How close to pro? Feedback please :)
Author
Hey fellow gameheads.
Was hoping for some feedback and maybe a pointer or two. I would love to turn pro as a concept artist (or any other sort of artist) in the game development field. I guess I am not alone here!
Can I get some feedback on my portfolio, and ideas of what to add? I'm figuring I need more diversity, weapon design, mechanical design, vehicle design, landscape design - maybe even different skillset like modelling and mapping (I'm starting on the basics of those - nothing to show for it yet though)
I have a busy 6-12 months, where I will only be able to add a few more things to my portfolio (not looking to join any projects in that time unless they can forgive my periods of inactivity) so what should I focus on? What will make me irresistable? Or should I honestly just stick to the ranks of amatuer artists?
My artwork is here: Portfolio
There is some fanart there, so character design is not all my own. Specifically the titles "blood_golem" is based on the diablo 2 necromancer and blood golem monster, "dredd" and "slaine" are characters from the 2000AD comic world and the "desert_ranger" was given to me as a colouring task - the original design and pencilled line drawing are not my work.
Your work isn't bad, but you have a long way to go for concept work. Concept art is, from what I hear, one of the hardest fields to break into and succeed at... preproduction jobs are more prestigious and competitive, and the numbers are smaller as well.
My crits would be, your digital paintings reek of being digital paintings. You need much finer brushwork, and you need more interesting colours, especially in your shadows and highlights (ie, Delacroix). Right now, the forms are all right and the anatomy is right (though some of the poses look strange/flat/incorrect), as line drawings they may work, but as paintings they are boring. Also, your characters need to be more interesting, both in design and in representation. Give them an interesting, meaningful pose (the Catalyst girl is quite good). The designs are bland... this is the thing that seperates good concept artists from mediocre ones; their imagination. We don't need artists to draw us what we have already seen 100 times.
You just need to keep practicing, you seem to have skill. However, you need to have more drive as well.
"I have a busy 6-12 months, where I will only be able to add a few more things to my portfolio."
I'm sorry, but that is not acceptable for any game developer, let alone someone who wishes to be a concept artist. What is more important to you? Friday nights at the bar, or Friday nights in front of the computer? Playing your favourite video game, or drawing? If you want to make it into, and in, the industry, you need to work work work. And you need to enjoy doing it. If you don't put in the work, then you probably aren't enjoying it (if you aren't making art to relax as well as improve/work, then its not for you). If you don't enjoy it, you'll never have the drive or time (as drive creates the time) to improve.
Also, check out http://sloperama.com/advice.html . Tom can be found on GameDev daily, and frequents the Business forum here.
My crits would be, your digital paintings reek of being digital paintings. You need much finer brushwork, and you need more interesting colours, especially in your shadows and highlights (ie, Delacroix). Right now, the forms are all right and the anatomy is right (though some of the poses look strange/flat/incorrect), as line drawings they may work, but as paintings they are boring. Also, your characters need to be more interesting, both in design and in representation. Give them an interesting, meaningful pose (the Catalyst girl is quite good). The designs are bland... this is the thing that seperates good concept artists from mediocre ones; their imagination. We don't need artists to draw us what we have already seen 100 times.
You just need to keep practicing, you seem to have skill. However, you need to have more drive as well.
"I have a busy 6-12 months, where I will only be able to add a few more things to my portfolio."
I'm sorry, but that is not acceptable for any game developer, let alone someone who wishes to be a concept artist. What is more important to you? Friday nights at the bar, or Friday nights in front of the computer? Playing your favourite video game, or drawing? If you want to make it into, and in, the industry, you need to work work work. And you need to enjoy doing it. If you don't put in the work, then you probably aren't enjoying it (if you aren't making art to relax as well as improve/work, then its not for you). If you don't enjoy it, you'll never have the drive or time (as drive creates the time) to improve.
Also, check out http://sloperama.com/advice.html . Tom can be found on GameDev daily, and frequents the Business forum here.
Author
Thanks Professor420 - that is exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for.
After reading your post, the things that you said make a lot of sense. I need that extra outside perspective to find the edge needed to go from being "has some potential" to being "professional level"
I guess concept art needs to have some instant impact. It needs to explain, through body language etc, the nature of the character. (Flat is ok for 3D modelling templates but that is a different skill yet again)
You are also so very, very right when you talk about how competetive this field is. "Good" isn't good enough - I am gonna have to stand out to have a chance.
I think my next step will be to make some more "character" based and interesting concept sketches.
Thanks again! :D
After reading your post, the things that you said make a lot of sense. I need that extra outside perspective to find the edge needed to go from being "has some potential" to being "professional level"
I guess concept art needs to have some instant impact. It needs to explain, through body language etc, the nature of the character. (Flat is ok for 3D modelling templates but that is a different skill yet again)
You are also so very, very right when you talk about how competetive this field is. "Good" isn't good enough - I am gonna have to stand out to have a chance.
I think my next step will be to make some more "character" based and interesting concept sketches.
Thanks again! :D
from your renderings I can tell that you are dedicated to what you are doing, this is very good. Most artists lack of traditional training, I know it sounds boring, I know it can be very frustrating but imho you need more anatomy knowledge.
