LadyJudgement

Oh wait, it's called the Student Dorm now... but oh yeah they have a few critique forums specifically for how much of a critique you want... and it used to get pretty detailed, and sometimes heavy, so watch out... enter some of them at your peril.

Oh and do not enter the debate forum, unless you are reading this from a watch tower, and you have Ronald McDonald in your sites. j/k

LJ

Apologies, not gonna critique this, since I'm not sure where to start... not that it's bad, just that you could critique for content, subject or technique... and since I have to do my own work. I'll send you here, where I use to moderate five forums 4 years ago:

Wet Canvas

You can submit the drawing in either the Animal & Wildlife section, or the Drawing section, or Illustration section... and if it's still there, I believe there was a section for portfolio previews...

LJ

Ah yes I see the influence in your work... very graphic (design wise, not in content, though yeah nsfw lol) and cool. I myself like that Pat Nagal look, my wife leans the other way, she's doing technical cutaway vectors now... I got her one of those Wow! books, and she won me this Photoshop tips and tricks book, but I'm still waiting for delivery... *sigh*

Speaking of books, can't recommend this enough: Drawing Crime Noir for figuring out that heavy shadow look...

I know what you mean about Vector and regular art... Illustrator makes my head hurt... my wife taught it to me over a year ago, and I did it for about 5 months - as seen here... now I only use it to ink. Have you seen Takumy's work on DA with vectors, man I wish I had the patience for that... my wife does elaborate meshes that look like photos afterward, I would kill myself doing that! :O

Anyway, totally love Artgerm and Sanchez... DA has too many people I'd want classes from, thank god I can just study their work ad infinitum.

Good advice in those 8 points above...

Ugh, you don't want to know about the old sneaker I had to do in contour... here's another link for gesture drawings... the article afterwards too is worth skimming.

[ QUOTE ]
LJ:

Man, I wish someone had told me that instead of "No fantasy" when I did my portfolio -- They told us to keep it very realistic.


[/ QUOTE ]

While I was at college, we got a portfolio by the son of a very famous cover painter (name rhymes with doris), and you can tell his father had a massive influence with him, heck if he was my dad, I would have made him draw and paint till the cows came home...

My point is, the portfolio was ALL fantasy, but heavily laden as well with dead perfect anatomy, fauna and flora details, amazing color, and very good composition. The technique, the style, and the subject matter overruled the simple "fantasy" label... And he wasn't given any special consideration for being the son of someone that famous.

He got in on his talent, and most likely who he was as an individual.

Your work is pretty darn amazing Dirt (belated happy birthday btw), I tell ya if it was up to me... I'd open a school for Comic Art with the talent in this forum, and beat away the kids trying to get in...

I'd also have faculty only classes so I could have Graver teach me more watercolor, and Crimson, sorry bro, but you'd have to teach us all how to ink!

The point of getting into the school of your choice is to get that art education you've been dreaming about. While it's never too late to learn in life (I've self taught, and still am constantly self teaching myself digital art since 2000), if the school you want has the right class for you, jump on it!

I took a comic drawing elective class twice, because I was already tired of Advertising by Senior year of college. The guy teaching still teaches the class at my college, he's a wealth of knowledge, but not the end all of comic learning.

If I had the chance to do it all over, I'd have gotten my cutest cousin to marry Joe Kubert, no wait Jim Lee... oh heck she could cheat on one of them, who has to know?

LJ

I want to stress that you can show comic art. I had to submit both a portfolio to my high school to attend as well as my college. For my high school one, I did a humongous COPIED drawing of a John Buscema work of Mephisto in Craypas! Hey it's all I had...

But they liked it.

Cause I took the piece one step further from a marker drawing, it was huge, like 19 x 24 and matted. Which reminds me a good portfolio is labeled well, and presented as cleanly as possible.

For my college portfolio, it was more specific as many colleges have specific tests. They want to see a self portrait, they want to see problem solving. What you show on paper is the only that will speak for you when it gets to their admissions office. You're not gonna be there to explain it... Some schools will review your work, but usually an interview at a school means you're being considered. The interview is where you really have to sell your work and your self...

I did this oil painting of Bo Derek in a bikini, and my interviewer took a part my anatomy (something I'd only had 1 class of in high school), so he knew I was copying from a photo and just how much I didn't know.

I gave tours to prospective students also for 2 years at my college, and that leads me to another point. Go on as many of these as you can, and have a long list of questions. Pay attention to the students, to see if this is something you really want, talk to them after the tour... And if there's a class you really want at a school, say in their Animation program, find out what you can about their graduates, about their teachers, and see if you can attend a free class. Some colleges offer summer programs to high school students... for both portfolio reviewing and for credit.

Good luck again...

SO much to cover...

First off, I wanna clear up that I'm not a Professor. However I did attend a prestigious art high school for 4 years, we were taught, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, calligraphy, as well as normal academics. Alas this was back before the computer age, I student taught at my old high school years later for 6 months, and NOW they DO have computer art.

I also went to a very respectable art college (Parsons in NYC) but I majored in graphic design, when all my friends after freshmen year picked Illustration as their major. This was both a n advantage and a disadvantage. I don't have their drawing skills, which they honed for 3 more years, but they didn't have my design skills which is a trade off, but it helps sell your work.

I went back to school to become an art teacher (got the degree, but didn't care for school politics, so I left) BUT more importantly while I was at college, I work studied for 2 years in the Admissions Office, so I KNOW what colleges want. Having seen many portfolios come in...

