[Concept Portfolio] tear me a new art hole!

pixelherder

hello polycounters!


I've been hammering away at the art forge for a while now, trying to put together an illustration/concept art portfolio with an eye on one day getting some occasional freelance work of some sort when i'm not too busy with the day job

http://pixelherder.carbonmade.com/projects/3231261

So thats what i've got to show for myself - i've obviously focussed on certain genres more than others, but bearing that in mind, if anyone has any advice, crits or miscellaneous tough-but-fair feedback, i'm all ears

So if anyones read this far, thanks!

Shiniku

Wow, really great work you've got there!

I'm not much of a concept artist so i don't much much to say. But, i will say I like your environments and your more stylized characters best. I'd say your more realistic characters still have a few awkward anatomy glitches that keep it from looking on par with the rest of your work (In the faces in particular.)

Don't get me wrong it's still all very good, but when I look at the environments I see some pro-level work, when I look at your space marine's face or that female character, I just don't.

low odor

great work man! ..Mr Bongo is my favorite piece

My only crit is that the zbrush piece looks a little bit to0 grainy, maybe pull back the noise a bit...the presentation is great because I do not have to click anything...maybe add a contact email on all you images... good luck!

fightpunch

You have some really solid work man, a lot to be proud of.

I think you could remove a couple of pieces to make the whole thing stronger cos at the minute a few are of a much lower quality than the rest and this really stands out. I would remove the environment piece directly below the submarine image as well as the big goat headed monster and possibly the female scientist designs. Remember your folio is only as good as your worst piece and these 3 in my opinion hurt it.

In terms of general tips I'd recommend pushing your values a bit more, especially in the environments. All crits aside though dude this is some really good work, Mr Bongo in particular is excellent

Alberto Rdrgz

Love those concepts!

Der Hollander

Really cool action shots, and I dig zombie Monroe a ton. I think my favorite shot (one I'd like to see near the top of your page) is the dude on the jetbike chasing the manta ray. That is seriously a killer piece.

a nitpick: Your Space Marine's bolter needs a serious rework in the clip and in the barrel size, and overall he should be a lot chunkier. He's the Space Marines the other Space Marines beat up and take his lunch money right now.

[edit] I stated the nitpick because you're drawing a character from a very iconic and recognizable universe, and it's not hitting it. I can tell that it's a Space Marine, but you aren't hitting the concept, and it just doesn't feel like 40k. Something to keep in mind.

seforin

Ok the biggest thing I see Is your portable robot suitcase needs To show a illustration of its transformation sequence for both a modeler and animator to clearly portray correctly. If I were to be given a concept like that I would near flip a table trying to figure out how to fit everything together proper while still retraining the original style/shape.

Again stated above your space marine bolt gun needs to be bigger. But asside from that everything is extremely solid. Your env's really portray mood and lighting well and dont muddle details to much. I can easily see some of these being turned into 3D with no issues.

nordahl154

I love how you give volume to some of your concepts, it really brings them alive!

pixelherder

just a quick check-in to say thanks for the feedback - cant say more right now, but will get back to you all in a bit more detail tomorrow. Thanks again for all the comments!

konstruct

seeeeeeeex

Rico

Sweet stuff man!

Really dig your environments and your more illustrative pieces!

That Zombie Monroe would make a sweet tattoo!

Slum

You have a lot of neat paintings - but not a lot of actual "concept" art. Specifically, there's not much in there that indicates a strong sense of design. Clearly you can paint, but a concept artist probably spends more time "designing" than actually painting detailed purdy pictures.

You need more actual design stuff like this:

http://m.cmcdn.net/12943716/780x438.jpeg

Grantd, there are definitely different types of concept art, but it cant help to show multiple sides (environment set-piece mood paints, and more practical production design).

Have a look at my buddy Eliott Lilly's portfolio. http://eliottlillyart.com/

There's a good balance of detailed paintings and actual asset design.

cholden

Mr Bongo's Rage Meter is at MAX!

Tenchi

Some beautiful art! ^^

Coridium

Hey mate, cool stuff! All of it is really nice, personally I really like the chamaeleon and the UNS environment (has a great "aliens" type vibe to it)! Want to see more!!!

pixelherder

Shiniku wrote: »

I'm not much of a concept artist so i don't much much to say. But, i will say I like your environments and your more stylized characters best. I'd say your more realistic characters still have a few awkward anatomy glitches that keep it from looking on par with the rest of your work (In the faces in particular.)

point taken! going to be doing MOAR character work in the immediate future

low odor wrote: »

great work man! ..Mr Bongo is my favorite piece

My only crit is that the zbrush piece looks a little bit to0 grainy, maybe pull back the noise a bit...the presentation is great because I do not have to click anything...maybe add a contact email on all you images... good luck!

gotcha - will look into doing both at the weekend

fightpunch wrote: »

You have some really solid work man, a lot to be proud of.

