Hoping for critiques

JulienNema

Hey guys im new to poly count but im hoping to star participating in this community . Anyway i was wondering if i could get any critiques on what to do to improve my work and the presentably of my work, all advice is much appreciated
here is th elink to my portfolio http://www.juliennema.com/

Two Listen

Hey there Julien. Don't know how valuable my words could be to you, but I'll give you my thoughts looking over your website.

First I'll say that I think your work has a sort of charm to it, which is good. It seems fairly consistent and I like the lighthearted feeling most of your paintings give off.

More focusing on critiques, first I think your portfolio could use some trimming. Could be personal bias talking a bit, but I think a small, solid portfolio looks better than a large one that's a bit all over the place. On your front page you have more finished illustrations right alongside things like this, which really is something I'm pretty sure you could trim out entirely (was it a t-shirt design, I guess?) So, primarily, I think you could benefit from going through your work and deciding what's really solid, and what could be removed. There are actually a couple things in your sketch page that I think show more skill and understanding than things on your main portfolio page - this and this feel more solid than this, to my eyes. I understand maybe those two sketches used more reference, but they still look like they were done by someone with more experience.

I think combining the nice, studied efforts from some of the noted sketches, with the charming, adorable illustration ideas, could make for some really cool stuff.

BagelHero

+1 to trimming your portfolio.
There's a lot of work here, and some of it is notably better than others.

While nothing really jumps out to me as really "bad", the idea behind trimming it down to your best few pieces is that if someone (say, a potential employer) is looking over your portfolio and they see something comparatively bad in between some good pieces, that may jump out at them more. It can cause doubts about whether you can consistently produce to the level of their favorite piece under deadline pressure.

The key example in your folio, I believe, is indeed this. It's not that bad of an image, but you have it right next to this other bunch of foliage, vegetation and tree people, every one of which has more character, charm and shows a higher level of skill.

I really like the feeling of your work though, "charming" is definitely the right descriptor there.

JulienNema

thanks guys, really appreciate the advice. Yeah trimming does seem like a good idea, a few friends have told me similar things. I'll have to sit down and re arrange it a bit better. Also really glad you find my work charming, i'll defiantly try to keep consistent with that, thanks again for the advice

adamator

Hey Julien,

for starters, you're definitely on the right track with your work. Your main focus from this point is to keep it current and update it with new stuff - as BagelHero mentioned, less strong pieces make a better impression than more pieces where some are noticeably weaker.

Remember, directors will ALWAYS judge your overall gallery by your weakest piece.

Judging by the direction you're going - something that would add refinement and power to your work is to start experimenting with more subtle uses of color. Oversaturated colors throughout comes across as an overstatement.

Best advice - life painting - study the extreme subtleties in color (variations of greys for instance) - a strong use of saturation and value should be reserved for your "statement" - that focal smack of color that grabs your audience - everything else is subdued in comparison.

You're a strong storyteller Julien - I really like that. From here, start exploring subtlety...close careful observation of real life.

Keep it up!

Adam