Please crit my portfolio

[tobbA]

I'm unemployed at the moment. Spending the time I'm not applying for McDonalds jobs to better my art... My goal is to be a freelance illustrator, even though I lean a bit towards the concept art side of things as well. If someone has any tips or crits they'd be very welcome.

Here are some of my pieces:







You can see more at my portfolio site:

http://kallstromart.daportfolio.com/

Thanks

[Hitsu//San]

You seems to be confident with color but you have some troubles about spacial awareness and understanding of dimensions. You might consider to work more on a 3d basis and maybe study a lot about the world cause your themes seems to be very strict (maybe this is only my imagination).

Anyway... i think... well... maybe... would you put your name on your portfolio?

[Shorinji_Knight]

You've already got pretty good skills, but your work is not consistent. The stuff you have in the studies and portraits catagory is far superior to your other work. Give your illustrations the same treament as you did the two still lifes.

[tobbA]

Hitsu: Yeah. Makes sense. I haven't practiced drawing things in perspective a whole lot. I need to start doing more stuff like that. Though I'm not sure what you mean by strict?

And my name was actually in there, until I edited the bio and forgot to put it back... It should be fixed now.

Shorinji: Thanks. Well, I try... But it's a lot harder to draw something from imagination than from life. ^^'

[Hitsu//San]

I mean that you seem to polish your work too much, like if you stay there doing the same stroke 200 times cause you don't like it. It lacks of energy, lacks of mistakes here and there and lacks of looseness some times (i'm not talking about solid mistakes but strokes mistakes). Am i wrong? I'm saying this cause i've seen this situation so many times and your work remembered me this.

[Shorinji_Knight]

Draw from your imagination to get the story and composition then go get references for the individual elements that you're having trouble with. If you are using pictures get a minimum ~4 then combine them -- not talking about straight copying.

Example: Say you are having trouble with shrubbery...
1. Try to draw it from imagination.
2. Go get some refs (doesn't have to be pics, go outside if you have to).
3. Do a few quick studies.
4. Now draw from your imagination with new confidence.
5. Refer back to the refs to make sure its right.
6. Tweak if you have to.

I used to think that it was better to draw everything from your imagination, but I discovered that nobody cares one way or another. Most buyers pay for finished quality not the process.
Your work is already pretty good, but it could be even better with planning and refs.

I don't really see anything wrong with working very tight. Looseness only looks good for people who know how to work tight, but have reached a high enough skill that they don't have to. Imo

[tobbA]

Shorinji. Of course I'm aware of this. And I work from reference for the most part. But the results are usually not the same as when working from life anyway. Unless you've got a very specific reference image that you've shot yourself it still requires a lot of decision making on your part. Besides, it's not allways easy finding reference for everything.

Hitsu Well, actually in the past I've been more concerned with working too loose. I'm trying to get better at putting more time into my stuff. Personally it's a style I like. A bit in the vein of Dan Dos Santos or Dave Palumbo, maybe...

[Hitsu//San]

How much time have you spent for this 3 works we see here? I'm pretty sure you can spend your time in your illustration in a more efficient way but i might be wrong, it depends on time you've put on and your quickness but i thing i've already figured out your workflow more or less.

[tobbA]

Well. It's hard to say. I never timed myself doing them. But the two latter are CHOWs so no more than a week total, on and off for a few hours at a time... The first one almost took a month to finish. But then I didn't spend all my time working on it. And a lot of that time went into repainting the hand and hair quite a few times before I was happy with it...

Sorry, that's as precise as I can be.

[Hitsu//San]

As i thought. I know what you're doing cause i used to be like that. I have some illustration that i've never finished where i put 80 hours into. Now when i look into that shit i'll remember every time what i had to pass trough in order to pass the line from guessing to understanding (the worst of that is into my avatar). Look, you have 2 choices and depends on what you want to do for your career: get rid of that habit to become a concept artist or keep your workflow and become an illustrator. You can become an illustrator even if you get rid of that habit but you can't do anything else. The fact is that you don't know how to build up your images. You might have some clues and you can overcome your problems (i'm talking about making an illustration) eventually but you'll need the time. I understand that some people prefer to work like this cause they really love the relaxation and the drawing process. Personally i've hated to work like this for many years that i barely managed to finish lots of illustration.

