Hi Sougat, Working on a good portfolio is the best thing you can do. Here's some advice from svs-faculty instructor @Lee-White:

Show three images from the same story. Try to highlight character
interaction and get a sense of emotion and story.

Show 2 images that highlight environment. You can have some characters
in there, but make sure the environment is the main thing. Will does
this extremely well so poke around his website for inspiration.

For the remaining 5, try to vary the stories and how you show the
story. Be specific to the type of work you want to get.

Leave room for text in at least 75% of the work. I typically put the
text in there. It shows art directors that you understand the business
that we are in.

Have fun! Don't put too much pressure to get 10 perfect images right
away. Shoot for painting 20 or 30 and then picking the best 10 out of
that.

Hope it helps!

It runs lightweight because it is for recording your gameplay and records in good quality. There are no other effects or tools like mouse clicks and highlighting though. Look up how to use geforce shadow play on youtube for exact instructions.

Thanks for the feedback. I can see what you mean about peter being so much bigger and losing the lost boys. That's a really good suggestion. What do you think about the colors? Santa seems pretty small too. Something besides flying? I'll have to think about that though. Peter is, after all know for his flying skills 🙂 Maybe I'll do more sketches fo different scenarios to post for more feedback. Thanks so much! I'm not really happy with it at this point.

@Charlie-Eve-Ryan Thank you for the feedback, I will fix that arm 🙂
@Chip-Valecek Thank you, I will check that out!

Oh, okay, that makes sense. Maybe I'll try out next Inktober 🙂 Thank you!

Well, I've decided to go forward with the sketch as it is now. Normally for a competition piece I would like to spend a bit more time, but Thanksgiving is getting in the way so I'm just going to work with what I have and do my best in the time that is available to me, which frankly isn't much. Still, I'd rather get something in rather than just say, "Oh well, too bad."

Since I'm going to be traveling and busy, I may not be able to post the rest of my progress here, so I just wanted to come back and thank everyone for their help! I think I really got a good sketch through your suggestions.

Bye until December!

It sounds like you have plenty of ideas! I also agree with with not over-thinking it. Ask what does your gut instinct say, what do you really fancy drawing? If you are excited by it, then that will naturally shine through in your work...

They are working on getting one together soon. I went through and made myself a syllabus starting with the fundamental courses. 🙂

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen said:

@Naroth-Kean Thank you! That's just what I needed explained. Thank yo so much! I'll go do that now.

Hi Marsha - glad it worked for you (btw, I am Nancy Gormezano, not Naroth Kean). I tried your link but it brought me to a login page - I think you want to use this link instead for your signature:

https://marshaottumowen.wordpress.com/

@Will-Terry Thanks! 🙂 , your totally right, the caracters pops from the canvas on your example, big improvement, i still got alot to learn, i am very grateful you opend my eyes on a few details on that one piece so i can take it to consideration to apply this new point of view on the other pieces!! Realy Thank you 😃

12278753_10207394105344355_7395890621174224671_n.jpg

thanks! I never think to look on youtube actually

Feedback please?

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Here's another quick pencil caricature - this time it's the King of Pop...

I know it's rough but I only put enough information in a sketch that I'll need when I start painting.

Ace
IMG_0065.jpg

@Leontine Thanks for all your support, Leontine! I ended up with a more "evil" theme 🙂

Thanks Leontine. I've been trying the box thing. Guess I need to do a lot more 🙂 I want to make the rocker parts more round.

This looks like an interesting opportunity, if anyone wants to participate--a portfolio review from art directors.

http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=41e97736fd8a247b5f0b8cdf5&id=21fbd9c281

@audrey-dowling I didn't write it, just a local author in my home town. She is doing a self publish, but she is involved in major writing groups and with the community, as am I, so I hope it will do well for our area for just the fact that it's local. 🙂 It wasn't really the style that I want to be known for so I'm looking forward to moving on and learning more.

I have been keeping up with Nathan Fowkes' postings on his blogs for several years. I don't think there is a better person out there to emulate when it relates to environments and lighting. James Gurney is another great. Here is a good example of Nathan's sketches he posts. He's been doing these daily in gouache for years.

creek-demo-web.jpg

That's really cool and it looks like you handled the colors like a champ.