Portfolio Review - How bad is it?

Maned_Wolf

Hey. Someone mentioned I can request portfolio review/critiques on this site? This seems like the right place, but I'm not 100% sure. If it's incorrect please let me know.

Anyways, despite having prior experience in concept art I'm struggling finding a new job again in the same field. Honestly I'm at a crossroads at the moment contemplating a possible career change. So please give me a reality check based on my portfolio. 

By the way I've long settled with the idea of working for smaller studios. I'm well aware my work is not suited for AAA game studios for example.

Link: https://www.artstation.com/nicolaasfrankefort

BagelHero

I mean... I'm not sure what about your work makes it unsuitable for AAA studios other than... content? I assume you're drawing what you want to draw. You do it well. I think you should be applying to those studios anyway, you never know when the tides might cross over onto the work you like to do.

It seems like it might be a bit slow overall at the moment, though I'm sure you wouldn't be posting if this wasn't a trend for a while now. But do be sure you're also making it as easy as possible to hire you outside of the actual quality of your work. too.

You might need to trim back your folio to some of your best pieces that really show what you can and want to do.

• personally I really like your penguins. they're cool. A more flattering render of the sculpt might be nice (larger doc size, no gradient, don't know what matcap you're using but... not that one).
• Jotr is kinda messy, and the best part of him in my opinion is the little pose shots down the bottom. Casts doubts on your ability to render cleanly maybe? Most of your other work, that's kind of a strong point of yours I feel like, but not here. Maybe replace or remove?
• Little witches house: very cute, I like it! The problem with this is that you say "this one sucks". Even if it's true that the one with lines in more appealing, do not say that about your own work in a portfolio because people will pick up on it and be like "oh yeah this one DOES suck lets forget this guy actually". If it sucks that bad, remove that part of the piece; else just remove that caption. Same for the Herah Adaaar piece.
  
• Your dinosaur mounts are cool! The ceratopsian is great, though it feels a little cramped in by the border. very small thing, don't think it changes much in this case.
• Abandoned Cabin starting a trend in your work of nice cozy interiors. Its Just Good !
• Residential building on its own is a bit weak. Since its in your folio now, is it safe to assume it didn't get your hired at Innogames? I dunno man. The bottom part is really strong, but the roof (arguably the actual focal point) is a bit weak and I couldn't quite tell what it was from the thumbnail. I don't wanna say nix it entirely, but... it feels like on its own as it currently stands, it's not really portfolio worthy.
• Rogue Moon, cool. Yacht, cool (maybe needs an indication of size). Drone Hive, cool. All three of these together show ability to design pretty cool vehicles/crafts and render neatly. I'd say keep these and keep them grouped together like you have.
• Not sure about the Hut. Something about the scaling seems off. Its kind of cute but I'm not sure it's a portfolio piece.
• Not sure why your Cyberverse stuff is below that one. Needs to be higher up. I suppose if you're not keen on doing more of it that's fair, but it's all really good. Certainly higher than the hut...!
• Mushroom Queen is cute. Kinda similar to the issues I had with the Hut.
• Gone Fishin' goes well with the other creature and 'saur pieces.
• Trolls Hut still good. If they're all the one piece each, you could maybe stand to combine the Little Witch, the Cabin and the troll's Hut into one piece labeled "interiors" or something but depends on if you want to do more interiors, in which case being able to see them all at a glance right away would be a benefit still.
• Redcap is cool, a little odd to have like... just the One humanoid design that's 2+ years old. But like it's cool so the solution is to maybe do a few more designs in that vein? Unless you're not interested in doing that in which case don't and maybe take this piece out or combine it into some other "category" piece.
• Flying Junk: ehh...? the callout in the bottom left is cool but otherwise this piece is a bit lacklustre. Swan: with the other vehicles you have, it doesn't feel as out of place, but it seems like not your strongest piece in terms of design. the presentation is good though. Same for the Roadster. Nyx is super cool but the beauty render is kind of hard to read. Don't expect you to do anything about it because it's 3 years old but worth saying I guess. Shuffle it out sooner than later if you can...? Rhumb Line Monowing was underwhelming at first but I really like it now. Maybe group some of these together.
  