If you want to talk more about this topic let me know, i don't want to talk about this stuff unless you ask me cause everyone of us have different ways to work, draw and think. It's too much personal to tell you "hey this is wrong, don't do it". Just think about what i'm saying and you decide if it's ok for you

[tobbA]

Honestly, I don't think I have a "problem" like that. I've allways worked pretty quickly and haven't bothered with spending a lot of time on my images. I've tried to do something about that because I don't feel my work is good enough if I rush it. I've learned that it's ok to spend some time on your stuff and don't feel like you need to be done right away. I don't think that's a weakness in any way. I can see how as a concept artist you need to learn to work quickly, because the business demands it, but I in no way think that's the right (or wrong) way to do it. Even Da Vinci spent ages refining his Mona Lisa. Also, I'm more interested in illustration than Concept Art, which is why I work the way I do for the most part.

I also wish I could work faster, but thing is, if something doesn't look right it's better to correct it than to just let it be. One of the reasons the first image took so much time is because I posted it in the crit center and got a lot of useful advice on how to improve it.

[look]

Hi tobbA, I really like the first one, the color and the way she look at the viewer, it's a really nice piece for the portfolio, except the hand, namely the ring finger and pinky. They look way too awkward IMO.

Instead of spending all your free time on practicing illustration alone, try make time at least once a week to join a figure drawing class. If you can't find one, sketching the sculptures in nearby museums is another option. Or sit at a cafe and do some quick gesture drawings of people's around you. Basically you want to practice as much life drawing as possible. Also carry your business card when you go out and draw. You never know who you'll meet.

[Hitsu//San]

Yeah man, i didn't mean to criticize your work path or your works. With "problems" i was referring to making an illustration, cause you know, doing a job for someone is like solving a problem, like ok my client want a cool female face with a flower, ho do i do it to look cool?

A curiosity about Leonardo, he spent all those years doing the Monna Lisa painting cause he was never happy about the end result cause was a boring job and he stuck trying to make a great paint but in his eyes was never done. That's why he made all those math into the picture, to make it interesting. But take a look at Leonardo live drawings, they're the most beautiful thing he did in his entire life cause they where full of energy and instinct, those studies he did were his passions.

That energy you can communicate through your drawings is the most important thing that you have to keep, it's our sign, i'ts the thing that can distinguish us as artists. That's why i'm so concerned about this stuff.

Anyway i hope i haven't offend you with my words, i'm trying to help not to judge

[tobbA]

look Actually, I go to life drawing every week. And it's not like making illustrations is all I do... I suggest checking out my SB to see more studies and stuff.

Hitsu, I'm not offended, but I'm not sure I agree. I even feel like you're giving me a bit too much credit. Because I don't really spend that much time on my stuff. And my work process I at least want to believe is pretty similar to how most illustrators I know of work.

Anyway, I don't mean to get into an argument about it. Just saying how I feel

[look]

look Actually, I go to life drawing every week. And it's not like making illustrations is all I do... I suggest checking out my SB to see more studies and stuff.

didn't see the links in your signature before. Just checked out now. You got great stuffs in your SB. A lot of them are amazing, namely the figure studies and still life. How come you only posted three of your subpar works here?
And it also confuse me, why not bring the level of awesomeness to your other works? Maybe you explained it somewhere, but I must've missed.

[tobbA]

I posted what I consider to be my best imaginative works. I'm not planning to become a portrait or still life artist... They don't look as good as my still lifes because I don't have the ability to paint from imagination as well I do from life. I've allways thought that was pretty obvious? Like I wrote earlier, it's a lot easier drawing from life than from imagination, even if you're using reference.

[look]

I posted what I consider to be my best imaginative works. I'm not planning to become a portrait or still life artist... They don't look as good as my still lifes because I don't have the ability to paint from imagination as well I do from life. I've allways thought that was pretty obvious? Like I wrote earlier, it's a lot easier drawing from life than from imagination, even if you're using reference.

