[Portfolio Review] Concept Art & 2D Art

mattthulhu

Hello everyone,

I've been out of school for a while now and unfortunatly progress is slow going for my portfolio. Lately I have been feeling stuck and unsure of how to improve (Though I know I need to!) I was doing concept design stuff for a while and I recently switched it up a bit to try out doing some more 2D art design, mostly because where I live there are a lot more mobile gamedev studios. 

I'd appreciate any feedback/direction very much!

http://mattcartwrightillustration.com/

Undercurrent32

Hey great art! Your painting skills are definitely there.
Im in a similar position to yours so its hard to find a lot to critique but I think you should take out the floating spheres. The values are good but the brushwork is really messy compared to your other pieces and the theme is generic. Other than that I might recommend working more on designs and maybe whole design projects. Right now everything is very standalone and bizarre, I think I would be wondering if you can really solve visual problems and be consistent?
Sorry if I cant really put this into words well enough. Again, your art skill is very good. I think the Ultralith is especially strong bc of the contrast in materials, colors and shapes. Again, it is very standalone and thus feels a bit random, maybe you can set up more context eg. architecture or inhabitants of this setting.

lotet

Ok. Id say your biggest Issue is your portfolio design.
First of I would merge the two sections you have right now, your "2D art/UI" section isnt really UI at all, its just more concept art, by keeping them separate you only show inexperience. 

secondly, at first glance I didn't even understand the images on your front page where thumbnails with galleries in them. If I had to go through 200 portfolios, I would not spend more then a few seconds looking at each one, so Id say its a pretty big chance an art director is gonna miss that completely. Id say either improve your thumbnails so its clear there is more stuff in there, or show everything up front.

now to the Art.
so for starters its not bad, but to be frank, that doesn't mean anything, thats just qualifies you to the race in the first place.
what you have now is very generic, but also very diffuse if that makes any sense.
where do you wanna work? what type of stuff thats actually applicable to a game or movie company do you want to make?
obviously you cant just scrap your portfolio completely :P but....Id think about phasing out what you have now with more focused work.

I hope that wasn't to harsh and I also hope that wasn't to confusing, if so, let me know and I can try to explain it better

carvuliero

To add something to what lotet said about your website : I personally think that white color should be banned for use in webdesign  it hurt eyes really bad  especially at evening time when environment is darker.I found out that if background is darker then your art it looks better it work as a frame and enhance contrast in the same way .You can do simple test in your favorite image processing software just put one of your piece in white mid gray and dark gray background and see for yourself 

mattthulhu

Thank you all for your feedback! Im going to work on the presentation of the portfolio asap. As for the contents, I wont be able to catch up as quickly but I will work on creating more consistent work to make it flow better (and jsut be more unified in general). 

mattthulhu

lotet said:

now to the Art.
so for starters its not bad, but to be frank, that doesn't mean anything, thats just qualifies you to the race in the first place.
what you have now is very generic, but also very diffuse if that makes any sense.
where do you wanna work? what type of stuff thats actually applicable to a game or movie company do you want to make?
obviously you cant just scrap your portfolio completely :P but....Id think about phasing out what you have now with more focused work.

I hope that wasn't to harsh and I also hope that wasn't to confusing, if so, let me know and I can try to explain it better

Could you expand what you mean by generic though? (specific pieces or the all the portfolio itself, etc) I appreciate the advice,
Thank you!