​I own a ton of markers, pencils, brushes and pens. It was my thought process that I should use my own materials as a source for the art that I will create. Yes it is easier to just find images online but there's no guarantee that I will find the exact marker/pencil I am looking for and it may just be easier to spend a few hours taking photos of my own elements! 

I used my desk with a large Bristol sheet and my Canon T3i to take the pictures. I created an Action in Adobe Photoshop so I could scale down and clean the lighting a bit on the 194 photos I took! 

Some images are repeated, I rather have too many photos than not enough. 

Check out the complete project here: 100 Pencils Project. 

ALPHA Creates, 2020 by @DeltaTangoMike for Silicon Benders (Sketchable App)
Digital Art w Sketchable App on Surface Pro 7

Recent Art in Sketchable App: 

The Idea:

The Practice: 

The Sketches:

The Process:

Here is your wallpaper! Download and Save as Wallpaper. 

The App:

Today I got the email with the link to Testflight PreRelease of Adobe Photoshop Camera. whew! Turn on my lights! 
​-DTM 

I had a good time at one of Newell Holiday parties, this one for the BEACON Group. 
I brought my markers, big sheets of paper and my smile. Mission accomplished. 

and we start this new journey with the most recent #WIP illustration on Adobe Fresco. How cool is that?! 
Here is the first blog post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/work-in-progress-32325182 

Go get your own membership and let's draw together! 
https://www.patreon.com/deltatangomike 

wow! I was surprised to have the option to stream my art and illustration on Behance, that's a big deal! 

Check out the saved videos so far and come back for more live art. I am working on an ABC book plus some portrait illustrations because I like drawing people! 

https://www.behance.net/dacreativegenius/videos 

​The Challenge: 
An Android App featuring the best Microsoft has to offer on mobile. 
Two days to create a user journey, wireframes, design and an explainer video on the app we created. 

Oh yeah, the team just met early that day. 

What. These are the details that were handed to us. No other info provided. ​

Who. Establish a User Journey to find the elements that users find necessary in working from mobile. ​

Why. The rough wireframes that guide a user through the app to find productive tools and get things done. ​

How. Adobe Illustrator is my go to program, especially for illustration but in this case, once you design in Illustrator, the files are readable by Adobe XD to add the finishing touches on how the app behaves. ​

All the screens needed for the demo. ​

I created these images for the video in Adobe Photoshop, then created the video in Adobe Premiere with voice over work by @DeltaTangoMike ​

​We present to you, Microsoft Companion, the one app you need, the one app to have. 
TEAM CREDITS!

Stefan Malter @StefanMalter 
Chefredakteur bei @NRWision | Journalist & #Medientrainer | Dozent @TU_Dortmund | Autor | Moderator | Microsoft #MVP #MIEExpert | #Medien | #Journalismus 
Storyboards, video assets, voice over copy and user journey 

Joshua Cardif @Jcardif254 
Net Dev|Electrical Engineer|AI & IoT Evangelist |Microsoft Student partner | All things Azure 
User journey, mobile app solutions and Adobe XD mobile app prototype 

Dan Flores @DeltaTangoMike 
Multimedia Content Producer and Illustrator crafting Brand Storytelling for Game Design, Character Concepts and Brand Illustrations. #iLikeToDraw 
Wireframes, mobile app design, prototype support, video production, edits and render

I was happy to hear that I had been selected as a Microsoft Insider for my work with the community.

I entered the Insiders In Action: Giving Back Contest with a focus on my work in the arts community and my firm belief that technology is closing the gap for many artists to reach their audience. 

Not only is tech good for marketing, but it's also good for organizing a business and keeping track of our projects and clients. 

Check out the rest of the article here, and let me know what you think! 

DTM 
Dan Flores, aka @DeltaTangoMike is a 20 year art life veteran in 2D with digital and traditional mediums for illustrations and art installations working with brands like Coca Cola, McDonalds, GA Tech, Emory, Adobe, Cinamaker, Microsoft and Newell Brands. 

DTM founded Art Is King to share his art biz knowledge gained through experience and observation, plus a few mentors along the way. Find DTM online under the DeltaTangoMike brand.

Art is King connects the art community with artists, curators, entrepreneurs and art business mentors to assist the emerging artist in building a sustainable art business.

