So it looks like you have a direction, maybe these could be of use :) , though careful alot of his work has nsfw stuff >_>. http://www.autodestruct.com/hacks.htm http://www.autodestruct.com/thumbwar.htm http://autodestructdigital.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/find-design.html Be sure to check out his other stuff, and also other…
The conflicting messages is common because of who might be seeing your work. For example, an art director may want to see more thumbnails and sketches so they can see you can come up with lots of variations on ideas for pre production purposes. A character artist, on the other hand, may want to see refined images like…