• Environment studies are nice, maybe group them all together and add newer ones if you've done any. Else, not sure if they should be hereeeee...?
  
• NADDPOD sketches: not portfolio worthy AND old. Toss. Character Exploration sketches: similar, but kind of bolster your creature work a bit. Maybe just needs better presentation if you still really like them and have no newer character/creature sketches you could replace these with.  Armour is cool, goes nicely with the mount pieces.
• Woods beast: Cool, hands seem underdeveloped. Forest Devil: VERY cool, face and colors seem underdeveloped which kinda lets it down. Would like to see more of this guy. Sloth Creature: ADORE THIS. Maybe group these pieces up if you wanna keep them.
  
• Beast of Burden: as they are now, I'd remove them... but redoing them might be a nice project. Your newer mount piece shows how far you've come in terms of designs like these, and with presentation; I think they'd be knock out if you finished or redid them but right now... they're rough and mostly serve to bring into question if the quality of your other one was a fluke.
• Trolls/sketches: not portfolio item, old, make your work look worse than it is. Nix these.
• AGE of SAURIA: school project, probably remove off folio though keeping this up somewhere is fine, I like it and it explains why you have so many dino mounts haha. Danger Dash: similar issues.
  

Final thoughts: not sure what you enjoy doing the most, or what you want to do. It wouldn't hurt to focus your portfolio down a little more maybe. Additionally; there's too much here if it's the portfolio you link when applying. Quality over quantity, and cycle out old junk for new, better stuff. It was hard for me to quantitively say "oh, get rid of this, or add this and you'll be golden!" or "combine these for easier viewing" because I'm not quiiiiiite sure what your goals are for when someone takes a look at your portfolio, what you want people to notice about your work or stay with them when they've left the site.

By the by, If you still love this stuff, you're good. You don't need to change careers even in a realist sense. But if you're not having fun and the idea of a path change genuinely looks more exciting... do remember you're not bound here, and you're not going to be outcast if you decide you want to do this again after doing something else. Sometimes new scenery is needed. Follow your heart and prospects, etc etc Sorry for the wall of text!

Maned_Wolf

Wow, thank you for the detailed feedback! I was not expecting this, honestly. Guess I’ll have to rearrange and remove some stuff. I’ll address below some things you mentioned.

“I mean... I'm not sure what about your work makes it unsuitable for AAA studios other than... content?”

Overall quality I guess. It doesn’t feel industry standard. I can’t paint and do realism that well. My stuff looks very, I dunno… cartoonish?

“not sure what you enjoy doing the most, or what you want to do. It wouldn't hurt to focus your portfolio down a little more maybe. Additionally; there's too much here if it's the portfolio you link when applying. Quality over quantity, and cycle out old junk for new, better stuff. It was hard for me to quantitively say "oh, get rid of this, or add this and you'll be golden!" or "combine these for easier viewing" because I'm not quiiiiiite sure what your goals are for when someone takes a look at your portfolio, what you want people to notice about your work or stay with them when they've left the site.”

I’m not sure either. Creatures, spaceships and interiors are what I like to design the most but I kind of like them all equally. My mindset was also to have varied folio content so as to show flexibility in different subjects in hopes to gain a wider appeal from potential employers. But maybe this actually has the opposite effect?

“By the by, If you still love this stuff, you're good. You don't need to change careers even in a realist sense. But if you're not having fun and the idea of a path change genuinely looks more exciting... do remember you're not bound here, and you're not going to be outcast if you decide you want to do this again after doing something else. Sometimes new scenery is needed. Follow your heart and prospects, etc etc”

I do like it. The problem is I’m not getting hired. I can only wait so long and handle so much rejection before I start questioning if I actually have a future in this anymore… I’m pretty slow also, which is what may be killing my performance with these art tests. That and I feel like the people issuing these tests generally like my stuff but then make a bad judgment on my capabilities based on my portfolio.

BagelHero

Hey, no problem at all. I was surprised to see how you felt when I saw the general quality level in your portfolio. You're good.