I think ou should start a sketchbook at cgtalk.com http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=200
or conceptar.org and get critiques there.
when you fully grab the basics of the human figure you'll enjoy drawing much more and you'll create time for drawing more often.
as Professor420 stated, nobody is interested in poses, designs, gestures they've seen before.
here's what i did and still doing; I set up a plan for myself, it'll probably take two years or so to finish this plan...but if I/you want to do this for the rest of your life I/you have to sharpen my/your pencils.
- Learn structure
- Learn values, tone, light
- Keep learning structure
- Learn more than human anatomy, cats, canines, insects, fish...anything goes.
- Start learning color theory
- Learn some art history and study some master paintings by means of composition, color
- After you are comfortable with your anatomy knowledge and you can draw the human figure well, start coloring.
- Practice...A LOT.
here's my sketchbok at cgtalk http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=420095 if you start one there, it is guarenteed that you'll progress a lot faster than your own.
take care, hope to see you around.
I think ou should start a sketchbook at cgtalk.com http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=200
or conceptar.org and get critiques there.
when you fully grab the basics of the human figure you'll enjoy drawing much more and you'll create time for drawing more often.
as Professor420 stated, nobody is interested in poses, designs, gestures they've seen before.
here's what i did and still doing; I set up a plan for myself, it'll probably take two years or so to finish this plan...but if I/you want to do this for the rest of your life I/you have to sharpen my/your pencils.
- Learn structure
- Learn values, tone, light
- Keep learning structure
- Learn more than human anatomy, cats, canines, insects, fish...anything goes.
- Start learning color theory
- Learn some art history and study some master paintings by means of composition, color
- After you are comfortable with your anatomy knowledge and you can draw the human figure well, start coloring.
- Practice...A LOT.
here's my sketchbok at cgtalk http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=420095 if you start one there, it is guarenteed that you'll progress a lot faster than your own.
take care, hope to see you around.
Author
Thanks for taking the time to reply, glassflakes.
I know what you mean about anatomy, I consider it like the bread and butter of a good artist - if you can't do it then you will be very limited. Luckily it is a fascinating topic, and one that almost every artist enjoys. I can see that you love studying it, and I enjoy it too! BTW, I like the way you use the colour, shading, tone etc in your work - very nice.
As to not making time - trust me, it hurts that I cant put more in. But working full time, studying my last year of uni full time and having my first baby on the way makes for a really tight schedule. So now I am focussing on the main areas - I know it's not something that can be rushed, improvement takes time, but I gotta do what I can in what time I have. :S
So far, I think the feedback points towards working on more interesting character usage and keeping the overall use of colour, tone, shadows and light balanced and interesting as well. That's cool, and it all makes sense - and at last noone has told me that it's a lost cause! ;)
I know what you mean about anatomy, I consider it like the bread and butter of a good artist - if you can't do it then you will be very limited. Luckily it is a fascinating topic, and one that almost every artist enjoys. I can see that you love studying it, and I enjoy it too! BTW, I like the way you use the colour, shading, tone etc in your work - very nice.
As to not making time - trust me, it hurts that I cant put more in. But working full time, studying my last year of uni full time and having my first baby on the way makes for a really tight schedule. So now I am focussing on the main areas - I know it's not something that can be rushed, improvement takes time, but I gotta do what I can in what time I have. :S
So far, I think the feedback points towards working on more interesting character usage and keeping the overall use of colour, tone, shadows and light balanced and interesting as well. That's cool, and it all makes sense - and at last noone has told me that it's a lost cause! ;)
I don't think this is a war you can lose. trust me you will be in a studio doing concept art two years later if you study hard. yay for the baby :D
The first thing that jumped at me when I loaded your page is how much you use black for shadows and white for highlights. Try using warm lights, cool shadows (or the opposite) and see your colors come to life. Using black to shade skintones is especially detrimental as it makes the skin look muddy.
Author
Right now I am playing around with just those very ideas you have mentioned :)
Previous posts have also pointed in the same direction. Warm light, cool shadows and playing with secondary light sources to complement these. Or reversing it for effect. (I think the overuse of blacks comes from my love of comic books, it seems to have influenced it that direction somehow)
I have been looking at pictures and researching just for these effects, and can see how using these wrongly will make a picture flat or uninteresting, but using them right will make it come to life.
Thanks for the feedback. When I get some time I intend to post some more images based on just what I have heard in this thread to see what sort of improvements it has made to my style. But I dont think it will be in the next week or so. :(
Previous posts have also pointed in the same direction. Warm light, cool shadows and playing with secondary light sources to complement these. Or reversing it for effect. (I think the overuse of blacks comes from my love of comic books, it seems to have influenced it that direction somehow)
I have been looking at pictures and researching just for these effects, and can see how using these wrongly will make a picture flat or uninteresting, but using them right will make it come to life.
Thanks for the feedback. When I get some time I intend to post some more images based on just what I have heard in this thread to see what sort of improvements it has made to my style. But I dont think it will be in the next week or so. :(
Author
Here is the first attempt at improvement from the feedback provided.
The only improvement being worked on here is in the usage of colour differently - trying to avoid using black and white for the highlights, using contrasting colours, warm and cool for effect.
Please note, this isn't working on other suggestions yet, such as poses etc...
The only improvement being worked on here is in the usage of colour differently - trying to avoid using black and white for the highlights, using contrasting colours, warm and cool for effect.
Please note, this isn't working on other suggestions yet, such as poses etc...
This topic is closed to new replies.
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