[ValarianROOT]

I have several requests to make from any of the experienced professionals here. But before that, some of my background:

I live in Grand Rapids, MI, but am willing and able to move (am on a monthly lease). I have had four and a half years of schooling at Kendall College of Art and Design. I have worked in retail for the last nine years of my life. I am now at a point in my life where I have a strong commitment to become an illustrator. I am willing to put out any work and effort I have to too get an illustration job. I feel that now I only need guidance and a strong portfolio to begin working as either a freelance illustrator or staff illustrator. As someone said before, �A journey of a thousand steps starts with the first.� My current problem is I do not know what my first step should be.

I have several requests for information that I need answers to in order to attain this goal. If any person with experience in any art field (obviously illustration in particular) would be willing to answer some of these questions for me I would be beyond appreciative, but in your debt. Also, answering any of these questions may assist others that are aspiring to get work, whose has not broken into their chosen industry or field. So, I�m sure they will appreciate any advice as well.

My questions are as follows (Please answer specifically in regards to my work or in general to anyone that may have similar questions.):

Would you please visit my website and review my work before answering these questions? Link to my site.

What do I need to do to become more marketable as an artist?

What kind of work, in your opinion, would my style/genre of work fit into?

Who should I ask for jobs?

What pieces of mine might I finish working on that will make part of a strong portfolio?

Does anyone have any suggestion, both on the internet and not, that I could look for work that will pay off?

What are my strengths, as an artist?

What are my weaknesses, as an artist?


Should I wait until I have a better portfolio before looking for work or should I just take the best of what I have and start submitting?

What pieces should I work on to get together a portfolio that you think would get me a job in a market/ with an employer that fits my �style�?

Which is more important for me right now to design a portfolio specifically to apply for one job, or to have a more generalized showcase of my talent?

What other advice would you have for me that I have not thought to ask of?


I thank you very much for your time,

Justin Nitz

[ValarianROOT]

Please be brutally honest. I need to get on track.

JN

[MarcusX]

First thing I noticed when I got to your site was that your pictures had very high Jpeg Compression. When you save this kind of art in Jpeg you shouldnt go lower than 80%(where 0 is max compression) and the filesizes get significant lower from noncompressed pictures even if you go for full quality, then its barely noticeable even if you zoom in.
Now your pictures look horrible, due to compression not your art in it self.

[egerie]

Here are my 2 cents : Try to do some major spring cleaning in your portfolio and keep ONLY your strongest pieces. There is way to much stuff as it is and it's not really consistent.
A portfolio usually is 20 / 25 pages of artwork maximum. Now as an online portfolio I *suppose* you could get a bit more than that but really really really try to keep solely your best artwork.
When someone reviews your art you are judged not on your strenghts but on your weaknesses.

Get rid of those lined paper doodles.

Those anatomy sketches are an absolute ! (Wow did you do this from life ?)
You should include them in any kind of portfolio you submit.

Now as far as style goes.. I think you need to present some really kickass anatomy study pieces, from life dynamic studies, push your 'from life' drawing, a few of your portrait sketches, and then focus on showcasing your 'style'. (And you do need to focus on a specific style/medium ..)
ADs need to see that you have a strong classical approach and basics on which you've built your artistic development.

You may already know all of this from your studies at Kendall but I thought it would be appropriate to mention this stuff again

Hope that helps altho this has been previously discussed on the forums.. Cheers !

[mythwarden]

Forgive the fact that most of this is already known, but I'll state it anyway for those who sometimes forget... ;-)

Demeanor and Professionalism

Take your favorite artist who’s in a position you’d like to find yourself in someday, and use their presentation as your outline. That doesn’t mean go copy their style but rather follow their lead on the path they took to get where they are now.

-Presentation-

Quality – Your work needn’t be as well crafted, but there is no reason it can’t be presented as well.
1. Create a website that fits your own style, but holds no less quality then the inspiring artist your aiming for. This isn’t difficult. It takes time, but leave out all the useless crap and keep it clean and you’ll be fine.
2. Don’t use low-resolution images. Show pride in your work and once again…keep them clean.