Another thing to clear up, it's not true that schools don't want to see comic work, or faeries or unicorns. What they don't want to see, is a splotch drawing, floating on a white background. That doesn't say much more than the student can trace or copy.

What they want to see is you knowledge. If it's a superhero, that has to show your knowledge of anatomy. If he's colored, your knowledge of color that helps to make your figure believable. If you have your hero flying over the city, then they want to see your knowledge of perspective, of design composition, and overall skill.

If you want to include those pieces, they should be no different then a life drawing of a nude model. It should instead look like your model, put on spandex, flew over the city, and YOU were able to capture it.

Not to say you have to have photorealism as your style, but a good drawing, a good cartoon, DOES have a knowledge of these things, just exaggerated for effect.

If you're gonna show sequential art, pages, covers, they have to again show all these things: anatomy, style, composition, color, perspective, the list goes on and on...

No, I don't suggest including chibies no matter how cute, however if you're going to do faeries, then make the drawing intricate. Look at some old woodcut prints say of Durer or Dore...

Granted these two are Masters, but they're Masters for a reason, they didn't just draw splotches. You have to think in this way in order to show colleges you have potential and passion.

SO let's get to the actual portfolio. I've covered some of the things you should know, the other thing to show them is variety. That drawing superheroes isn't the only thing you can do.

You can do this in two ways, subject and medium.

Subjects to consider: portraits, still life, landscapes, surrealism (dream like imagery), I believe a lot of today's conceptual art falls under this... life drawing, anatomy studies (hands, feet, etc), architectural drawing (take a photo of some great building details and draw that)...

Medium: Black & White (ink, charchoal, tight pencils, loose gesture drawings, even ball point or marker) Paint (watercolor, acrylic, gouache, and of course oil) Sculpture (clay, either fired or unfired, paper sculpture if you can do it...)

Misc: This is where most superhero work falls, these can be in storyboards, detailed tight ones, AND an absolute must, page to page heavily finished sketchbooks. Sketchbooks show your thought patterns, how you breakdown what you see in the world and draw, so please include a lot of obersavtions from life drawings, not just imaginary stuff.

And getting back to that, all drawings of unicorns should have a working knowledge of horse anatomy, if it's a pegasus, then you better study the wings of a real bird, and not just draw loopty loops on top of his body. This is about showing how hard you work at your own work, not just that your some newb with a pencil that likes pretty pictures. You have to show yourself on the page.

-------------------------------------

That said, decide now what kind of art it is you want to do. If you want to be a fine artist, that is NOT a comic artist. Even though Alex Ross is the most amazing painter, he loves comics, and that's what makes his work great. Not every painter can paint an Alex Ross...

You say you're primarily a sculptor, so can we see an example of that? Maybe you should be pursuing that if this is where your passion lies. There are schools just for comic work (Joe Kubert's) and for fine arts and for working in the animation field.

You should try to get someone from Disney to talk to, someone you can write questions to occasionally as you hone your skills. A lot of these studios have job offers listing what the prospective artist should have a working knowledge of...

Which brings me to my final question - are you sure the school you listed is the one for you? Go check it out, ask to sit in on a class you want to take. Talk to the students, and the teachers... either after the class of before, but get their input on what it's like to be at the school, and what the workload is like, what the class teaches, and see if it's what you want...

Cause face it you're paying for every second of an art education at one of these places. It's not a high school atmosphere where you sit aimlessly waiting for the bell to ring. If you don't take it seriously, you won't get anything from it... and well there goes your hard earned money.

Your drawing has some pluses, but it is a long way from what a college will take into consideration. My suggestion is to find yourself a good class where you can get some one on one time, and make every second count. If this is what you want, you have a long road ahead... Getting in is only half the battle.

Good luck, and don't give up on your dream.

LJ

1/4th of actual size

Face Detail at actual size...

This is what I get for listening to Barry Manilow (yes I know I'm old and corny, anyone making fun of Barry gets no art from me eva! ) on a rainy day. He looks so sad, but I decided to keep the expression... oh well!

LJ

Edit: The reference BAS gave me, and he asked me to make his pants into a robe.

Is he about to play Cricket?

The Final complete with kitty

LJ

[ QUOTE ]
It's getting there Baq, I'm liking it... where's the Kitty? :P

[/ QUOTE ]

Kitty comes in last... it's the surprise, don't rush me! j/k I'm about 80% done... you should have it tonight.

Updating the updated update...

EOW = End of the World, the umm hero name of Yuki, this heroine.

LJ

Updating the update...

LJ

update

LJ

Warface's Daughter ... I placed it in my DA scraps for ya.

Nice tribute...

Funny story... here ones for you!

Warface's Daughter

LJ

That's hilarious, beach party on the Rikti ship, alas many of the Envisionaries play on Liberty & Virtue to my knowledge, with a few spread out on Freedom & Justice.

This is god like BW... my fave of yours, and that was a hard choice.

Update I'm surprised I got this much flatted with Heroes on...

Final... off to color now.

LJ

Cool, but I thought her name was "End of the World" ?

Stage 2

Working on this all day... Eow Ink Test ... the black background is temporary, just threw it on quick.

LJ

Could we get a little more info? How long is the story? Do you have a finished script? (How many pages that is...) Not to be too blunt, but what's the budget? (don't mention $$, it'll close the thread, but you can suggest how many boxes of ziti...)

Also did you want full color? Black & white? Combo?