Portfolio Advice
I’ve been looking for jobs for quite a while and having no luck, so I would really appreciate some feedback on my portfolio. I’m aiming for something in environment art, and most of my work is a bit cartoony and stylized.
https://www.artstation.com/zorina/albums/2735489
Some problems that I think I have:
-Is my portfolio not specific enough? I tailor it based on the studios I’m applying to and it’s all environments and props, but I worry that I need to get even more specific and focus ONLY on concepts, or modeling, or textures, etc.
-Is my work quality actually good enough to get jobs? It’s so hard to look at my work objectively and see whether or not it’s the quality it needs to be at. Sometimes I end up hating something, but feel it’s still /technically/ good. But I don’t want things in my portfolio that I don’t actually like.
-Do I have any big blind spots? The next projects I plan on doing are a city scene and a scene made of modular assets and trim sheets to demonstrate that I know how to do those things. But is there anything else I’m missing?
-Is it even worth having 2D stuff in my portfolio? I'm looking at a lot of mobile games places and I know 2D indie projects and visual novels and such are still big. And I just like drawing! But I also really enjoy 3D work. Do I HAVE to settle on one or the other?
Some advice would be greatly appreciated. I want to have a solid plan moving forward and hopefully get out of this rut.
Replies
Having a mix of mediums is definitely not a bad thing, and whether you feel you should specialise entirely depends on your goals as an artist.
I would honestly recommend doing a concept to finish piece, which incorporates all of your skills into one (document the process too!), as well as just generally working on having a larger body of high quality work on your portfolio. Half the battle of demonstrating your work is actually showing it effectively.
If you aren't on a time constraint, just keep working on your portfolio, keep working on the things you want to work on, and eventually you will get there. Something that has helped me greatly with improving is talking to other artists, especially if they are more experienced than you, especially if they can give you positive criticism. I don't know how many times I've had my mind blown over something that seems so obvious now, but I was completely oblivious to.
Hope this response helped, and good luck.
Hi,
Positives or Negatives 1st, hmm.
I like this and so do a few others:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQrD9X
Figure since you had this going on :
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xJqDW
You can draw out your environments 1st, conceptualize some neat small area's like this, fill it with cool ideas around a theme and create it in 3D. Then texture them like the 1st link, while doing that try alternative methods, in texturing and stlying the 3D geo. (bascially try things till it works then repeate what works.)
You might be done with this but it still needs works:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bmk6k8
It is not totally bad it just needs better lighting and some more work on the textures, find a piece on artstation the could resemble this piece and target your piece to resemble that one you find impressive.
You do what i mention here:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gJAYBL
You get the views so you got that down, just need to find out how to sort out the scene so it appeals to more viewers, that is where i see you (and i) need work in. I.E. what gets traction, replicate it while doing that find your own style. (some how, trust me idk how maybe someone else does, i won't pretend like boom i had it hiding in my pocket all along, it just happen, and only recently after 20 years, just doing things helps though as you have.)
You are doing well here:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EL2aGe
So you almost got it, that scene looks nice, perhaps a video next time, a turn around and maybe a day and night cycle scene. (have to learn lighting for that)
This one:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DxOX6O
Might work well with the 2D cell technique, probably on the wiki or easiler in the unity engine (idk i read somewhere it was.) wiki is above if unity doesn't have anything like that or its a paid thing, again idk. (lighting need work)
Hope it helps, the pieces i touched on are the one's that stood out to me after viewing the folio. For future reference if you made things you could "re-use", like those chairs in the jeep scene then that might work well in the future to turn out projects faster, need to retexture them though to a new scene. Look into modular asset creation, that might help you out a lot.
Keep in mind I am not an environment specific artist i just like to try everything to find... my mojo. I tried my best and i do not go into depth much as i did in this post so i hope it works.
Hope it helps, take it with a grain of salt and do what you think is best and if you want to completely ignore everything i ever post that is fine also.
I like your lighthouse and moody garage, though I'm not too familiar with stylized enviro techniques so I'm not sure if they are up to "industry standards" or not. As far as I know, there could be an Indi studio out there that's a perfect fit for your current style/skill set.
Also your portfolio seems a little disorganized. Like the environment/prop folder has some concept art and a 2D character in it (Mel's Tattoos, Bernie's Bayou and necro-cat-book) but does not include magical poleaxe, the water tower, or the pier. It might make a little more sense to organize into 2D and 3D, but it's up to you.
Whatever you decide, keep striving to improve and you'll get there eventually. Posting your work in progress projects on here for feedback can help. Or you could look for tutorials on making stylized environments (I just did a quick keyword search for "stylized environment" on 80 Level and there were 3,900 results, ha ha).