Portfolio Feedback

[Oberyn]

Your stuff is definitely looking not bad, but there are some things you can work on to improve it. Before we discuss that, I'll touch on your bonus question. Understand that the concepting part of the gaming industry is extremely competitive, much moreso than the other branches, and unless you get lucky or have superb networking, you need to be very, very good. Also, nowadays, coming up with neat concepts isn't enough. You need to be able to do everything from the gestural scribbles, all the way to a finished, rendered, colored sell sheet. Ideally, this means characters, weapons, AND environments. Companies are starting to hire concept artists who can consistently perform in the full range. They expect this ability from you. So consider that when putting your portfolio together.
I'm a student myself, and was very interested in getting into the concept part, but I've taken a step back to brush up on things more closely related to my major (modeling/texturing/dig. sculpting, etc) because getting a job as a concept artist is fierce, and I don't feel that I'm quite up to par yet. Hoping to go for concepting once I've got my chops :D

Ok.. for the art itself, there are a few things you should consider that I can see from your link. The first one that jumped out at me was your line weight. Learn to vary your line weight. Play with punchlining. Most of your stuff has a relatively consistent line weight, and that's not so good. You can indicate a lot of volume with nothing more than line weight.

Secondly, work on anatomy. A lot. See if you can find some studios around town that have open house figure drawing sessions, or maybe classes or the like at a local school. Live in it for a while. This is one piece of advice I need to take myself, but my schedule is nuts. ><

Thirdly, try some environments, and focus on perspective and light in both your figure sketches, and in your environments. You need to work on your sense of volume.

Fourth, break your stuff. It's too pretty. Almost everything there looks brand new, and very rarely does anything look that spiffy in real life.

Lastly, avoid falling into the manga trap. I personally don't like manga much, and thus am biased, but... There are tons and tons of people out there who can do great manga, and are utterly terrible at everything else. So much so that it's very easy to be typecast as one of these people if your portfolio has nothing but the manga style in it. It's not bad if this is your speciality, but make absolutely sure you can go outside of it on demand, and can prove it.

I'm attaching a couple of concept pages I did for giggles a few months ago to give you an idea of what I mean by punchlining and line weight and all that. Mine aren't perfect either, but it'll show what I'm talking about. I hope all of this helps!

[CybrGfx]

Hi Mandy!

You definitely show the "hunger" to be an artist. The willingness to put the time and effort into actually drawing and painting a variety of subjects, rather than the same thing 47 different times is good.

Beyond that, though, you still have a VERY long, hard, road ahead of you.

First, the Manga...Yes, you will find a LOT of people (myself included) looking down on it. As Oberyn explained it, it is a trap. What Oberyn was too kind to point out (but I am not ~ I'm about as mean and cruel as you'll find around here....buwahahaha!), is that 99% of the Manga produced is NOT "great Manga," or even "good Manga." It's mostly mediocre to poor drawing in a highly stylized manner that the majority of wannabe's do not even understand beyond pointy chins, tiny half-circle noses, and slender builds...

Unfortunately, your Manga falls into that category...
There is a very old Art truism, that you need to know and understand the "rules" of art, before you can break them, and it is true.

Your DA work shows a decent eye, and a very creative imagination.
It also shows bad anatomy and horrid perspective. The "Dark Knight Hairstyle" shows terrible heads (yes, I know the hair was the focus, but it needs to go on a proper head shape...), and your "Finished Warrior Concept," while displaying a great action stance, is almost cringe-inducing for the neck and shoulder area.

If your "hunger" is serious. I mean Serious.
IF your hunger is serious, you can do this. But you will need to honestly lay down quite a few of your "personal" art style affectations, and get back to CORE basics.

You truly need to work on PERSPECTIVE, for which I strongly recommend you study THIS article/tutorial (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108180), doing ALL the exercises.

