Reviews of Portfolios Days...How'd it go?

[Jason Manley]

So...how'd it go?????





The instructors were scheduled for a total of 24 hours of reviews. All total they did about sixty just because it was so fun to look at all the nice stuff. It was an honor to do this. Hopefully, you all felt like the new tech and info shared was worth it. We are half way done with the new tech for conceptart.org 4.0 too...more than. Still gotta do more of these to pay it all off but it's looking amazing.

Best,


Jason

[Amber Alexander]

I was busy and came in late so I can't see my crit till its posted but I do have to say that even from what I saw during the critiques of other portfolios, it was very helpful to hear what was said about other works. Often other people asked questions you didn't think to ask or something was said that is also relivant to what you want to do.

To start they'd read over what each person posted and they really did take into consideration what your end goal or career path is. Jason did paint overs which were amazing (even with just a mouse). They both really went in depth on everyone's portfolio and every picture. It was good information to help you learn, they pointed out what to work on, what was good and in some cases gave an assignment to help you get there.

Just one of these crits was honestly better then every crit I have seen done at school. I think its actually better that its online because besides being able to do paint overs, he was able to pull up other images to reference on the spot.

Price was spot on, absolutely worth it, I loved that it came in a range. If you're broke and can only spare $10 you will still learn alot and if you have more or want more, than that was available too. I really hope this is done a few times a year (crosses fingers for Randis to be on the line up).

Overall if you weren't there, you missed out on a huge learning experience and maybe next time we can chip in and buy Jason a new mic.

[Eclypse]

It was so good! This is a dream come true. Not only where each individual critiques gave a lot of constructive criticisms, there was also a lot of advice on what to do to pursue the dream on what you want to do.

For me my stuff was reviewed on Wednesday and on Friday. My review was kind of short on Wednesday, but there was nothing that was needed to said that wasn't repeated 100 times over when my portfolio was up for review, except how specificity each of my images piece would work. Chan and Pratt gave me not only technical advice, but how to practice making images more believable. On Friday, Manley was nice enough to dedicate a long time repainting over one of my images until the values was solid and it looked 20 time better.

This is not including the 5 pages of notes I have from watching the critiques of others which helped to engrave important image making techniques, from looking for colors and shapes in the shadow from Coro to the proper way of painting techniques from Dobsky. Also hearing the struggles that different reviewer have faced to overcome their situations gave me alot of hope and a kick in the ass for being so fortunate and not working hard enough.

On top of all that there were a lot of really talented individual to aspire to and learn from their works. I really don't know what could've made it better except more critiques all year round. :P

[archipelago]

they where fantastic, the instructors did an amazing job and I learnt heaps!

Will they be available on demand?

[Neolight]

Jason, I just can't put into words how awesome the reviews were!

The feedback I got from Whit and Andrea's sessions were fantastic. Seriously, If there two people in the world I will look up to from now on, it's them. Chan and Pratt's advice was also extremely helpful, and I wish I had acted faster and gotten into the Monday portfolio reviews with Coro. I loved watching the on demand, particularly when they were reviewing Cryptcrawler's work.

I've definetly walked away with a whole new level of insight, so I really hope you guys do this again! Thanks for taking the time to look at our stuff, we will all be better for it!

[Kitten Poker]

This was really helpfull, great thanks to all involved. I like the new setup, but for some reason the image quality seamed to be a bit degraded, producing striations or blockyness in the shading etc, I noticed more on mine because I know what they are supposed to look like, but I also noticed it on peoples stuff. Is there a way to increase the image quality? or will it just not display all the colours? Maybe I should be saving them at different resolutions or something?

It would just be helpfull to know incase you decide to run this again at some point ^_^

Thanks again ^_^

[mbarq]

Ha, yup the critiques were insanely good. They, honestly were better than I expected.

Although I didn't get my portfolio reviewed, just seeing all the critiques and hearing all the references to other artists both contemporary and past such as Waterhouse, Bouguereau, Wyeth, Mullins and others that I hadn't even heard of was great.

I missed two of the reviews, but the ones I did see were great. I didn't dig the one over livestream too much because Coro had to keep restarting and the lag was insane. But the ones over elluminate actually felt like a classroom. Maybe because I actually did take pre-cal class over it back in high school, but I digress.

I wasn't sure if it was my screen, but some of the colors did seem a bit degraded. This happened more in some images than others (maybe the way they were compressed?).