I agree it's so much easier to paint/draw from life. But at the same time, it shouldn't be a huge gap in between, especially seeing how good you are with life drawings.
I went thru your sketchbook one more time, it looks like the overall forms are pretty consistent between your imaginative and life studies. But the details and texture are usually off. I wonder if it's a matter of memorizing things you learned from life drawing. I agree with Shorinji_Knight's approach, to switch between reference and your imaginations. But maybe try it the other way around. Instead of draw imaginative ones first, just draw a life drawing first. then don't look at the model, and try to redraw what you just did. Maybe that'll help to buildup the memory?

Reason I'm suggesting that approach is because that's how I figure out how to draw things. I started with drawing from imagination, later on I discovered life drawing. While doing life drawing, I noticed so many things I didn't know before, and start to take mental note. Then when I go back to draw from imagination, these mental notes helped a lot.

[tobbA]

I don't know. Maybe I just suck at drawing things from imagination?

Seriously though. It's kinda hard to answer the question why. Why do I do anything? I think a bit of it might have to do with the fact that I've done a lot of studies in traditional media in the past. Which doesn't entirely carry over to photoshop because of the physicality of the tools. And perhaps I've been a bit lazy with my work. And also had some pretty bad painting habits that take time to iron out... Maybe I just don't paint enough from imagination. I feel like I do lots of studies and stuff and get pretty good at it, but maybe I need to practice painting from imagination more? Right now I try to keep it about 50/50.

Reason I'm suggesting that approach is because that's how I figure out how to draw things. I started with drawing from imagination, later on I discovered life drawing. While doing life drawing, I noticed so many things I didn't know before, and start to take mental note. Then when I go back to draw from imagination, these mental notes helped a lot.

Well, yeah. I do that too... But not enough, appearantly.

Trying to draw what I studied before from imagination is something I've been doing quite a bit with the anatomy studies lately, but maybe I should try to do it more often with other things as well...

[look]

but maybe I need to practice painting from imagination more?

usually it'd be the other way around, people needed more life drawing bc they start with drawing from imagination. And it's interesting you are the opposite. Its like instead trying to learn to draw on the right side of the brain, you need to figure out how to draw on left brain.

Learning a new media can be tough, maybe it'd help to ease things a little if you just focus on tradional mediums for now, or even just monotone pencil works. Figuring how to draw imaginatively and a new medium can be really overwhelming.

By the way, maybe you can also try take more progress shots of your works, and later compare your life drawings and imaginative ones stage by stage, it might give you a clue whats missing.

[tobbA]

Well. It's not like I'm new to drawing from imagination. I've been drawing since I was a kid, and I've been using photoshop for several years. So it's not exactly "new." I haven't been doing studies for very long though. Maybe since three to four years back... well. That's not very little either. But still

[Tomahawk Monkey]

Hey man, hopefully this helps. Like some people have mentioned earlier it looks like you're not afraid of color. But one this I would like to point out is your characters and creatures all feel a bit stiff. Their spines have a very stiff gesture to them. Not much contraposto going on.

When working on perspective drawings, when you start to understand how to draw your environments in perspective the next hurdle is going to be drawing your characters to feel weighted in your scene. Good gesture would really help it out a lot.

Your rendering is defiantly getting there and one thing I noticed your images are missing is specular high lights and rim lighting. They are usually the last things you add in but when you do, they really elevate an image and help pull some of the form into your drawing.

I hope this helps.

[tobbA]

Thanks. Yeah. I'm aware that's something I need to get better at. Most of my pieces are just characters standing around in an environment... But at the same time I'm trying to adjust to all the things I've learned lately about color and light and rendering and stuff... So creative expression takes a bit of a back seat. But it's definately something I need to work on.

And specular high lights and rim lights... Well. I try to add them where it makes sense. But it's true it might add a bit more interest...

[Tomahawk Monkey]

That's strange, my portfolio thread just disappeared.