HEYO!
Just came out of a 2 year project and it's time for culling the portfolio and getting that reality check!
Here's my Artstation as of today.
https://www.artstation.com/artist/jakobgavelliI stopped paying for my portfolio website and now only use Artstation as a portfolio. But I enjoy using Artstation as a kind of Blog-thing for posting tiny single-picture studies that I wouldn't publish in a more focused Portfolio.
I'd love to get some answers to some questions:
1. Is there anything that you feel I should REMOVE entirely?
2. What project do you think is the BEST and WHY?
3. What front-page picture did you click FIRST and were you rewarded by the breakdowns/more pictures? (Did you click any picture at all??)
Bonus Question: Would you advice me to MERGE or SPLIT projects on the front-page to create MORE or FEWER pictures on the front-page?
Super specific questions but I'm really interested! I'm currently happily employed in the industry but I'm afraid of getting comfortable.
Thanks in advance!
Replies
I'd tidy up the studies and sculpts and add them as WIP pictures to their respective scenes. Always nice to see a lot of stuff in one Artstation submission.
Also, the 2 strongest pieces on your Artstation currently are Darksiders homage & Forge of Fire. Skylar and Plux screenshots are also good, but those are screenshots. Not exactly representative.
You need to tailor your portfolio around your strongest work and possibly hide all those uncharacteristic pieces that take up the attention that could've been paid to potentially better work. By those I mean House and Owl, Blizzard banner, Rime fanart, Brick tutorial and Desert Helicopter.
Imo, it's better to show that you are a specialist, rather than jack of all trades.
Check out Tobias Koepp's portofolio. It's exemplary.
http://tobiaskoepp.com/
Less than 10 projects, same kind of work, all in similar style.
@Svartberg : Thanks man! I agree with quality over quantity, funny thing I've noticed though is that I get contacted alot about contract work from very specific pictures. Like the bricks in the Rime Fanart for example. Which makes me reluctant to cutting stuff entirely, not saying that it's bad advice just a really tricky thing. I think keeping that stuff on the artstation page and having a more focused portfolio is the way to go!
Haha, what do you mean by that? xD Surely nothing is more representative than in-game screenshots of an actual game?
As for cutting stuff out.
That really depends on what do you want to accomplish. If you're sending out portfolio and resume looking for work, you need to keep it brief. If you're cool with getting minor freelance now and again, you can keep as much stuff as you like. If clients seek you out, they can spend as much time as they please to do so, nothing you can do to influence that. It all comes down to who spends time to find whom.
I think it's best to create a proper portfolio for sending to people, and the artstation page for people who seek me out. Something like this for a portfolio then. Artstation only has 6 themes atm, hehe.
(Thinking about removing the description as it draws alot of attention...)
https://jakobgavelli.artstation.com/
Also what Ortu says is right, either place the text in a corner or bottom centre of an image.
https://www.artstation.com/jakobgavelli