Follow on Social:
http://www.instagram.com/deltatangomike 
http://www.twitter.com/deltatangomike 

For more events, classes and meetups for artists and creatives:
https://www.meetup.com/ArtIsKing_ATL/ ​
Facebook, instagram and twitter @ArtIsKing_ATL
Art Is King on iTunes http://bit.ly/AIKpodcast
Art Is King on YouTube http://bit.ly/aikyoutube ​

​
This Insider Wants to Help Artists Build Thriving Careers with a Little Help from Technology
Dan Flores made his first mark on Atlanta around 1995, when a friend suggested he show his art portfolio to a tattoo shop owner and see about getting a job. After serving in the U.S. Marines for four years, Dan had been dishwashing and driving a forklift, but had never inked a tattoo in his life. He had, however, been putting pen to paper and making art since as long as he could remember. He sketched a sample logo for the shop owner, got his first tattoo, and landed a job as an apprentice.

Fast forward to today and Dan has a thriving career as a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer, producing everything from large-scale paintings to comic books and graphic novels. He’ll still ink the occasional tattoo for friends, but chooses now to focus solely on the art that he personally wants to create. Equipped with his go-to Surface Pro and Surface Pen, Dan sees technology as playing an important role in his success--both with creating digital art and keeping the business side of things smoothly humming. For many artists, he’s reached the equivalent of the Holy Grail: he’s a working artist passionate about his practice.

“People say ‘starving artist,’ like somehow you should suffer for the right to live your life doing the thing that you like to do,” Dan says. “And to some extent, that's the trade-off that we're all willing to make. But it doesn't have to be that way, because there's so much commerce already based on art.”

As a way to give back to the community that nurtured him as a young artist, Dan started a nonprofit called Art Is King. “Our focus is to help emerging artists connect their talents to the art business,” Dan says. “We help them learn a process that allows them to talk about their work to clients and set a fair price before agreeing to do any work. So that at the end of the day, the artist has provided a service and they've gotten paid for their work, and it's a good, happy exchange with the client and a great relationship.”

Art Is King hosts free meetups and a 6-month program covering a range of practical topics, including soft skills, business skills, and how artists can leverage technology to boost their careers. Dan emphasizes that having a digital portfolio--even something as simple as an Instagram account--is a basic must for promoting and archiving work. Other tech tools like OneNote and OneDrive are essential for staying organized and capturing and processing ideas on the go.
“I try to show my mentees and interns how technology can make your life easier,” Dan says. “Because everybody has a smartphone--you're walking around with a computer in your hand--you have tools that can make it easy for you to structure your information so that others can work with you, collaborate, follow through, etc.”

“I always have my Surface Pro with me, because having a full, real computer and a drawing tablet, puts together both sides of the business: the creative side and the business side. Being organized is a big, big deal for me. And I learned this from my wife. I was organized before, but she's a real analytical person. The calendar is number one. If you don't know what you're doing tomorrow, then you're not taking care of your life the way you should.”
“Not everybody's the same. But I share those resources, I share my methods, and then I ask the artists I work with to put it into practice whichever way works for them.”

Continuing his mission of “boosting a robust, successful, and thriving arts community,” Dan recently led the creation of the Azteca Moderno mural, a collaborative art installation that serves as part of a revitalization initiative for downtown Atlanta.

“Atlanta is a city of diversity and inclusion,” Dan wrote recently in his blog, describing how he was inspired by his Chicano heritage to reinterpret Aztec myth into a story for the present day. The Mexican and LatinX population have steadily grown from the Buford Hwy Corridor to south of Hartsfield Airport--proof that given a chance, our cultures can thrive together in harmony.”

“The Aztec characters have creative tools like pencils, pens and markers instead of weapons. We are in charge of creating our futures now.”

Editor’s Note: Daniel “DTM” Flores was the winner of the Windows Insiders In Action: Giving Back contest. He is a Mexican-American (Chicano) working artist with a 20-year career in digital and traditional arts and a founding member of the non-profit organization Art Is King. You might also recognize Dan from an episode of The Walking Dead on AMC and other movies and TV shows where he’s been featured as a mean looking dude. Connect with him at @DeltaTangoMike on Instagram or check out the YouTube channel of Art is King, for more on boosting the business side of art.
​

Written by Kristie Wang for Microsoft Windows Insider