I have a lot to learn in drawing, perspective, realistic weight and movement. I can see a lot of talented people here, so I thought this place would be good for critiques and tips. I made up this portfolio for capilano college in vancouver (commercial animation) , www.gradshow.com is their site. The only people I thought would be able to help were my old highschool art teachers (im isolated where i live, need to take a ferry to vancouver). They were the only ones that really critiqued me- so i showed them my portfolio and both of them said that I'd get into the program no problem. It made me happy to hear that, but I still had a bit of doubt in my mind because I know i'm not the best I can be right now. The portfolios on the gradshow site are pretty cool, but I'm not sure what they were like BEFORE the program. anyway enough blabbering, please critique my portfolio, give any tips on how to improve.. right now im waiting for the art gallery where i live does more life drawing sessions because i only got to do it once.
common guys i really would like some critiques :/ that'd be really awesome
Well, you wanted some honest answers/opinions.............so here goes:
Firstly, portfolio admission to a school demand something different than a professional portfolio, so I'm going to assume your ultimate goal is a professional career as an animator or cartoonist/illustrator of some kind.
With that in mind, looking at the grad show material is okay, but its probably not where you want to be setting your aim just now. Your material, as is, is probably good enough to gain admission to the school.
But that's it.
Let's be candid for a second here, okay? There isn't a school around that is going to be able to make anyone a "better artist" via just the curriculum alone. There's no magic pill, no secret instruction offered in any of these places to help make someone all of a sudden draw better.
That comes from (a LOT) of self-exploration in drawing.
Now, you'll be expected to do that in class anyways, but you'll not have a lot of time in class to do just that, what with fulfilling all the assignments and such.
Thus.........art colleges and post-secondary programs are set up to better help students that already have a measure of professional ability in their work, rather than those that are still trying to nail down make makes the artwork look professional in the first place.
Now, where do you come in?
From MY perspective as a pro, I see a lot of ruffs in your samples, I see doodles, but I see very little application. You have a couple of perspective pieces there, but they are ruff sketches with some odd perspective in them.
Your structure in the drawing ( what makes characters and objects look solid/real) is weak, as is the appeal. I cannot tell for your work if you are capable of finished pieces, or if you can create material that looks professional yet.
Yea, those are vague terms at this point, but the solution is pretty straightforward.......find some imagery, professional or what have you that you like, that appeals to you.......and make your work match it.
If that means duplicating it, fine........do that. If it means applying the same thing in that pro image ( line-weights, proportions, shapes, styling etc) to your work, great.....the object is to suck in the lessons from that other success work into your own.
Once you can do that, you can extrapolate a bit and create appealing works in your own style.
Bear in mind that if you seek professional work, a studio will want you to be able to draw THEIR stuff, not YOUR stuff--so the closer your work is to their level of work, the better.
The more you have worked toward that goal BEFORE you get to the school, the better the school should be able to help you.
Capiche?
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Well, thanks for the most honest and well thought out opinion I've ever heard. I forgot to mention that I applied with that portfolio I showed and the school told me I needed to get more practice (I think they suggested I go into some of their summer programs but my mom accidentally dropped it into the paper shredder so I don't know exactly, ahaha)... sooo apparently it's not even good enough to gain admission to the school like you suggested. I understand everything you said though, there's just something I'm missing when it comes to making characters feel thick, heavy or life-like. I may be forgetting about dimensions when it comes to characters, therefore not having the 3rd dimension applied? I think I may have focused too much on my roughness in the portfolio because all I've heard from my art teacher is like 'just show all your rough stuff, art schools dig that up'. And I will try focusing more on better artists, for the last while, I somewhat exiled myself from looking at other styles and applying it to mine, I just really didn't want to copy so I just drew from life or what comes in my head or simply looks cool to me.
I don't know what else to say, sorry about the sloppy writing, I know it's a little all over the place. Thanks again, though!
If the school is suggesting that you might not be the calibre required for admissions, what they are really saying is that they want to spare you the grief of dashed expectations.
As I said before, the school curriculum ( Cap College in this case) is best set up to help people that already have a measure of professional ability in their work.
Now, that does not mean your own uphill battle is too steep to climb, it just means that you have some work ahead of you.
I suggest getting some good how-to books, something like Draw the Looney Tunes, or How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way.
Now, these books might not be the specific kind of thrust you want to take for your own art or style, but within them are some great basic tutorials on solid drawing and structures with characters and objects. Look around for books that have material in them that you feel can teach you something, or have art that you want to draw like.
Now here's some heartfelt advice to you:
You might be feeling frustrated at this point.
That's okay........in fact, its good.
Frustration is a POSITIVE thing--as odd as that sounds.
What frustration really is, is a sign that your brain is working on a problem, but not yet getting a solution.
The more intense the frustration, the more passionate you feeling about solving that problem.
Now, here's how this works for you: biologically speaking, our brains are "wired" to come up with an answer to every problem/question put to it--even if we have to make something up.
Understanding this principle is the key here, because in the midst of your frustrations, AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT GIVE UP, you WILL find a solution.
It might take a little while, might take some effort or even a different way of thinking or looking at things, but the solution WILL come.
As long as you do not give up.
So, with that in mind........look at the stuff out there that you want to draw like. Y'know....the art, cartoons, comics, designs, animation etc......that you enjoy as a fan or consumer...find that stuff and look at it.
But look at it with a plan in mind.
How are those characters built? Is there a common theme to their structure?
How are the lines and shapes placed? Is there a certain pattern to the thickness and thinness of the lines. Are the shapes placed in specific ways over several different images ( from different artists even)?
Are the artists of those works all doing similar things in similar ways despite their styles? If so, you have found a "rule" that you can adopt/adapt.
This is what I was talking about when I mentioned self-exploration.
By developing the skills to analyze an image you can pick up things that the artists are doing from that image and apply them to your own work.
Now, if that seems hard at first.......remember, there are no rules ABOUT drawing, but there are rules found IN drawings.
By that I mean you can do something like trace an image.
"But tracing is baaaaaaaaaaaaad, The drawing police will come and take the tracers away!!"
Pish-posh!
Look, when we all first started out drawing, or doing pretty much anything in life, someone was there to guide us.
Tracing over a drawing, finding and duplication the strokes that artist took with a pencil or pen is duplication the same neurology (the same specific actions) of that artist. If that artist created what is, in your mind, a successful image, then repeating their line strokes via tracing will allow you over time to duplicate the same reasoning they had in mind when drawing that image.
Understand?
This is just ONE kind of technique you can learn to get better at drawing--there's others out there that you can find and explore.
Hope that helps more.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
I really found that helpful, actually, thanks so much for that.