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N D Hill
August 28th, 2004, 09:03 AM
Hey all

Most of you guys know me by now. I’ve been on the whole forum scene for quite some time. I’ve made the jump from sijun to TeamGT and finally to Conceptart.org (I was here since day one actually). I try to be to as active in this community as can. I’ve always taken art seriously but the problem is that I don’t know how I can present my work in a manner where I’m taken seriously. I very aware of the fact that I have light-years to go before I can even think of considering myself as being of professional caliber but I have no solid plan for getting there and really only a vague idea of what path I want to explore with my own style.

Additionally, it doesn’t help when one has no money for tools and barely enough money for school. It’s also discouraging to have people who say they want to work with me and even make conference calls to me every week from LA tell me that they’re "an inch away from being published" and then all of a sudden drop off the face of the planet. Of course this is after I had poured weeks of effort into creating character designs for them.

Like I said, I know I have light-years to progress before I even consider presenting myself to an RPG, Video Game or ANY company and give them my rates. In fact my site isn’t even fit to be linked right now. At least I know if I wouldn’t link it I were to judge it by my own standards for my links page. If I were given the choice of putting it in a position where thousands of people could view it everyday, I would turn it down given it’s current state. When I look at it I see amateurish design, poor work quality and a lack of direction. In fact the only reason I include it in my signature is out of hope that someone would choose to use it as reference when critiquing art that I post.


I guess what I’m asking is for any help I could get in identifying these problems and so I can start grinding them down. As well as identifying strengths so I can start playing to them. I’m an art student here at USM but unfortunately my professors (who have all been great in helping me learn traditional methods and aspects to creating art) would have no clue as to how to advise me and moving forward in my chosen field. With another year in college starting for me Monday, I’d like to at least believe that I’m progressing in a deliberate direction in and have something to look forward to in the future.

Sorry for the lengthy, pathetic “poor me” rant. :P

gasmask
August 28th, 2004, 11:33 AM
their is no right or wrong direction if ur making art, just draw what you like to draw and you will be on the right track, life drawing helps too but is no necissary unless you want to do characters but its a good backbone, just keep drawing what you like and become the best at it, thats ur sure fire way to the top. simple eh?

Rkhon
August 28th, 2004, 02:49 PM
Yes, you have to keep drawing and all that...

But you also have to be able to sell yourself. Thats half the battle for getting a job. That and connections.

Developing a good portfolio and telling people things that will convince them you mean business...there is alot to it, business classes, books, websites...etc.

Sorry if this isnt as in depth as you wanted...I'm sure some of the professionals here have great advice...im just going off of business, writing, and portfolio classes.

oh and remember that most of the time, you will have to get through Human Resource departments first...

Orban
August 29th, 2004, 09:54 AM
I was thinking to answer you. But you know everything I can know... for example : redo you website if you don't like it :)
No easy answer here, apart from looking how other do(like the fact Puddnhead is gonna tatoo your head if it can give him some pub... if you let him do it ;)).
Still the first thing is to improve things you don't like to get them where you are proud to show them. As Jason said, accept nothing but perfection :)

AnarchyAo2
August 29th, 2004, 11:27 AM
Keep in mind that I'm not a professional, and am in the same boat as you, so my critiques may (or probably are) somewhat wrong, but I still may have some helpful information for you.

I'm going to critique your website, since its your portfolio and is what employers judge you by.

1) Your website is boring to look at. Its just black and white, no designs, and some messy writing. You've got more resources then a lot of people! You've got art teachers surrounding you. Go look at some designs from design classes for ideas, or go ask a design teacher (Or any teacher) to help you.

2) You've got a unique style, and you're talented, but your drawings are too ordinary. For example:

http://art-of-ndhill.neoartists.net/images/mercinary.jpg

Tell me what is unique about this space suit design? What stands out about it, and sets it apart from everything else? I don't see anything that does. It looks like a space suit, but I'm still thinking, "So what?".

Another example:

http://art-of-ndhill.neoartists.net/images/moonscape.jpg
"This landscape was done to help visual the setting of my story. The planet is a gray, lifeless wasteland made from rock spires, fissures, craters and canyons that's constantly bombarded by meteorites by it's orbital debris feild."

This is boring too. And what I'm confused about is that you had a good idea for the landscape in the description, yet you didn't use it! "...canyons that's constantly bombarded by meteorites by it's orbital debris feild." Had you painted that image, it would have been 100x better.

Final Thoughts: A lot of your drawings on your site seem sloppy and lazy. I see obvious anatomy mistakes that could have been fixed had you taken more time on them. I don't think you have a solid idea of what your characters/concepts are going to look like before you draw them, and they become ordinary because of it.

I hope this helps some.

Tiina
August 29th, 2004, 11:45 AM
Uh oh, here comes parental advice...

My mom said that if an artist could both, produce artwork AND sell them they'd be extremely multi-talented. Because the truth is most artists can't sell themselves properly.

For example, my dad. He's a FABULOUS photographer. He's done fashion, architecture, wildlife, portraits...and is very talented at what he does. But he can't sell himself for beans. He was too stubborn to find an agent for himself and he was forced to retire too early.

Moral? When you feel good enough, find an agent. =^^=

N D Hill
August 29th, 2004, 06:13 PM
Thanks all.

AnarchyAo2: I see what you mean. Those are among several pieces on my site that I'm considering removing all together. I've been taking old pieces over these last two week in attempt to bring them up to par. Basically just things that I've had fun with am not willing to completely disown. There are older designs and things I've done for various (nonpaying) projects that I've simply not been excited about and I think it shows. That space-suit and that moonscape along with few others are designs where I simply let the novelty of such a concept carry it since I couldn't motivate myself to give them the attention they needed. The entire site design is much like that as well. And I think in this respect, I've definitely not followed the good advice I've been given as I settled for something that was lacking. I'm no web designer and I think I need something simple that lets people know that I don't claim to be one while still doing the job. Nothing to distract someone for the sake of distracting them. I guess that's the moral of the whole story; If you can't show someone something new, what's the point? Go back to the drawing board and don't come come back until you do have something. :)

Orban
August 30th, 2004, 01:42 AM
I think most of us are not webdesigner. Took me 3 year to get an idea for my website... And I'm still refining it, each time I progress in drawing :)
But you can do yourself a basic site easily, just took some time to lay out some idea, think about what you like, draw it on paper, put it in photoshop and work with slice and so on... Seriously, it's not that hard to get something you like :) You don't need something with every bell and whistle you can concieve :D
I've look at your website, and I agree with Anarchy.
You have to take your time and think seriously about it - if you need help to get your idea done when you got it, ask here. But as I've allready said, nothing really hard to do with Photoshop and some doc reading ;).
If you are lazy, as I am too, and you want a easy website to maintain you can go the php gallery way :) Most of them support theme... HardcorePixx use a phpNuke/Coppermine setup for his website, goldbrush a coppermine gallery, I use a mix of personnal design/php blog/coppermine gallery to get mine working. Your possibilities are endless.
Now... do it. Please :D