Feedback on my Portfolio

BlenderCube

Looking for feedback on my portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artist/christopherdarby
Also currently applying for Junior positions as an environment artist.


A few pieces:- 

Ashervisalis

Looks beautiful!

BlenderCube

No criticism? Is this not polycount?

Michael Knubben

Feedback on your entire portfolio is really much easier with total beginners, where there's just more to critique. Your work looks good, but if you want in-depth feedback, I think you'd be better off posting your pieces in their own thread, preferably from an early stage so people can see the progression.
I'd also make sure to mention that (unless I'm mistaken) that castle up top is referenced from an Unreal Tournament map. On top of that, show the individual props, and wireframes!

Bedrock

I would probably use artstation's website thingy to make a separate portfolio just for your top finished work. Looking at what I'd consider your top pieces I would say post separate polycount threads for them (not all at once perhaps) and provide references for what you are trying to achieve. 

BlenderCube

Ok thank you both for the advice, I will look into doing this. 

Kid.in.the.Dark

In general right now, the pieces as they stand have potential but I feel the only thing that really stands out to me is that they are generally a bit dull, there's not much story telling and more like a clean plated environment where it kind of says "Here's the environment" I feel you could push these pieces (all of them) to have more character... Here are some suggestions...

- Castle Environment: Maybe this was some sort of training ground to toughen up soldiers
a. Weaponry racks
b. Damaged torso bags
c. One wall damaged because maybe some of the trainees got too riled up
d. old broken or worn weapons in a crate on the side, etc.

- Tudor Style Village: Maybe this was a fruit market, merchant road of the village
a. Add Market stalls with fruit containers, etc
b. Maybe a cart that horse couriers used to use to transport goods for the market, etc

- Cave Environment: Maybe this could be a pirate cove
a. Add a boat in the scene somewhere... maybe a big one, pirate ship almost for something visually interesting
b. Some treasure chests on a island segment close to the camera, etc

I think another big issue is that the lighting in the scene doesn't come off as very interesting and could benefit with some dedicated lighting choices for cinematic effect... for example the cave could use the hole at the top of the cave to shine some light through and add maybe even some god rays, etc... just an example and doesn't need to be followed exactly but hopefully that gets the point across.

But overall, you're in a good place with your environments and these critiques are only to help you push it to the next level.

Now as for the ArtStation profile pieces, I feel that your level critically drops as your date back so I'm assuming you're including work you did a while ago. I generally don't submit my ArtStation profile to employers and keep it separate but if you're looking to submit ArtStation as your portfolio link to future employers I would consider adjusting the following pieces from it...

- PBR Props: They are fairly simple and generally could be pushed much further but essentially do not match the quality of the assets you have in your recent environments posted here, you may benefit from just showcasing your 3 environments further by having props break downs from that any way. As long as you show a breakdown of your assets from the environment with PBR texture maps etc they will know. I would consider removing this piece.
- 3 Day Sci-fi: This prop or asset generally explains nothing in terms of what it is, although it considers the concept's visual aesthetics you haven't taken the initiative to implement your own characteristics to it to explain what it is exactly... from the concept it also looks like an environment piece but from the thumbnail and even at full screen I was lead to believe it was some sort of turret or heavy duty weapon. I would add the ground and turn it into a diorama and push the texturing further, experiment with colours and weathering.
- Leather Chair: The model itself is very blocky and could do with another pass on it... or even to completely try again depending on which one suits your mood more but the texturing seems very rushed and there's edge wear on flat surfaces on both sides of the chair which I'm not 100% sure about what it is exactly.
- Sector 5: This environment looks very flat and you can see a multiple of issues between transition issues between modular pieces e.g. in the first big screenshot at the top you can see a very harsh cut between the pipes to the panelling which could be done much better, again the same issue about narrative applies to this piece.
- Server: If it's a high poly, present it better, if it's an already baked low-poly then texture it and present it with a breakdown.
- Phantom Phoebe: I'd remove this one altogether
Frosty Giants: I'd remove this altogether
-Townscape: This could do with some additional assets as right now it's very empty and the lighting could do with another pass it's too dark to really see most of the assets.

Everything else seems okay but again consider the idea about narrative since that will really help you take the leap to the next level for your work, think about design and functionality when you build things and question concepts for why they look the way they do... generally the better you get as an artist the more you will ask yourself "Why does this look like this, how does this work" etc and less of "Well, I did this because it looks cool... and I don't know, concept just looks that way" ... Train yourself to be comfortable to speak your thoughts on the matter and you'll be fine

Hope none of this seems harsh and it is all 100% written to help you get better. Sometimes even being told to scrap something is only because most times it's necessary to do so. Purge and rebuild, y'know? haha

Hope that helps man, keep at it.

Des

BlenderCube

Kid.in.the.Dark said:

I feel that your level critically drops as your date back so I'm assuming you're including work you did a while ago.

Yea this is correct, I have constantly asked about removing my old work, but every time I have been told to keep it in. Even with an interviewer this was the case, I really want to remove a lot of this old work so I will probably go down the road of creating another portfolio with just my recent stuff as suggested by Bedrock.

And thank you again yes it all helps.