As far as I know it's definitely allowed, I think people tend to browse more than comment so don't feel discouraged. I'm not the best one to get advice from as I have more experience as an illustrator so take what I have to say with a grain of salt, maybe even a boulders worth
You have a lot of good stuff going on, lighting is good, your environments look pretty solid and lead the viewers eye around to a focal point in each one. Your character/creature designs have some interesting designs going on, maybe push those and exploration a bit more? Stuff like the knight that has moss and growth on it is good example of this, more stuff showing exploring the design and idea you are going for. That's not to say you're not already doing it, but maybe go for 3 instead of two (I seem to remember hearing Feng Zhu mention go for odd numbers 3,5 etc when presenting a few variations on the same design.) So as example for the knight you have 1. has fungus growth, 2. has more outdoor plant growth, 3. could be something like maybe barnacles from being underwater, subterranean/glowing organic structures because it is found in a cave and has been thee for some time, etc.
The only other thing I would mention is maybe wok on tighten up your strokes and presentation a bit more, the characters feel a bit sketchy and unfinished compared to your environments, which seem fairly polished. I know once you get a job there are going to be times when your so busy and have so much work to get through that the designs you end up doing are going to be fairly sketchy and somewhat unfinished, but as for a portfolio I've been told make sure it's all your best work as if you had all the time to make it as good as possible. It's expected once you have a job and tight deadlines that your work might not be as polished as it would be if you had all the time, but I believe most employers expect this so when they see work that is not super polished they may feel that the work could dip from there and give the wrong impression. I wouldn't mind hearing from an art director how they feel about this though before stating it as fact or common.
Sorry for the long post, hopefully this will help or is the type of advice your looking for.
Hey Brian, thanks for the critique! I'm definitely going to start doing odd numbered designs, think it'd be a good idea to have like 13-15 silhouettes in my portfolio? Should I remove the character stuff I have now, and re-do it as 3-5 variation designs (and more polished like you said)? Anyway thanks a ton man!
Sorry for the late reply. No problem man! Always willing to offer my 2 cents. As for your other questions it's hard to say about the silhouettes, I've seen portfolios with them and with out them that have gotten into the industry. On the one hand it shows more of your process, but on the other having just a few, 5-10 really solid concepts presented professionally gets right to the point and saves the person time who's is undoubtedly going through possible 100's of submissions. In the end, you're going to do them anyways as a lead up to your finalized work, so just hold on to them and maybe add them to a sketch page, or even a project link that just shows the entire process of a single concept or even over all project. As far as your homepage that should have your best pieces, I'd almost say less is more, so maybe focus on just finalized and polished concepts for the homepage that really sell your work. Also, working off what you have is never a bad idea as far as i'm concerned when you're trying to get some work out, it's already started so why not take advantage of that and keep going.
I actually got some good advice from Mehran Khan in my own thread asking for feedback about someone who is very helpful. They have a ton of experience in the industry so they'll have a lot more solid advice than I have. Keep in mind following what I say to a T could be more damaging than helpful if this guy disagrees with my advice, which is going to obviously be more well informed and experienced than my own. This is the link they left in my thread:
These are great! I like the more "artistic" use of brushes, compared to more traditional style, if this makes any sense. Some really cool poses and drapes! And the colors are just amazing. You deserved the front page !:)
I dig your style so much I want to lick your designs.
Jokes aside, I really like your design and your style of presentation, its amazing! Especially love the fine line between fantasy and somewhat dystopian SF. Also your brushstrokes, I'd actually lick them.
I'm a suuu-per beginner and a student so I don't feel like I deserve to give you some critiques so you can just let this flow out of your ears, but if I may I dare say your anatomy seems a weeee-bit weird. I can say this because my anatomy is crappy crap ass too and I see some of the mistakes I made in anatomy in your pieces too. Not that it's blown out of proportion and or that or it looks deformed, but the stance in which the characters are standing in seems...unnatural.
Thank you for your crits guys! And yeah Doodlok, I especially need to work on my figures and poses...bit stiff and awkward. I need more experience! Back to the grindstone!
Nice work! Some really strong shapes going on. I might say that you should pick one or two characters and really break them down and work on them. Do some turnarounds and line drawings of them, something that would really show off their structure for a 3D modeller to be able to work with. One of your roles as a concept artist will be to make life easy for the modellers, so you need to think about these shapes in 3D. Show the layers of the clothes, any interlocking details (clasps that may be holding a cloak up, belts and pouches that may be hidden.)
Thanks Tudor! You are 100% right, I need to focus on putting things together in a logical way and considering 3D artists with turn arounds/better form for 3D and such. I need better detail aswell, ontop of better figure work.
Anyway decided to do a mood piece today, I need to get back to focusing on figure work :P
Nice work Rob, if you want a great resource for figure drawing then you should check out http://reference.sketchdaily.net/ if you haven't already.
