Portfolio review needed

[Xeon_OND]

Hi guys,

Please visit my portfolio here: http://www.IceMangoTea.com

I would like some honest and specific feedback on what to work on and the direction I should go etc (kinda confused right now).
I personally like illustration but it seems there's more of a market for concept design nowadays, especially for those mobile games company (either way, both don't matter to me as long as I get to draw and paint, even if it's drawing something as mundane as a still life spoon).

Also, one more thing....please be HARSH on me! I really need that!

Thanks!
Xeon

[Hitsu//San]

Ok first: i want to see the high res version of your image in your portfolio ASAP. The portfolio is made for showing your works and skills, why the hell i might want to see a tiny version of something? It's like going to a cinema to view a film half size of the screen. It's ok to have a preview but something like this is not acceptable.

Talking about your paintings well, there's some work to do. Starting to perspective down to proportions and value knowledge you have to study a lot. There are some very visible gaps to fill in your painting technique but the most important thing you want to work on is the designs. Seems to me that you don't know how to design something yet, you just imitate what you see from professionals, this might be ok for learning the basics but you need to learn the process and you need to be sure to be able to deliver a good design when you requested cause if you screw your first jobs because you're not able to design something properly you're really screwing up your career.

Concept art might seem the best call (there's market for both atm) but it's exponentially harder than illustration in terms of design and you really need to know what are you doing on your canvas and why are you doing it. Concept art it's totally not the process of letting your mind free on a page and see what you got.

Maybe i'm being a little too harsh on this but career it's really a serious topic where you need to know what you're doing, especially on this job

[Xeon_OND]

Thanks a lot guys! I'll work on those areas from now on.

I need to clarify three issues:

1) Regarding perspective in my work (those on my website), are there any mistakes? Because I plotted almost everything out with vanishing points (no freehand) before painting, especially the environments.

2) Regarding the problem of value separation, the best way is to render still lifes?

3) I remember watching a video where Feng Zhu says design can't be taught etc, but can it be learned? I wonder if constantly reading concept art books ("the Art of..." books) and movies will help to improve design skills.

Thanks for the advice!
Xeon

[Shorinji_Knight]

You have some good work. I don't like "Corridor to Paradise" because it just doesn't read well. I like the kinda cartoony style you have going on, but I think you need some more realistic stuff too. If your goal was to be an illustrator then you wouldn't need to worry about different styles so much cause you could find a nitch. A concept artist needs more range.

I think the best way to learn design is to save every picture that you instantly connect with. After awhile of doing this go through them and figure out why they work. Look for the simularities. I'm not just talking about art -- any picture, design, illustration, abstract, whatever. Knowing what you like and why is the key to understanding others.

[Whirly]

Im certainly not qualified to give you a portfolio review so apologies if I am cluttering the thread up! I remember seeing your very works in your sketchbook (not that long ago!!!) and you have come so far man its really great getting to see your actual portfolio to see how far you have come. Your a great inspiration and you should be very proud!

Umm something useful to say ... I like your use of colour very much but there could be more going on in terms of design as Hitsu//San. I think maybe a bit of ID study could help you out some

[Hitsu//San]

Feng Zhu says always something almost true (that's cause the topic he talk about is so vast and he need to compress it in a few words), design can't be taught at a certain degree i say. The fact is that actually you can teach to some one what are the mechanics about concept design and what types of choices he should make when designing (so you can teach design basics). What you can't teach is what choices you have to make in order to create great designs, that's cause it's your brain and experience that do the difference.

SO you can learn design basics (pretty easy thing to do anyway) and then you have to work your a** to become good at it

[Whirly]

SO you can learn design basics (pretty easy thing to do anyway) and then you have to work your a** to become good at it

And how would one go about doing that?

[Hitsu//San]

You have to study a lot about tendencies trough history (yeah i'm not kidding), shapes that defines archetypes, human and shape languages and with time you'll become better and better in designing things that are cool and appealing.

PS: Of course there are lots of things that i didn't mention cause there are so many variants to the argument like, for example, cultural tendencies.