In terms of the "quality", there are tonnes of AAA artists that do stylized work intentionally, but I would venture just as many who do stylized work/not-entirely-realistic work and just get away with it. Not every AAA studio is Ubisoft or Naughty Dog! And you know not every concept artist does those pretty matte paintings they show off in art books and marketing.

Here are some not-quite-realistic-in-terms-of-rendering-but-they-work-on-AAA-games folks who I personally admire, might give you some ideas. I know there are tonnes more and I know a bunch of them would be up your alley specifically thinking of your dino/creature work but I'm just awful with names off the top of my head. Definitely try to find and follow some artists (ideally in-work) that create similar stuff to you on Artstation, its a lazy form of networking but at the very least it's inspiration.

https://www.artstation.com/mattrhodes
https://www.artstation.com/hethe
https://www.artstation.com/daven

https://www.artstation.com/mandersmash

https://www.artstation.com/kejun66
https://www.artstation.com/dannygardner

Obviously a bunch of these guys are still high level, can paint, whatever. But their consistent strong point is their designs, more than their style or rendering. If you're frustrated that you aim for realism and get kind of cartoony, you may need to study more (which.. always sucks, but hey an artist's always learning), but it shouldn't inhibit you from getting a job especially when cartoony AAA is totally a thing right now.

I also think you're being a bit too hard on yourself. From my perspective, you seem more than capable of producing a high level of work. it's normal to doubt and good to know you could maybe be doing better, but I'm here to tell you there's people in the industry right now that do work like yours. You are good enough, it's just about getting the opportunity to show it.

re: specialization vs showing you're flexible, you can show a few different kinds of things at once, sometimes, you don't have to be hyperfocused and, in my opinion at least, in the indie space being specialized can definitely harm you when they need a full time employee, but yeah I'd definitely say to play to your strengths. Like, show your strongest Creature work, spaceship stuff and interiors... but probably not too much much else, because that already covers a lot of ground. I appreciated that you showed some Zbrush/3D knowledge, that's great, can't go wrong with prop work and professional paid work like your transformers stuff (which is all great too), but that serves to supplement your strengths with creature design and interiors and vehicles, it works to bolster it. Definitely, I think including stuff that casts too wide a net can have the effect of looking "unsure" or bringing down the general overall quality + it brings in the factor that you may get hired to do something you actually hated doing, or at least don't envision yourself doing every day which.... well even if it sounds ok now when you're desperate for work, it... I mean it sucks, haha. It's better to try and head that off I think.

For what its worth, I'm also very slow so solidarity there. I do think it's important to reflect on each art test as time passes and figure out where you really went wrong. Taking a while can be a consideration, but as long as you meet their general timeframe you should be ok. It may be worth taking some time to knock out a new folio piece or two if you can, and focus on finishing them and seeing if there's something you can do to speed up your workflow (or at the very least, spot where you take the most time).

Not much advice on the rejection front. It's pretty consistent in this industry and it blows, and you rarely get feedback out of it... So you kind of have to distance yourself from it just enough to try and not... take it too personally, I guess. It's really tough and its not fair, but what can you do but wait until you've got a fresher portfolio to try again? It's important to take it as a sign you could be doing better, but not a sign that you're a hopeless case because the industry is cramped. There are a million reasons your resume or folio might have been trashed that have nothing to do with you or your work, it's just that there's always room for improvement, AND there are 1923838349474 people applying for most gigs or to most studios in general.

The waiting is the part that concerns me the most because obviously you've bills and life to take care of, very few people can just put everything on hold until their portfolio is just so good people can't not hire them. I think you have good prospects when it comes to the quality of your work, so if you can hold out for a little while longer and perhaps casting a wider net with your submissions, applications, and networking might be the best thing you can do besides plain old continuing to make art.

Seriously hoping for the best, good luck.

EDIT: also only explaining all of this just in case. I'm sure you already know a fair bit of this, its just worth repeating sometimes

Maned_Wolf

Thank you BagelHero. I appreciate the thorough responses and the time you put in to write these up. Thanks to you I feel a lot more positive now.

I think I will dedicate a few weeks to revamping some of my older pieces and of course remove, rearrange and group some stuff together for a hopefully more attractive-looking portfolio.