I do hope you guys can do more of these, maybe even on a regular basis. Oh, and the paint-overs, although it wasn't my own work, were very insightful. Also agree on the price-range, I would have been a little more hard pressed to shell out $100. $50 though, was more than worth it. Probably too worth it, Foster and Dobsky went on Friday for like...what ~15hrs?

Also...how long will this be up streaming? I want to watch them all again, but...as I said, most of them were very long, so...don't think I'll be able to watch them all like I did this past week (wasn't as busy).

[Felicity]

They were fantastic. I just haven't had someone crit like that and they just really hit the nail on the head with everything they said (Whit and Andrea). I'm so glad I got in on the session, and I'm just constantly thinking about what they said now - fantastic!

Thanks!

[neuroballistic]

Had a great time and learned a lot from just sitting in on other ppls reviews. The only problems I experienced was voice cutting in and out from time to time, but that's to be expected doing a live stream with over 20, 30(?) ppl, and whatever was missed was typed in IM. Overall the whole experience was invaluable...and that's an understatement.

[Senira]

The reviews were great. I learned as much, if not more, listening to other people's reviews as I did my own. I had to pop in and out of my session (the one with Whit and Andrea) at various points during the day, but what I caught was very insightful and full of great tips about everything from composition, to lighting, to color choice. I can't wait for the recorded sessions to go online so I can catch all the reviews that I missed.

[Liffey]

I only got to see about 6 hours so far, but what I did see was AMAZING... By far the best deal MB has ever offered, which is saying a lot. If anyone is thinking about signing up late for the recording, do not hesitate for a second!

I hope this becomes an annual event, I would be there every year.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

The reviews where great.
I learnt a lot from the other people being reviewed. When it came to my work(7hrs into it), I'm not sure if most of the constructive had been said or not but it really was a boost to my confidence. Waiting for the on-demand so I can transcribe what was said on my works now and see what was said after I went to bed...

The scrolling was sometimes a bit laggy, but it was really not a bad situation. It was easy to follow, the sound was crisp, we could talk to the reviewers and the possibilities to do paintovers looks very promising. Wasn't used for Chan and Pratt but still. Well worth the bucks!

[Liam Harvey]

Even though my crits were what i assumed they were to be. such as draw more, do studies etc, it was really up lifting to hear that it wasnt as if the instructors were looking down on you and to hear such uplifting replies.

As advertised, It iwas good to hear the Truth.
The feedback gave names to problems, to what needed to be worked on and allowed for a structure to be built in order to do it.

i really hope this will be a yearly event, or done at least a few times from now, as i would love to test myself and see how much i can improve.

Thank You to all the instructors and everyone at ConceptArt.Org for sharing your work and your knowledge.

looking forward to what the future holds.

[andreasrocha]

Congrats to conceptart! This was amazing. And hearing these masters talk live was such a fantastic experience, almost like being in the same room with them. Gave me goose bumps. I also admired their humbleness and their effort to treat each artist the same.
I regret, now, only having paid for one portfolio review. Two, would have been ideal...all 6 of them would be too much perhaps, which gets me to my suggestion. Perhaps it would be better to span these live reviews over 2 weeks or so. Give people the opportunity to better fit these live sessions into their daily live.
Price was perfect, technology good and very promising...I would definitely participate in more.

[Joeslucher]

I thought it went well.
Only thing that made me cringe were the occasionally super long introductions artists wrote to go with their post.

I had no idea so many people were going to be reviewed each day.I thought maybe 12 and instead it was twice that. If I'd known, I think I would have signed up to watch the other days as well.

[cmalidore]

I was pleased with this. I actually found it to be a privilege to get my review as Foster and Dobsky hit the exhaustion stage... they were clear and concise because of it. Blunt-ness works for me hehe.

What truly made it worth the money though was seeing the other reviews that day as well. There was A LOT of information to absorb.

I'm hoping you do this again. I likely wouldn't get my work reviewed again soon (I need quite a bit of time to implement what I learned) but I would gladly listen to reviews of other people.

[beastathon]

I was pleased with this. I actually found it to be a privilege to get my review as Foster and Dobsky hit the exhaustion stage... they were clear and concise because of it. Blunt-ness works for me hehe.

What truly made it worth the money though was seeing the other reviews that day as well. There was A LOT of information to absorb.

I'm hoping you do this again. I likely wouldn't get my work reviewed again soon (I need quite a bit of time to implement what I learned) but I would gladly listen to reviews of other people.

