@Zachary-Schrage Wow, you’ve already got a lot of feedback, but thought I’d throw in my two cents:
Your technical ability in this black and white style is absolutely incredible! I love the scratchboard aesthetic and your control of atmospherics, value and texture. You’ve got some award-winning stuff going for you.
For my feedback I’d say this: Your style feels like a combination of Ray Cruz (see “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day”) and Chris Van Alsberg (see “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick) with a sprinkle of Anime. You could take this as another compliment (I especially love Chris Van Alsberg), but one thing to note is that, at least right now, I think both of these styles feel kind of dated (both books came out decades ago in the 70s and 80s). Actually, after a little more thought, the style that it REALLY reminds me of dates back to the 1800s (you probably know this already, but I just wanted to point it out):
Keeping absolutely everything in your portfolio black and white probably adds to that feeling. How and whether to try and make your style feel slightly more contemporary is a difficult question to answer, but one that you might want to think on (anyone else in the group here agree or disagree with me?).
Having said this, I think of Jed Henry, who leaned into making fan art pieces that look similar to old Japanese prints, but they feel contemporary because of subject matter and color application. Maybe you could figure out your own version of doing something like that.
At the very least, I’d work on creating a few more pieces with color to round out your portfolio. I think you definitely can do this: You demonstrated great use of color in your windowsill sketching piece. I’d replace the two anime fan art pieces—They’re pretty good, but not at the level of everything else, and I would just take out the colored 4-wheeler piece, which looks quite a bit more amateur compared to your other work.
I hope this helps in some way! You’re doing amazing stuff!!