My First Post! (after a year of being too afraid share anything) help for a beginner?
polycounter lvl 4
Hi everyone,
I've been wanting to pursue an art career my entire life but never had the confidence to do so. I've applied for jobs and been close to getting some, but each rejection has made me wonder if I should just give up?
Anyway, I haven't and I'm still trying to improve my skills in this competitive industry! I'm not giving up this time!
So, I would like some feedback. I want to know what my portfolio is missing, what I should be practicing? Is there any resources you find useful for composition, lighting, anatomy, PS brushes?
I'm looking to apply for 2D Art/Concept Art jobs in the games industry. If you think I need a couple of years practice and I shouldn't go rushing into applications then please let me know.
Here is a link to my portfolio:
https://micioliver.carbonmade.com/
I'm sorry if this all seems very vague, I know there is no easy way to go about getting an art job. I would just like some guidance on presenting my work and what I should present.
I will also leave some images of work I have done recently down here.
Thanks,
Mici
ps. I've also never wrote on a forum before so I'm sorry about the formatting
I've been wanting to pursue an art career my entire life but never had the confidence to do so. I've applied for jobs and been close to getting some, but each rejection has made me wonder if I should just give up?
Anyway, I haven't and I'm still trying to improve my skills in this competitive industry! I'm not giving up this time!
So, I would like some feedback. I want to know what my portfolio is missing, what I should be practicing? Is there any resources you find useful for composition, lighting, anatomy, PS brushes?
I'm looking to apply for 2D Art/Concept Art jobs in the games industry. If you think I need a couple of years practice and I shouldn't go rushing into applications then please let me know.
Here is a link to my portfolio:
https://micioliver.carbonmade.com/
I'm sorry if this all seems very vague, I know there is no easy way to go about getting an art job. I would just like some guidance on presenting my work and what I should present.
I will also leave some images of work I have done recently down here.
Thanks,
Mici
ps. I've also never wrote on a forum before so I'm sorry about the formatting
Replies
I think that your work is great over all. If you want to do concepts, I would recommend looking at what other concept artists are doing for projects and mimic the way they present their work. Your speed paints are nice but I wouldn't place them with your more finished works. It might be good to take those studies and refine them to be more portfolio friendly.
The image you posted of the rabbit looks great. The only thing I'd change about is is your contrasts between the rabbit and it's surroundings. The vibrant pinks tend to pull the eye away from the subject and the yellow spots further take your vision from the animal. Your cute kitten image is a much better example of how to make the subject stand out. It might be a good idea to work with the color scheme and vibrancy of the colors to give this image an extra boost.
You are on the right track. Don't give up and keep practicing. Eventually things will work out.
I think your work could probably improve fairly fast if you really work at it, but right now I'd say your work isn't going to cut it for most places looking for dedicated concept artists. It's a competitive field and the bar is very high.
I'm seeing a lot of straight photo studies (which tells me nothing about your ability to design or create, really), followed by a number of portraits that have varying degrees of finish, anatomical knowledge and quality. Again, the one that appears to be from a photo is very nice, but the ones that look like you drew them from your head look a little lackluster. The purple.... photobash-looking... bunnysquirreldeer painting looks really amateur-ish. That's not a painting, its a bunch of PS effects and default brushes. It's got conflicting light sources and doesn't honestly tell me much about the scene-- it probably needs to go.
All in all, there's not a lot of stuff that tells me how you'd fare in a studio environment, or what your art could do for me.
Your eye for aesthetic quality... Look, I really second guess what year some of these would be made in. I look at your UI stuff, and it all looks like stuff I'd find in an old web game. Some of the ideas are definitely there, but the way you present it is sometimes clunky, sometimes a little outdated. I couldn't see this stuff in a polished, high level game. What do you look at for inspiration? How much do you look at and break down the assets from the games that set quality bars, Indie or otherwise?
It's trendy to go all "geometric, minimalistic patterns with a single width line and flat colors" right now-- not always the best way to go, but that's what looks "modern" right now, and I don't see any of that reflecting in your UI work.
That's also a trend that's happened/happening in many other areas of design right now, web, print media, video etc etc. That stuff is relevant to Game/Screen artists, too. Try to widen your intake of art and media, that will really help your eye for good design/aesthetic, but also study good design principals and foundations.
