Please help evaluate my university portfolio!

Roxirin

Hi there! I'll be applying for game art at uni in the next month or so and I could really do with some feedback on my portfolio! It's not quite done, but I've gathered traditional and digital pieces that I think are good representations of my skill.

Things I'm going to add:

- A couple of life studies of buildings/interiors
- A piece of concept art I'm reworking for the game I'm helping make
- Maybe another still life of an object

Is there anything else you think I need in there? Should I include more of my digital/personal stuff? Also is there anything on there now that you think I should take out? Any help is super appreciated

https://www.artstation.com/jessjuliananstey

Thanks in advance!

Camille Kuo

if for applying a school, I think that's definitely enough.

Roxirin

Glad you think so @Camille Kuo ! I'm sorta starved for feedback so any further comments or tips would be really appreciated, thanks for your time

lotet

what type of school are you applying for? is it animation? 3D? concept art?
also, where do you live?

Roxirin

lotet said:

what type of school are you applying for? is it animation? 3D? concept art?
also, where do you live?

All universities, for a Game Art course. I'm in the UK.

lotet

Ok, here we go.

First of im not gonna lie to you, I think the quality is a bit on the low end, (not much, but a bit).
Looking at your artstation there should be way more stuff there as well. right now it kinda looks like art is more of a hobby, you dont  draw a lot and dont have much to show.

if you wanna do game art I would recommend getting more digital stuff in there, to show your interested in the digital medium. 

as for subject matter, I think you could benefit having more elves, orcs, sci-fi ships, aliens, guns, weapons and so on, basically  subjects that would appear in games.

as for your actual work, the fox, the traditional landscape drawing and the hyenas are pretty good.
The car and your figure drawing is probably hurting more then helping, since its showing a lot of your flaws, then again, it might give you extra points showing that your attending figure drawing in the first place.

your digital pieces are OK, the landscape is descent, but the blue lion might give of a deviantart/anime wibe from you which might hurt you in some cases depending on who reviews you, anime and furrys can be controversial subjects to teachers.

Roxirin

lotet said:

Ok, here we go.

First of im not gonna lie to you, I think the quality is a bit on the low end, (not much, but a bit).
Looking at your artstation there should be way more stuff there as well. right now it kinda looks like art is more of a hobby, you dont  draw a lot and dont have much to show.

if you wanna do game art I would recommend getting more digital stuff in there, to show your interested in the digital medium. 

as for subject matter, I think you could benefit having more elves, orcs, sci-fi ships, aliens, guns, weapons and so on, basically  subjects that would appear in games.

as for your actual work, the fox, the traditional landscape drawing and the hyenas are pretty good.
The car and your figure drawing is probably hurting more then helping, since its showing a lot of your flaws, then again, it might give you extra points showing that your attending figure drawing in the first place.

your digital pieces are OK, the landscape is descent, but the blue lion might give of a deviantart/anime wibe from you which might hurt you in some cases depending on who reviews you, anime and furrys can be controversial subjects to teachers.

Thank you for your honest feedback, it's appreciated.

I have been told by the universities that they are mostly looking for art to show that you can draw at a foundation level (so traditional pencil work, still lifes, human life studies, that sort of thing) rather than digital, although you are welcome to include anything that you did in your spare time for fun digitally also. They wanted figure drawing so I've had to include the only figure drawings I've been able to do (I live in a rural area so there aren't a lot of classes like that freely available) X) I know they're not perfect, but they're the first figure drawings I've ever done so I would hope I'd get better over time.

Thanks for the advice regarding subject matter, I do have an 'alien mount' concept which I haven't finished, which I want to put in there. They said they like to see your thought process when designing things too.

Can I ask, if I may, what is less good about the car? I don't think I'm at a high enough artistic level to see what's wrong with it; perhaps it was because I finally figured out how to use watercolours properly for the first time doing that piece? It is also slightly warped due to the paper crinkling when I painted on it, so that might be the problem.