I think you could remove a couple of pieces to make the whole thing stronger cos at the minute a few are of a much lower quality than the rest and this really stands out. I would remove the environment piece directly below the submarine image as well as the big goat headed monster and possibly the female scientist designs. Remember your folio is only as good as your worst piece and these 3 in my opinion hurt it.

completely agree, so theres going to be some selective pruning to keep the quality up

Alberto Rdrgz wrote: »

Love those concepts!

thank you!

Der Hollander wrote: »

a nitpick: Your Space Marine's bolter needs a serious rework in the clip and in the barrel size, and overall he should be a lot chunkier. He's the Space Marines the other Space Marines beat up and take his lunch money right now.

[edit] I stated the nitpick because you're drawing a character from a very iconic and recognizable universe, and it's not hitting it. I can tell that it's a Space Marine, but you aren't hitting the concept, and it just doesn't feel like 40k. Something to keep in mind.

fair crits - i plan on doing some more wh40k stuff, and will keep trying to push things further.

seforin wrote: »

Ok the biggest thing I see Is your portable robot suitcase needs To show a illustration of its transformation sequence for both a modeler and animator to clearly portray correctly. If I were to be given a concept like that I would near flip a table trying to figure out how to fit everything together proper while still retraining the original style/shape.

dont flip the table!!! that piece was more of a pitch idea for that particular weapon, so the mechanics werent worked out. At all. Might be worth revisting to do what you suggest though!

nordahl154 wrote: »

I love how you give volume to some of your concepts, it really brings them alive!

konstruct wrote: »

seeeeeeeex

nice of you to say sirs!

dustinbrown wrote: »

You've got some really nice stuff there. I'm not a concept artist, so take this with a grain of salt, but I really like how your environment work is a bit more loose and painterly. I would like to see you introduce a more of that into your characters. Currently your character work feels like a series of primitive geometric bits: Here's a shoulder simple pad, here's a simple shin guard, here's a spiky bit. they don't feel cohesive, they feel...piecey. Try using some techniques to make the various pieces interplay more. Partial overlapping, patterns, more interesting shapes, interweaving areas...that sort of thing.

Again, really nice work so far.

i concur - the pieces i have are the best i have so far, but i take your point at the design elements. Thats definitely an area i'd like to improve

Slum wrote: »

You have a lot of neat paintings - but not a lot of actual "concept" art. Specifically, there's not much in there that indicates a strong sense of design. Clearly you can paint, but a concept artist probably spends more time "designing" than actually painting detailed purdy pictures.

agreed! something i definitely need to do more work on

Slum wrote: »

Grantd, there are definitely different types of concept art, but it cant help to show multiple sides (environment set-piece mood paints, and more practical production design).

Have a look at my buddy Eliott Lilly's portfolio. http://eliottlillyart.com/

that is indeed, a great portfolio!

cholden wrote: »

Mr Bongo's Rage Meter is at MAX!

DAMN STRAIGHT

Tenchi wrote: »

Some beautiful art! ^^

Coridium wrote: »

Hey mate, cool stuff! All of it is really nice, personally I really like the chamaeleon and the UNS environment (has a great "aliens" type vibe to it)! Want to see more!!!

Thanks!

Soooo thats it - in summary, thanks again for the feedback. Cant argue with most of what was said, and it looks like i've got my work cut out for me to tackle some of my weaker areas.

So its back to the drawing board - i'll be dumping things in the WAYWO thread as usual, and if anything makes the grade it'll end up in the portfolio!

[HP]

Slum wrote: »

You have a lot of neat paintings - but not a lot of actual "concept" art. Specifically, there's not much in there that indicates a strong sense of design. Clearly you can paint, but a concept artist probably spends more time "designing" than actually painting detailed purdy pictures.

This is exactly the thoughts that came through my mind when browsing your folio!

Really good stuff tho, good luck!

jmt

Great work.

One thing that bothered me slightly was that the first 8 images (and some later ones) have a large amount of depth of field blur/bloom to them. That effect is cool sometimes, but not really needed in concept art, especially to that extent.

Keep it up!