For example, you come up with the idea of using sand to "draw" a face instead of just oil-painting it. In this case the challenge could be something like "come with some new way to create an illustration".

If you have done hundreds of realistic paintings of human faces, you are good enough to not have to look at a reference to paint the next human face. You can start modifying it, adding flower, decorating... whathever, based on some criteria that you choose. That criteria and your capacity to modify the human face is your creativity. The drawing can still be realistic because your technique is realistic painting.

Creativity can be seem as a skill, a series of processes or exercises that you can execute to obtain something that looks different from what would be just copying what we see.
For example, an exercise that I like to do is to draw the outline of water splashes or water polls forming on the floor and use that outline as a base to draw a creature. Of course I can make several creatures out of the same outline, but there is some underlying principle in the starting of the creature creation. My decisions of adding limbs, claws, fangs, fur, exoskeleton, cute eyes, robotic parts, wings... are based on some iterations I can make out of the initial shape. Some look better than others (and that choice is based on my experience, preference, style).

I like to think about it in this way, because I don't agree that it is something that you are born with or without (like the myth of "talent"). It is something that you can learn, practice and improve.

Finally, let's remember a fundamental principle of the universe that even artists cannot escape from: "in the universe nothing is created or destroyed, everything is just transformed".

You cannot imagine a colour that we cannot see. Humans cannot see what we call UV and Infra Red light... basically a whole new range of colours that we can't even imagine how they are. If you imagine an alien without limbs is because you are based on the existence of limbs to state that the alien has no limbs. And so on... This thing that we call creativity should be called "transformativity" but that sounds ugly.

This is my second adventure doing a proper digital painting. I prefer to focus on traditional painting, but when going digital, at least for now, I still like to do a hand drawing, take a photo of it and paint in some software that I like.

Last time I used GIMP, which is pretty much like a free and very professional alternative to Photoshop.

Now I am trying Krita. Also a free digital painting software, but with no focus on photomanipulation (like the many tools you have in Photoshop or GIMP), only painting. I am just falling in love with it! Flows very nicely and it really felt closer to a traditional painting style.

I am continuing an illustration that I couldn't finish for the mushroom village contest, and it is becoming a small personal project by itself. I am developing some of the characters and scenarios on the side. This is so far the most complete scene I am developing. It is still a WIP and I will continue painting it.

The main piece is still a WIP.

Just throwing some ideas of the main character exploring the outside world. It lives inside the tree bark and decided to go out and explore.

Still need to work more on character expression for creatures without many "human" features.