Torbens Portfolio Creation
Hi there!
I'm striving for an internship as a concept artist at one of the tripple-A companies in Sweden or Denmark.
My goal is to merge a solid portfolio from the stuff I've made so far during my 1½ years at The game assembly in
Sweden.
Any thoughts or critique on what I've produced so far would be higly appreciated
Atm I personally feel my content's too mixed. Most environments were done recently and I've been focusing a lot on those to build my skills there . But most of the characters are roughly over 6 months old and my plan ss to either polish them or replace them with new ones.
I also feel that that maybe I should ditch the cartoony designs alltogether.
Here's what I've got so far:
I'm striving for an internship as a concept artist at one of the tripple-A companies in Sweden or Denmark.
My goal is to merge a solid portfolio from the stuff I've made so far during my 1½ years at The game assembly in
Sweden.
Any thoughts or critique on what I've produced so far would be higly appreciated
Atm I personally feel my content's too mixed. Most environments were done recently and I've been focusing a lot on those to build my skills there . But most of the characters are roughly over 6 months old and my plan ss to either polish them or replace them with new ones.
I also feel that that maybe I should ditch the cartoony designs alltogether.
Here's what I've got so far:
Replies
I suggest maybe working with darker contrast on some of your designs, they all require some darkening to an extent.
One thing I can immediately spot is that you do not really paint ambient occlusion at important spots, (like where your characters meet the ground and other details)
Its technically no shadow, its light that is missing rays because the place is hard to reach, so they appear darker. Look that up at best, will help on many places on your paintings.
On characters like your last 3 pics, define a area with higher detail grade (usually the head, maybe something else aswell, like important part of a weapon, something)
That part will define the quality of your whole piece, the rest is fill in, the eye helps greatly by imagining detail your set up for it, where you actually didnt paint some. The quality of your characters is high enough in general for filling in, but youre missing out on the high quality spots.
Also, you can add more depth by using a little exxagerated saturation and lightness vanishing. The left side of the gorilla per example could be a little lighter, and less saturated, since its further from the camera as the right, giving more depth.
You use it in your landscapes, but it dosnt seem consistent, and your characters can benefit from it aswel
If you want to act pro, a signature helps, even if its nothing special, just looks badass, and show metaphorical me that you think about your stuff. Concept art is about defining things, things that make sense and are plausible.
Show that you think. Theres not a single indication that you think about what you paint. That can be minor things, such as painting spheres with material definitions,
blobs of color with your palette (maybe alternate palettes) different variations,
different silhouettes, give the object a name, a background, whats the setting, which year which world, how would his buildings look, what tools would it use.
There are unending things in 2D, but you should be on a good path, just pump out some stuff, and look what the others do. Ctrl.paint is also a lovely resource, more for the starters, but it may refresh a lot of things where we usually say "yea i know that (but not actually consider it in work) "
Edit: Flat 10-80% grey background = Turnoff : P
Edit2: Here some examples of additional info, its only scratches the surface of what you can do however
What is your design achieving, what does it want to achieve ?
Which information is important for someone else to know ? What are the materials ? Why does it look like the way it looks. Whats its purpose ?
Which mood does it bring up, and is that the mood I want ?
Those and many more questions are to answer, just painting a cool form is not enough. Thats the essence of conception, the things behind the actual image.
Mossbros: I have to confess, Most of them have a bunch of time spent on them.
I used to do speedpaints more last year but I got the advice to really sit down and push rendering. I got some 2h from a few days ago though. I think I could do with learning some more efficient workflow, using photos and custom shapes
DWalker: I'll do a paintover soon and see if it helps. I've allways felt wierd when I've looked at him
Shrike: Wow, thanks so much for the elaborated feedback.
I can defenitely see how my concepts lack direct communication. I guess I've allways wanted them to speak for themselves but since it's actually all about communication it's stupid not to emphasize it.
chrisavigni:
Thanks man. keeping an inspirational folder is awesome
a character I finished recently. I'm going to add some descriptional text and detail views to explain my thought's
she's a redesign of the pawnbroker from crime and punishment. I'm going to redesign a few of the characters. The detective is up next
I disagree with Shrike about the notes. His version is very messy with the swatches and sphere and non-essential information (oh really, that gun is a weapon?). Some additional info like the swappable weapons is useful, but don't add stuff just for the sake of adding stuff.
Snader: Hm, thanks for the heads up. Think I'm going to do some exact measuring and see were I've done wrong.
But isn't Spheres a good way to for instance just present materials very fast? It's not good to just clutter and turn away the intended focus, but just for the sake of a fast explanation?
Sure my version is messy, Im not going to take the time of an actual artwork just to demonstrate a point. Its a demonstration of examples put on an image, thats why it is cluttered (and because its badly executed)
On a side note, I did not put much time in the descriptions, but theres a vast difference between a PDW and a Assault rifle per example.
If you note PDW it indicated that its for personal defense, that the guy doing a totally different job than someone carrying a all purpose war weapon.
Exactly this unclarity you took from that simple description just demonstrates how important it is to give good and well thought context about your work.
Color palette and material definition (shared materials for a faction etc)
and other fancy things like that are nothing that is needed, but it shows that you care, put effort into what you do, and that you think about your work, and not just push out a picture of something and call it a day.
The devil is in the details, sure raw visual quality is a main factor, but thats not what concept art is about.
Finished the detective, I feel pretty confident with putting him in my portfolio.
If there's any crits or thoughts on the design I'd love to hear it!
yet again i neglected to explain in plain text the functions of the character.
before i start any new character I'm going to do explanatory work for the last two.
On the point on explaining the concept with text and sketches, IF there's something I know that the 3d artist or animator doesn't know or could benefit from knowing then it's never wrong to explain. In this case how his armour bends for instance, that he can change technological parts on his legs and so forth.
this one I've taken to a more polished level to pratice my rendering and see were my initial thumbnail is lacking. I feel like I learn a lot about the key focus in sketching when I polish.
lastly a revisit to these characters. some correction of the anatomy and feet placement. Darkened the bakground and I think it looks much better.