Style – Create your own style if you can and don’t try to get pigeon holed into any one given thing. Don’t let someone else tell you what type of art you should be doing.

Yappage – Avoid spewing crap on your site. This includes forums too. It’s unprofessional and you’ll likely only burn bridges this way.

-Promotion & Attitude-

1. Networking- Go to the places where you’ll find the leading artists and publishers. If you’re a nice guy and have decent work to show, then you’ll likely find work there along with some new contacts.
2. Karma- What comes around goes around. Treat people the way you’d like to be treated yourself. Offer your work free at first till you establish good relations. Once your work starts circulating, you’ll find paying work in no time.
3. Be humble- Give a little without the expecting anything in return and yet at the same time, take a little and never expect not to give back.
4. Modesty - If you blow your own horn then you’ll likely find no one is listening. You’ll notice it’s the quiet and good-natured artists that get the most acclaim. (Craig Mullins and BROM are great examples.)
5. Trust – Whatever you say will come back around to you, so make sure it’s the truth. This covers words and work. Make sure both are honestly your own and if they are not, then state it.

-Dedication-

It takes time to be good at anything so don’t expect it overnight. Anything you see can be broken down into simple steps.
Go grab yourself some books on Star Wars Art or Final Fantasy. You’ll find tons of top of the line conceptual work in them. Start out by copying some of the sketches then try moving into doing them freehand yourself. With a bit of time you’ll be doing the same type of work but in your own style.
Take time out each day and work on bettering yourself. The days you miss are the days Bob didn’t which explains why he’s working on “X” and you’re not. This doesn’t mean don’t balance yourself. It means organize your time better and you’ll find plenty of time to work towards your goals.

Anything you work long enough at, you’ll eventually achieve. That’s a fact with few limits.


This isn’t directed at anyone in particular. It’s just a guideline to stick by if you plan on making a living with your art.

-myth

[mythwarden]

And Valarian...

You have some nice work. ;-)

Try this book out-

Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market

[Sedone]

Good advice, Myth.

[ValarianROOT]

Thank you very much. I AM in all of your debt. But, I'll keep this brief as I will begin work on streamlining my site and implementing the other great suggestions posted.

Many of my "finished" works are of a larger scale and so i used an older Sony Mavica to get pictures for my site. I will borrow a high rez camera to reshoot the few that stand out. Thanks MarcusX, I probably would have let this go for a lot longer, if you had not said something.

egerie- it is spring and i'll start cleaning house right away. Your suggestions about a portfolio's contents really clears up what it should have for me. Sometimes I forget how much I loved life drawing class. Thank you.

mythwarden- very sound advice, all of it. Gives me a lot to think about.

Sedone- I very much agree.

Hopefully others that read what has been posted here will appreciate this as much as I do. Now, onward to put this to action.

JN

P.S. Any other additions to this post would also be much appriciated. I only ask for the advice people are willing and able to give. I know time is precious, and thank you for taking part of yours to share your knowledge.

[sweeteuphoria]

ask the guys over at www.conceptart.org

there are guys there from lucasarts, sony. nintendo, troika etc...
Im sure they can tell you exactly what you need.

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: sweeteuphoria ]

[ValarianROOT]

sweeteuphoria! Awesome, thank you. Great suggestion. I need as much input as i can get. I don't want the momentum i'm building up to wear out on me. As it is I'm trying to get more of a theme to my work i'm posting on my site and the ideas are just flooding my head.

Thank all.

JN

[Rogelio Olguin]

Your work is cool but I do suggest you do portfolio clean up like others have said

Here is my case

I am 19 very soon to be 20 I am in a county college atm. I have around one more year to go till I will start to apply seriouslly to an art university... most likly SVA in NewYork city. What I have been doing latly is buidling up my portfolio of stuff based closer to my style and trying to go as porfessional as possible. I want at least 25 works that are strong but 10 that would be my strongest ones. I am a the stage that i am building up my porfolio since in the high school I went to the art teachers did not prepare me that well and I was much to ingnorant to prepare myself.

Right now I am building up a porfolio with my style and ideas in it doing 100% orginal work sketching a lot in pen and pencil in a black book i bought in a art shop. So slowly i am building up my portfolio.

