Having worked in children's (mostly pre-school) animation for 10+ years, I've had to sharpen my rendering skills to meet the demands of an adult horror tale set in the "real" world.
When I saw that Oni Press was running their 2009 Talent Search, it seemed like a great opportunity to work from a professional script that wasn't self-generated and to hopefully obtain some constructive criticism.
Of the three posted sample scripts, I chose to render the first five pages of a new graphic novel by Antony Johnston called "Cold City," a political thriller set during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
No word yet, but it was a fruitful learning process and I discovered that I really enjoy illustrating smoke.