For your paintings/drawings, your anatomy needs work, as well as a lot fo your foundations. Your poses are very stiff and unbalanced, your forms and lines lack weight and rhythm. It's all stuff you can learn, however, so I think now's the best time to get going on that.
Check out more art, partially to know "what you're up against", so to speak, and partially just to get more stuff to draw from, reference, etc.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork?sorting=trending
Go to the 2D section, and just look at the picks, popular and trending. Genuinely, especially on subject matter and presentation (not just painting skill or knowledge of foundations or whatever), look at what you draw, then back to what other industry folks are drawing/presenting. Don't feel pressured to paint with the trends or draw whatever's popular if you don't like it, but do just survey the land from time to time. Otherwise, it's just a boss inspiration, ref and breakdown resource.
More links:
- https://www.pinterest.com/characterdesigh/
- www.creativeuncut.com
- http://conceptartworld.com/
- http://www.conceptart.org/go/learn/ (IDK how reputable this place is anymore, but I figure the forums are at least worth a browse)
- Go to art exhibitions, or your local museum or art gallery openings, too. It's fun, and can relieve that sort of insular tunnel vision you can get if you just look at game art for too long.
- Visit film/animation blogs like this one: http://disneyconceptsandstuff.tumblr.com/
And here are some links for the learning end:- http://www.ctrlpaint.com/
- http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm
- http://dantat.typepad.com/dantat/2010/10/notes-on-composition.html
- http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/phil_straub_composition_tutorial
- http://www.fusroda.com/ (This has its own resource page!)
- http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Concept_Fundamentals (even more links from our very own wiki)
- https://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/anatomy.php (I know it says for sculptors, but trust me, this is an incredibly helpful ref)
- http://artists.pixelovely.com/ (Good figure drawing site for when you can't get out to a life drawing session)
Not specifically 2D art related, but I think it would be very much worth it for you to have a look through the Portfolio section of the wiki.I'd especially suggest this compilation of what the people hiring might look for in your portfolio. :thumbup:
Sorry for being a bit blunt, but I feel like you need a little bit of context for why you keep having near-misses with work. I really hope this can work, even if a lot of it is kind of vague.
You should post your next pieces as WIPs here in the forum before you finish the pieces, so people can chime in and help. It's a bit of a kick in the pants, but it can help nail down issues and bad habits and fix them much quicker than trying to finish stuff on your own.
Good luck! Sorry again for the massive post!
Personally for me, a good way to know if my art is up to standard is to compare it with other people's work that I admire. (sadly it isn't T_T...) Since you are aiming to be a concept artist here are a few links that might interest you
http://www.autodestruct.com/concept.htm
http://piortumble.tumblr.com/
What i get from these is a good sense of design and iteration. So for a concept artist portfolio you might want to consider working on design and iteration
also highly reccommend reading some of these links, mainly the design lectures
http://www.autodestruct.com/
Either way, keep fighting the good fight
also Bagel, lol
edit: ahh you fixed it and I ended up just repeating what you said...xp
But I don't think you're just repeating what I said, even if you were, you're a lot more succinct + more good links is always helpful.
I've just moved to this city I'm in so going to art galleries and looking for life drawing classes sounds like a good idea to find my way around.
I'm really excited to use all these resources now and didn't even realise polycount had a wiki
I think I needed a brutal review, I have a few friends that are concept artists but I think they find it hard to criticise my work because they don't want to hurt my feelings.
I'm so glad I came on here, best thing I did
Now, back to those links
Those two really covered most things.
So i'll just say this. Please no glaring over the top watermarks. If i wanted to steal your art, it's pretty easy to remove and just makes my viewing experience terrible.
I have returned with a couple of things I have been working on
The links above helped me so much! I have been working a lot on my anatomy, composition, lighting, use of ps brushes, I feel like there has been an improvement!
So I thought I would post some WIP's to see if I am going in the right direction.
So this piece is a character concept, I gave myself the brief of 'female/cyberpunk/gang member' as the majority of my work has been fantasy, I wanted to try something more sci-fi.
The second is an illustation of a character from a book I've been reading. She is a 12 yr old necromancer, when she resurrects people she gets a cold sensation throughout her body, which I tried to portray in the picture.
Any feedback is appreciated, I feel like my style at the moment is awkwardly sandwiched between a bold comic book style and realism, I don't know if that is a good thing...
Thank you everyone for your help so far, I look forward to some critique so I can improve further
Ps. I also got photobucket so deviant art doesn't post their big stupid logo on my work