I also VERY STRONGLY suggest you download and study the Loomis books, particularly "Figure Drawing for All it's Worth." If you work your way through that book, actually DOING every exercise, within 3 months, you will be in a FAR better position to get a good job in the gaming industry.

You also seriously need to polish your "basic" anatomy. I'm not even talking in-depth, with proper musculature. I'm talking the generalized basics of character design ~ Body= 7.5 headlenghts, Shoulders= 3 headwidths, Upper arms= 1.5 headlenghts, etc...These are globally accepted concept character measurements, providing a "generic" humanoid form. Your works do not show cleanly defined proportions, with some of them drastically off from these standards. It's instantly visible to anyone looking, and believe me, if they are considering hiring you, they will be looking...

You also need to address just how deep IS your hunger?
Your last image upload at DA was 10 days ago. You should seriously be cranking out something every other day at the latest, preferably every day. But, not just sword after sword after sword...There is truly VERY little job opportunities out there for sword drawers...You have too much to learn and perfect to not be working on it every day.

Your character renderings should show front view and side view, and THEN an action pose. Your anatomy skills are truly on display that way, and that is why your portfolio needs to show that.

There is a vast difference between liking to draw, and being willing to work at it. It's not called work for nothing. It truly requires attention, and forethought, and effort. If you are serious about working in this field, you have the potential. Whether you are "hungry" enough for it to put the effort requried into honing your technical skills, is the question only YOU can answer.

I suggest you get a part-time job for now, and give yourself 3-6 months to sharpen some of your skills, and assemble a decent portfolio. At present, what you have posted at DA is NOT portfolio worthy.

While you could start applying for work now, it would be a very discouraging attempt, as you will not get hired with those works, and you may hurt future chances of employment with anyone you apply with, so take that into consideration.

Best of success to you!
~C

[EndoTouch]

I can't give you as much advise as you already have here. Its all very valuable advise. I would like to say that you should make your sketches as appealing as possible. At the moment the look very untidy. People have to want to look at what have, it doesnt matter if your page of chest plates has some crazy designs going if no ones looking because you have messy sketchs. I think this is important since I would assume you'll be hired to do a lot of sketching for whomever.

[Oberyn]

People have to want to look at what have, it doesnt matter if your page of chest plates has some crazy designs going if no ones looking because you have messy sketchs.
I think it is also important to note the difference between messy, and loose.
Many potential employers will like to see loose sketches that tighten up into fantastic work at the end of your concept development, because if it's displayed properly, it gives a succinct view of what your process is. So don't underestimate the power of a gestural sketch. Just don't overdo it, and make sure your finished products are much tighter by comparison.

[MsyT]

Hi Oberyn, CybrGfx and EndoTouch

First off I would like to thank Oberyn and CyrGfx for your detailed feedback its all valuable points and has given me a sense of direction in making improvements. The anatomy issue has been mentioned by the artist at Lionhead Studios as well and I've recently been using the anatomy section of this site and various other sources to start practicing. Although my DA account has been idle for a while, I do sketch everyday, I just don't upload it until I am happy with a piece. I've keep practicing and then upload in bulk on whatever I think is good enough to show. Most of the time when I do like a piece I end up thinking I can do better which prolongs uploading.

I'll try to avoid the manga trap as mentioned in both posts and go back to the basics in anatomy, perspective, and introduce more lighting and shading in my work and environment concepts.

Thank you CyrGfx for reccomending the perspective tutorial link, I've had a look at it and will be doing all the exercises as soon as I am done with this post, I also downloaded the Loomis book you reccomended as well. Thank you Oberyn for showing me examples of punchlining through your attached pieces (they all look great).

Thank you EndoTouch for your input, most of the sketches on DA were loose sketches, I was brainstorming/developing pieces and I'll try to present it better next time.

Overall, I am truly grateful for all the advice and suggestions given. I'll keep referring back to the posts to make sure I've made changes on all aspects I have problems with and lets hope in 3-6months time I've improved enough to become a concept/character artist.

Take care all.

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