[Martin Rebas]

Hi!

The last few months I've been trying to put together my first illustration portfolio. Now it's 95% ready, and the current version is here:

http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d3rebas/creative/gallery/index.html

I'd like to get some criticism so I can improve on it before I tell the rest of the world that it exists.

So:
Which drawings are good? Which ones suck and/or should be removed from the portfolio? What kind of things do you think I should draw more of? Any other advice?

And:
Now that I have a portfolio, what should I do with it? I'm basically a clueless person who likes to draw. I have no idea how to get anyone to pay for my drawings, but I thought making a portfolio would be a nice first step.

/Martin

[Soak]

som of them look like ms paint with airbrush.Think you made em pc only?

But some people could thinkthey are handmade and scanned.And if it would be so it would really be bad.

Give some more love to them.They look like 2 minute drawings.

Also if this sounds hard but dont think someone will pay you for this

sry mate :/

[Soak]

ps : especially the elephant :ugly:

[AndyT]

[edit]didn't realize that there is a 2nd page...[/edit]

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: AndyT ]

[Martin Rebas]

To Soak: While I appreciate any criticism, I think you and I simply look for different things in a drawing. To clarify a few things:

1. The drawings are hand-made, scanned, and then corrected/finished in Photoshop. I've had to re-draw some of these drawings 30 times to make them look sketchy enough for my taste.

While my portfolio does contain a couple of more detailed and realistic drawings, like


, I usually think those look dead and boring. Here are some drawings by a couple of professional illustrators I like. What do you think of them?



Kerstin Thorvall



Lovisa Burfitt



Paul Davis



Jon Muth


2. I have actually already been paid for my drawings, several times. But that work was found in a semi-random way, and I want to know how other illustrators go about to find work.


3. To Andy: Those drawings ARE included in my portfolio, but they're not my favorites.

/Martin

[elvis]

I think your portfolio looks great. It shows diversity, which I would look at as a good thing were I to buy imagery.

It also does show that you have a style, one that I think would work excellent for magazine work, t-shirts and posters.

The elefant for example is one of my favourites. Any plans for t-shirts?

I think like you said - people who are not fond of this style of illustration should take care when commenting. Not everyone's ideal picture is one of photorealism.

Some of my thoughts:

The first picture - reddress (at the top of this thread also), is not one of my favourites. I would leave it in, as it is good - but the killer red scares me away alsmost.

The four pictures after reddress I love.

Pandaunge, Pandaunge. I'm not sure I completely agree with this one - the bottom part is more sketchy and angular, while the face and haircut are curvy. I kind of both like it and not.

Velociraptor is good.

Astrid lindgren looks scary - if it's intentional, ok. But if not, I would lose it.

Festival kitsch is absolutely great.

The comic panels are good - they show your range.

Red and blue profile, not too sure about these two. They are not bad, but not very interesting.

I say keep the rest on page one.

Though Edward Scissorhands is a brilliant character, I think this one should be moved further down on the page if you want to keep it. It seems more related to the style of esk.gif further down.

The best pieces on page 2 in my opinion is the fish, the Bluehaired girl, the ninja series, and possibly the Spike portrait (I like it cause it doesn't look like him at all but still you have captured his character quite well).

Well, I don't need to say that this is just my opinions - but I hope it helps a bit.

Great portfolio, and good clean simple website. I think the style of the website also combines well with your style of illustration.

regards

e

[thinkwink]

Agreed... it's a good portfolio that definitly shows diversity within a style.

Send it out...

[java]

I think its pretty hard to find any jobs (especially freelance) here in sweden without any higher education. Id suggest you attend konstfack or similar, from there its easier to get contacts. Your portfolio is pretty nice so keep it up. Good luck!

[ October 04, 2002: Message edited by: java ]

[BARoNTiERi]

hey man this is great!

I really love your style, so don't listen to very hard critics, I mean this is your own work! ...and drawing or painting is just a way to express your vision right?
so in a portfolio my only advice is to show more different kind of drawings, some with a very realistic rendering cause that's what people usually want to see (unfortunately) and others like you show on your site, make a mix of them and you are ready to get a job!
good luck and keep your vision free...

[Soak]

k then i may have simply another impression of artwork.Maybe its the special style but in my understanding the elephant could be a piece of my little cousin.
Ive watched your website later and ive seen that u have som real nice pieces there.
If this is your way of expressing your feelings its ok

I`m sorry :/

[elvis]

Just a comment on the whole freelance issue.
About finding work in Sweden - yeah, this country totally sucks with it's obsession with education.
Though I don't think that should stop you from going for it. Konstfack, HDK, etc is all good of course - and if you want to go to school that's brilliant - but with talent and dedication you can still go wherever you want to go.
Also, why limit yourself to sweden? It's not much harder to go for the global market - put some effort into marketing yourself, and try to be creative in everything that you do.

Sorry if I got carried away on the pep talk there - best of luck!

BTW:
A lot of times childrens drawings totally kick ass in my opinion. Very hard for many artists to get that kind of enthusiasm and freethinking into an image later in life.

Sorry - maybe off topic, just a thought.

e

[ October 05, 2002: Message edited by: elvis ]