I mostly included the lion as it won first place in a character art contest recently. They wanted examples of achievements and art pieces you're proud of, so I thought it might be a noteworthy entry. That and I think it doesn't do a terrible job of showing off my colour and rendering skills. The course did specifically say they do not want examples of anime or manga-styled people, however I would argue that the creature drawn is neither of those things; simply a fantasy animal drawn in a partially-cartoony style. If nothing else, the level of shading sets it back from the manga and anime genres.

Again thanks very much, all my feedback so far has been just 'wow this is awesome!' so it's sort of nice to have someone level with me for a change. God, now that I think about it that sounded narcissistic. I didn't mean to sound boastful, it's just nice to get... y'know. ACTUAL feedback and critique.

Roxirin

lotet said:

Ok, here we go.

First of im not gonna lie to you, I think the quality is a bit on the low end, (not much, but a bit).
Looking at your artstation there should be way more stuff there as well. right now it kinda looks like art is more of a hobby, you dont  draw a lot and dont have much to show.

if you wanna do game art I would recommend getting more digital stuff in there, to show your interested in the digital medium. 

as for subject matter, I think you could benefit having more elves, orcs, sci-fi ships, aliens, guns, weapons and so on, basically  subjects that would appear in games.

as for your actual work, the fox, the traditional landscape drawing and the hyenas are pretty good.
The car and your figure drawing is probably hurting more then helping, since its showing a lot of your flaws, then again, it might give you extra points showing that your attending figure drawing in the first place.

your digital pieces are OK, the landscape is descent, but the blue lion might give of a deviantart/anime wibe from you which might hurt you in some cases depending on who reviews you, anime and furrys can be controversial subjects to teachers.

Oh, and I forgot to add that it's worth noting the course I am applying for is a Bachelor's degree. I'm not out of college yet. (I'm not sure what that is where you live, if you're not in the UK... I suppose it's 'senior year' or 'grade 12' in America. Not sure about other countries.) Point is, my art level has yet to develop fully as I'm not even out of secondary school yet.

(I really like your recent work for that LoL competition by the way, your 3D renders are really crisp! I aspire to that one day.)

lotet

OK, good to know you have a though process behind your work. hopefully you can put some of the things you wrote here to go with your application as well. for the Lion I agree with you, its a nice example of rendering, and if it won a contest definitely keep it!

as for the car its a combination of what you mentioned yourself, and some skewed perspective and wobbly lines here and there.

if you dont have the option to take figure drawing classes, draw from photos as well, its not as good but its better then nothing

If they are looking to see your though process, try to get some design variations and thumbnail silhouettes of something in there as well if you can.

and thanks for the kind words
good luck!

Roxirin

lotet said:

OK, good to know you have a though process behind your work. hopefully you can put some of the things you wrote here to go with your application as well. for the Lion I agree with you, its a nice example of rendering, and if it won a contest definitely keep it!

as for the car its a combination of what you mentioned yourself, and some skewed perspective and wobbly lines here and there.

if you dont have the option to take figure drawing classes, draw from photos as well, its not as good but its better then nothing

If they are looking to see your though process, try to get some design variations and thumbnail silhouettes of something in there as well if you can.

and thanks for the kind words
good luck!

((Good news: I got in! Currently coming towards the end of my first term studying game art at uni and loving every minute Thanks again for your previous feedback!))

lotet

Roxirin said:

lotet said:

OK, good to know you have a though process behind your work. hopefully you can put some of the things you wrote here to go with your application as well. for the Lion I agree with you, its a nice example of rendering, and if it won a contest definitely keep it!

as for the car its a combination of what you mentioned yourself, and some skewed perspective and wobbly lines here and there.

if you dont have the option to take figure drawing classes, draw from photos as well, its not as good but its better then nothing

If they are looking to see your though process, try to get some design variations and thumbnail silhouettes of something in there as well if you can.

and thanks for the kind words
good luck!

((Good news: I got in! Currently coming towards the end of my first term studying game art at uni and loving every minute Thanks again for your previous feedback!))

Congrats!