Atm I have around 4 to 5 strong works and have a lot of works that are strong but not my best but still very much my style. I have a year to go or more till I start to apply at this school or others and well it takes time... If I put some of my high school works in my portfolio it will only lower the score given by the art schools. So I am basically starting a new portfolio with my style and progression of my style also my thoughts.

I am currently with the "Kamehan studio" Team that just released their first ever game Tactical-Ops/Assult on terror.

I could say I got my foot in already into gaming but that can be false at times becuase it all depends on this game if this company goes on... i hope it does and I worked very hard on my maps and textures for this game. So in way I am a half foot in the other half is on wait till we see some good news previous to this game or Mod becuase it was ut mod before became a game. I made maps since doom2 through the most famous FPS games till UT... when I got more serious of going into the gaming biss was in the quake2 halflife times. I got famous in the unreal and UT community for my maps helped people etc... got connections with small mods and people in the community and ended up in Tactical ops. Mostly out of luck really but the connections to people were already their. That is also a good thing. A Person who went to SVA told me this or along the lines of this. "In the start you have do a lot of free(freelance)work to show youself around if you are an artist... becuase if you do not do this and ask for large amounts of money in the get go some people will not value your work or you as person. So this is the example a small example... but I did tons of free work in unreal and UT for around 3 to 4 years and helped many mappers made friends and got into a mod that acually became a game.

Remeber when your presenting art your also presenting yourself the art is so much a part of you that the art work can not be seprated from the artist.

alot of random slightly on the topic thoughts.

I am not a professinoal at all compared to a lot people around these fourms in fact I am total newbie in many cases

[Gort]

Ah...lots of good info here, but remember that you're offering a service - especially if you're freelance, so in essence you're a business, and businesses must market themselves accordingly to generate revenue. Consider some cost effective ways of marketing yourself - promo packets, business cards - whatever. If you start getting work and you gel well with the community, word of mouth will become your best tool for getting work.

[ValarianROOT]

Hello! I've been away for a while, sorry. Thanks a lot for the great advice. I've got a few leads as a freelance artist for some local graphic design studios in town. Here's hoping.

thanks R O: Sounds like your really commited to having a good portfolio yourself.

Tom Carter: Very good advice here. I have a friend, Josh Ellingson, that did very much what you've suggested. He's doing fairly well in CA now. I'll get to work on this, but what i'm selling my self as "specifically" is one of the blocks i run into. I don't know what kind/genre of illustrator i'll fit to. This doesn't mean i won't put something like a promo packet and business card together.

Thank you,
JN

[Daniel Chou]

*write down all the good advice* Hey sorry, but I needed these informations too! You guys are great!

[ValarianROOT]

Glad to see more people are getting as much out of this as I am

JN

[Asurfael]

i'm practically writing it down myself... ok, i can write, now all i need to do is learn how to draw.

[ValarianROOT]

Okay, so I don't actually have a freelance gig yet, you have to give people some time to get back with you. Right.

I do think I can add some of my own advice though. That would be "It's all in who you know." Remember all those teachers that encouraged you in school (both remedial and college), talk to those people. Find out if they know anyone that can start you out with something. No job is below you when you�re first starting out. Anything you can put on a resume will help. Talk to your placement officer at your college to see if they can connect you with some work. That's what they get paid for. Even if you didn't actually graduate, you still have a right to that info. Heck, even if you didn't go to that school, asking to talk to them never hurts. Another great way, two fold, is to volunteer your work to a charity or nonprofit. I don't recommend doing this purely to get something for a resume though, that is just tacky and rude. But, if it�s something you can get behind and actually believe in its great. All it cost you is your time. For example, I drew the "Ice Safety Handbook" for Michigan when I was a junior in high school. It helped me to get into the college I went to and hundreds of kids a crossed the state can harass their dad's not to go out ice fishing when they see black ice out on the pond. This is primarily what I�ve been doing.
And above all else draw to improve your skill: sketch every day, don�t just draw people, and consider where you want to go with art beyond just your �dream job.