Adding to that, Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton is also an amazing resource to get the anatomy running theoretically. You can easily pick up pdf ver online so it's definitely worth checking out, helped me out tons
So much painted work, but no turnarounds or call out sketches! Don't worry its a trap many fall for, websites promote marketing art, final illustrations and ridiculously polished works as 'concept art'. It seems like everyone has done a good job so far giving you art advice, so I'm going to add two links you should checkout before you get back to the skill grind (which don't get me wrong is essential).
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2014/02/lets-get-real-concept-art/ There is a common misconception about what concept art is, its not just about making paintings! Anjin Anhut does a great way at dispelling common misconceptions. This article is 3 years old and yet still very relevant.
https://cubebrush.co/trentk?product_id=whlspq Trent does an amazing job showing off how you can build templates to show off your work with polish and articulate your ideas in a clear manner to get that first job. Trust me its worth the 15$.
Cubebrush and Ctrl+Paint are great resources for techniques as well! Hope this helps!
Did a ton of work in the past few months, ontop of all the traditional classes at school. FINALLY graduating, it's been a crazy ride....got 50+ studio rejections last year so I hope this portfolio is a little better? I tried to improve on all the stuff earlier in this thread and update some pieces too. I would love some feedback if anyone wants to give any. Thank you for all the help, esp. you Greg I really took the info to heart making some of these.
First of all, thank you for your passion and refusal to give up. That will inevitably get you where you need to go. Also, I think it's laudable that you've been so diligently trying to incorporate feedback. Again, that's something that will take you far.
That being said, there's always room to improve, right? Something that somebody touched on earlier is making things viable for 3D. I think we could expand on that and ask, "Why is this there?" Now this might come down to pure subjectivity, but when I look at some of your characters, some of the loops and lines and shapes don't seem to have any reason or purpose for existing. I think if you can maintain your whimsical style but add functionality and purpose, your designs will be stronger.
As an example, let's look at the knight with the triangle head and blue feathers. I like the chest armor, it seems nice and sturdy. But I can't imagine any sort of head shape fitting in to that helmet. While spikes on greaves and gauntlets are fine if they're consistent with the overall design, that's not the case here. Looking at some of your weapon paintings, I ask the same question. Are they just wild and wacky shapes? How would it feel to hold and swing some of those? I think it's good to sometimes have unconventional shapes or weaponry, but again, when it comes to building a convincing character/environment/prop it's helpful to really ask why you're doing what you're doing.
I remember that when Fallout 3 was coming out I read an article where the developers said something like "Any time we had a button or knob or dial on a piece of equipment we tried to have a purpose for it even if it was imagined." It didn't matter if the prop was non-functional- they'd come up with a purpose for each object, a story, if you will.
Finally, while this can be hard to do, I'd invite you to take a look at the portfolios of your favorite artists or top artists at the places you've been applying/want to work. Are you as good or better than them? Why or why not? What are they doing that you're not doing? They're your competition and if you can't stand toe to toe with them it will be tough to convince the company that you're an essential addition to the team. If you're at that level, then you should be fine. If not, then figure out why not and work out those kinks.
Man thanks so much for that critique. I definitely 100% need to get better reference and functionality for the designs. I really am limiting myself so much by just making shapes I find fun but that have no functional thought behind them. I'm definitely not at that level of the companies I'm applying for, I wish I was, but yeah looks like I've got a long way to go still....hoping I can find some sort of line of work. Working at Walmart @ 27 years old isn't fun. Thanks again for the advice man!
Anyway, edited the environment piece a lot and reworked it...
Replies
You have a lot of good stuff going on, lighting is good, your environments look pretty solid and lead the viewers eye around to a focal point in each one. Your character/creature designs have some interesting designs going on, maybe push those and exploration a bit more? Stuff like the knight that has moss and growth on it is good example of this, more stuff showing exploring the design and idea you are going for. That's not to say you're not already doing it, but maybe go for 3 instead of two (I seem to remember hearing Feng Zhu mention go for odd numbers 3,5 etc when presenting a few variations on the same design.) So as example for the knight you have 1. has fungus growth, 2. has more outdoor plant growth, 3. could be something like maybe barnacles from being underwater, subterranean/glowing organic structures because it is found in a cave and has been thee for some time, etc.
The only other thing I would mention is maybe wok on tighten up your strokes and presentation a bit more, the characters feel a bit sketchy and unfinished compared to your environments, which seem fairly polished. I know once you get a job there are going to be times when your so busy and have so much work to get through that the designs you end up doing are going to be fairly sketchy and somewhat unfinished, but as for a portfolio I've been told make sure it's all your best work as if you had all the time to make it as good as possible. It's expected once you have a job and tight deadlines that your work might not be as polished as it would be if you had all the time, but I believe most employers expect this so when they see work that is not super polished they may feel that the work could dip from there and give the wrong impression. I wouldn't mind hearing from an art director how they feel about this though before stating it as fact or common.