They were also fascinated by stripping mermaids!

The whole thing was great, everyone was really friendly, informative and really went above and beyond.

[jpacer]

The reviews were amazing. I'm still reeling from it all. Jason and George went WAY beyond the call of duty. I thought it was going to be around 4 hours long. They went for nine hours, I think (maybe more)! They showed kindness, generosity, and enthusiasm the whole time. I, like everyone else, learned so much, not just from my own crit, but from watching everyone else's reviews as well. Since I'm still learning digital painting it was nice to hear about different ways to approach the work, from initial idea to execution. These truly were one thousand times better than any crits I had in college. And the new tech is fantastic. Definitely superior to Livestream.

I wish I had a mic though, as it's hard for me to try to type while listening to what they're saying at the same time. Text also has the problem where it's hard to tell someone's tone. I'm always paranoid when texting that what I'm saying may be misinterpreted.

I only bought one review because I didn't know what to expect. Now that I know what it's like, I would definitely be interested in doing more whenever these come up!

[bWorx]

would these be up on streaming later? for those who wasn't able to participate live?

[neuroballistic]

Yup, some time this week, no specific day given.

[Studio Colrouphobia]

Yup, some time this week, no specific day given.
I believe the closest to a date that has been said the latest was "by the end of this week".

CA is doing great with these things and a little delay might be painful for those who didn't see their reviews yet but at the same time, it is so much better to have it correct from the get-go then face technical issues as you watch it... :)

[Jason Manley]

workin on it! thanks for the patience.


J

[Daneril]

It was awsome, just what i needed to push me in the right direction! And now the anatomy for artists class. I cant thank you enough for this!

[ckmoore]

So far I've watched the first and last days of critiques, and they were absolutely awesome! The paint overs were especially good to see. I'm waiting for the critiques to be uploaded to see the rest, but judging by what I've already seen -- they are going to be good learning tools. I didn't even have anything critiqued, but I learned a lot by watching everyone else get critiqued.

I was amazed at how high quality some of the people posting portfolios for review! I didn't expect some of the professionals with years of real world experience.

-ckmoore

[Burhtun]

I got a lot out of it:
- Purely visual critiques: fix that shape, change that color, etc...
- Critique on content: this piece needs more story, this piece needs clearer and better design, this piece is exactly what art directors are looking for, this one is not, this aspect is working for this piece but it needs more of such and such, etc...

Watching others get reviewed was also very helpful. For example, the most often repeated critique in all of the reviews I saw was that people use too much black. I seem to have subconsciously realized this, as my older work that I hide from everybody has that problem but my newer work that I put up for review does not. Even though I did not receive the "too much black!" critique for my own work, I think the reviews of others brought that out of my subconscious and into the forefront of my mind as something to watch out for in the future. There were a couple other ideas that were not pointed out towards my work but were pointed out to other people that I made a note of for myself anyway, as I feel I could do better with those critiques in mind also.

Plus it was just totally rad to hear Whit Brachna's thoughts on my stuff cause I think hes the bees knees. Was also nice to hear from previous teachers of mine, Sterling and Pratt. Coro and Manley were the ones I wanted to hear from most of all, being that I want to land a concept art job and they are art directors in that field, but it was also interesting to hear the thoughts from friggen Jon Foster and the other more illustration-based artists.

All in all totally worth it and gave me plenty to revise as well as plenty to think about for future portfolio pieces. I was lucky enough to see all of my critiques, but I can't wait till the streaming vids are up so I can watch all the other critiques that I missed while I was at work.

[stathis]

You guys should be really proud of what you have accomplished with this!

[aaro_n]

mad stuff
new tech is way better, im pretty excited for future things

[Mooktar]

Before the critiques I was a little lost as to where I needed improvement in my work. I was even at a lack for inspiration, and what to focus on in order to produce a portfolio to start getting work.

Well... I only saw two of the days in their entirety: Monday with Coro and Sterling, and Friday with Jon and Carl. I have to say that both of those days were off the chain! I gained so much information not even from my review, but even more so from the reviews of others. I can't even explain how awesome that experience was, and how thankful I am to ConceptArt and all of the guys that took the time to review our work! I really can't wait to see the other days, but as of now I know exactly what my issues are and a direction to go in to improve my work. Thanks a ton guys n gals!

As for the tech: The ol tech sort of worked, and having not seen any kind of live streaming like that I was blown away. Then the new tech arrived and I just about shit myself! It's pretty damn amazing what we can do on the interwebs these days. I'm all for throwing down some cash to get CA.org to the next level Jason is talking about.