Sorry for the long post, hopefully this will help or is the type of advice your looking for.
Sorry for the late reply. No problem man! Always willing to offer my 2 cents. As for your other questions it's hard to say about the silhouettes, I've seen portfolios with them and with out them that have gotten into the industry. On the one hand it shows more of your process, but on the other having just a few, 5-10 really solid concepts presented professionally gets right to the point and saves the person time who's is undoubtedly going through possible 100's of submissions. In the end, you're going to do them anyways as a lead up to your finalized work, so just hold on to them and maybe add them to a sketch page, or even a project link that just shows the entire process of a single concept or even over all project. As far as your homepage that should have your best pieces, I'd almost say less is more, so maybe focus on just finalized and polished concepts for the homepage that really sell your work. Also, working off what you have is never a bad idea as far as i'm concerned when you're trying to get some work out, it's already started so why not take advantage of that and keep going.
I actually got some good advice from Mehran Khan in my own thread asking for feedback about someone who is very helpful. They have a ton of experience in the industry so they'll have a lot more solid advice than I have. Keep in mind following what I say to a T could be more damaging than helpful if this guy disagrees with my advice, which is going to obviously be more well informed and experienced than my own. This is the link they left in my thread:
http://www.gameartmentor.com/
Feel free to PM me or ask on here anything else, I love to collaborate and share!
More pieces trying to push enviros
Jokes aside, I really like your design and your style of presentation, its amazing! Especially love the fine line between fantasy and somewhat dystopian SF. Also your brushstrokes, I'd actually lick them.
I'm a suuu-per beginner and a student so I don't feel like I deserve to give you some critiques so you can just let this flow out of your ears, but if I may I dare say your anatomy seems a weeee-bit weird. I can say this because my anatomy is crappy crap ass too and I see some of the mistakes I made in anatomy in your pieces too. Not that it's blown out of proportion and or that or it looks deformed, but the stance in which the characters are standing in seems...unnatural.
But then what do I know.
Amazing works! Please keep posting.
Anyway decided to do a mood piece today, I need to get back to focusing on figure work :P
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2014/02/lets-get-real-concept-art/
There is a common misconception about what concept art is, its not just about making paintings! Anjin Anhut does a great way at dispelling common misconceptions. This article is 3 years old and yet still very relevant.
https://cubebrush.co/trentk?product_id=whlspq
Trent does an amazing job showing off how you can build templates to show off your work with polish and articulate your ideas in a clear manner to get that first job. Trust me its worth the 15$.
Cubebrush and Ctrl+Paint are great resources for techniques as well! Hope this helps!
Did a ton of work in the past few months, ontop of all the traditional classes at school. FINALLY graduating, it's been a crazy ride....got 50+ studio rejections last year so I hope this portfolio is a little better? I tried to improve on all the stuff earlier in this thread and update some pieces too. I would love some feedback if anyone wants to give any. Thank you for all the help, esp. you Greg I really took the info to heart making some of these.
First of all, thank you for your passion and refusal to give up. That will inevitably get you where you need to go. Also, I think it's laudable that you've been so diligently trying to incorporate feedback. Again, that's something that will take you far.
That being said, there's always room to improve, right? Something that somebody touched on earlier is making things viable for 3D. I think we could expand on that and ask, "Why is this there?" Now this might come down to pure subjectivity, but when I look at some of your characters, some of the loops and lines and shapes don't seem to have any reason or purpose for existing. I think if you can maintain your whimsical style but add functionality and purpose, your designs will be stronger.
As an example, let's look at the knight with the triangle head and blue feathers. I like the chest armor, it seems nice and sturdy. But I can't imagine any sort of head shape fitting in to that helmet. While spikes on greaves and gauntlets are fine if they're consistent with the overall design, that's not the case here. Looking at some of your weapon paintings, I ask the same question. Are they just wild and wacky shapes? How would it feel to hold and swing some of those? I think it's good to sometimes have unconventional shapes or weaponry, but again, when it comes to building a convincing character/environment/prop it's helpful to really ask why you're doing what you're doing.
I remember that when Fallout 3 was coming out I read an article where the developers said something like "Any time we had a button or knob or dial on a piece of equipment we tried to have a purpose for it even if it was imagined." It didn't matter if the prop was non-functional- they'd come up with a purpose for each object, a story, if you will.
Finally, while this can be hard to do, I'd invite you to take a look at the portfolios of your favorite artists or top artists at the places you've been applying/want to work. Are you as good or better than them? Why or why not? What are they doing that you're not doing? They're your competition and if you can't stand toe to toe with them it will be tough to convince the company that you're an essential addition to the team. If you're at that level, then you should be fine. If not, then figure out why not and work out those kinks.
Keep up the good work!
Anyway, edited the environment piece a lot and reworked it...