Thanks a ton CA.org, Massive Black, and everyone who put their portfolios up for review. What a mind-blowing/numbing event! Now I might just have to get in on some of these other Live Presentations.

[ConceptArt.Org]

Hello all,

In the interest of not keeping you guys and gals in the dark I wanted to post a brief update about the portfolio reviews and getting them up On Demand. We are finally getting our tech issues sorted, so we are over our first hurdle. Our next challenge (and it's a big one) is uploading 71+ hours of footage to a usable format. (this is currently happening in real time.) After that we need to edit said footage, and figure out how we are going to host it and in what format it will be delivered to you all of you who are patiently waiting for it. I don't expect (with our current workload) to be able to deliver this in the next week. We apologize that we were caught with our pants down but the switch from Live Stream was so abrupt (and for the best) that we were not prepared for our first task with a new service and tech to be so large. Keep tuned in to this thread for updates which I will post when they become available.

Thanks and apologies,

Scooter and the entire CA and MB staff

[zimfin]

I for one am happy to wait patiently since I know you are all doing your best to make this work for our benefit and the result will be well worth the wait!

[Matt_B]

Hi Jason and the CA.org staff that helped put this together. Firstly I'd love to just say thanks a TON! This was probably one of the most rich artistic experiences I've had. Just the pure volume of info was amazing and I can't wait till the On Demand stuff is sorted out so I can see if I missed anything (I tried to sit in for as many as possible and as long as possible)

Quick suggestions should you decide to this again (read: DO THIS AGAIN, PLEASE!):

-I was sort of bummed that after busting butt to put together samples of my work that I felt showed where I was at skill-wise and posting them as early as I could, that effort actually meant I was probably going to go last. Way the forum structure worked was those who posted last went first, which seemed kind of backwards to me. This leads me to..

- 8+ (in some cases 12) hours is a looooong time to sit down and go through a list of work and critique each one. I know by the time Jason and George got to the bottom of the list I was tired, they were tired; and that can't help impact the critique. Jason and George were totally professional and absolute godsends to sit and critique for THAT long. I just can't help but think that breaking it up a bit (the occasional 5-10 min breaks I don't think cut it) over a longer period might be easier.

Overall I really liked the sessions and would sign up for them again in a heartbeat. I think, however, the structure of how they're done might benefit from some tweaking.

Thanks again guys
~Matt

[Liffey]

Can't wait for the on-demand sessions... I only got to see about 10 hours so far, so I'm pumped to watch the rest! Hope all goes well with the uploading. :)

Also, this NEEDS to be at least an annual event, preferably semi-annual.

[white beard]

Also, this NEEDS to be at least an annual event, preferably semi-annual.

Agree

[Liffey]

Okay so it's been a while... any updates on how it's going?

[DavidSmit]

Aight so now we are pretty much 3 Months overdue with the On demand/download. Any thoughts on what when where we can expect these?

[DavidSmit]

It took a while, but it got reviewed. And damn, what a review. Long, in depth and motivating. I've learned a ton.

Every bit of self confidence fell away as soon as I logged in and I saw them all there. And although I couldn't type anything more at the moment other then 'right' (and my gf sitting next to me going 'ahh look at you being all shy, that so cute' doesn't help, I can tell you) I want to thank you guys for reviewing. I figured I need to find myself a mentor of some sort! It helped so much getting my focus again!
So yeah, you've guys did redeem yourself.. a bit :hugsmile:

[ConceptArt.Org]

Thanks for the "bit" of praise David. We'll take it and run with it!
;)

I'll pass the message to Foster, Manley, and Dorian.

Thanks!

Scooter

[Theking78]

Thanks for the "bit" of praise David. We'll take it and run with it!
;)

I'll pass the message to Foster, Manley, and Dorian.

Thanks!

Scooter

I've been reviewd in the same session of DavidSmit but I didn't receive the link to see hir portfolio review. I'm really interested in wathing his review because I can learn a lot looking at other people reviews if they're close to what I want to obtain with my works (Jason stresset this principle a lot).
Can you send me the link to download also the remaining reviews for the Dobsky and Foster which was missed in the first email?
Thank you.

[Liffey]

Soooooo... any chance of Portfolio Review Days making a comeback??? Maybe at the end of the TAD semester? I'm ready for some more crit :D :D :D