Discovering our style - Who's in?

[Heather Boyd]

@Meta I notice a lot of strong compositional lines, angular and vertical, being main focus like the tree bridge across, and the angles in characters like the elephant.

[jakecrowe]

@Meta I don’t know if I have the language for all of it, but I’m seeing a lot of dramatic lighting.

Also, as far as subject matter goes there’s plant matter in almost every piece! Maybe that’s all coincidence.

[Meta]

@jakecrowe I think it isn't! :face_with_stuck-out_tongue_winking_eye: I like that stuff.

[Inge Permentier]

@Meta Sorry XD i wasn't trying to take away from your thread i just thought this was a thread where people could specify whether they joined or not. That's why i opened a separate one.

[burvantill]

@Heather-Boyd @Meta
Me too! Always.

[Miriam]

@jakecrowe, Along with the texture you mentioned, I'm also seeing a lot of brown & green, and earthy tones. So I'd say a rugged / nature kind of feel.

You mentioned "Abstract or minimal backgrounds", and most of these have a very simple, centered composition.

[Miriam]

@Meta, I agree with the other comments. Something else I noticed is the compositions move the eye all around the page--very quickly for me. Some have a lot of details, while others achieve this effect with the strong lines and contrast in lighting. Also, most of the characters are very engaged and alert. I'm seeing a lot of depth in most of the images.

[Meta]

@Inge-Permentier no worries!

[Zachary Drenski]

@jakecrowe A lot of this does have an analogous feel, but I see some that lean toward complementary as well. The Hellboy for example is orange on blue. The first thought that came to my head when I saw this grouping of paintings was pyschedelic comic art. I think it is the pinks, purples, teal greens, and the heavy emphasis on linework as well as the subject matter that makes it feel like it fits that genre.

It seems like you are drawn to a certain kind of moment and mood. I would call it quiet action. Sometimes the content is quiet but the rendering gives it a little boost, like in the hero never sleeps image. Quiet scene, loud colors.

Other times the content is action packed, but the rendering tones it down. The Hellboy one for example, a monster is busting the ground open with a boooooom but that blue calms it down (for me). I don't know if any of that makes sense but I'm just trying to throw some ideas at you to explore.

Last thing, you seem to be very attracted to excellent draftsmanship. These all have realistic perspective and the human characters are all drawn with realistic proportions.

[Zachary Drenski]

@Meta A lot of green and blue. It looks like you are really influenced by animation concept art. Your dream portfolio feels painterly, yet happy at home looking digital.

I don't have much to add other than what other you said. I would say these images come from people who can draw and paint really well and who love and are inspired by the natural world.

[Chip Valecek]

@Inge-Permentier It is perfectly fine to start your own thread for yours. I plan to do the same this week once I get everything together.

I love seeing everyone's dream portfolio. I noticed on the ones here and others I have seen most of the time when you look at them small you can see a color pattern. But the style and technique vary. Has anyone else noticed that? So then the cross roads are with what style you want to work towards?

I have also found that the dream portfolio and what i feel are my 20 best are SO different. I have lots of work to do.

[Elena Marengoni]

Here's my dream portfolio! Nature and everyday life scenes are a red thread for me. Also a little bit of magic here and there.

Other key features for me are: soft shapes, 'unexpected' proportions (of body shapes or landscape elements), asymmetric and dynamic compositions varied (and quite-but-not-too-much accurate) use of perspective, bright (but not overly saturated) colors, contrast, presence of primary colors (although I love black and white too), analog (or analog-looking) media), with a particular interest for gouache, watercolor and pencils, presence of patterns and textures (I LOVE patterns and textures), generally no outline (except for black and white).

I am loving this exercise, it was a good confirmation of things that I consciously like in other people's illustrations, but also a great source of inspiration. I will try to set aside some time to study these visual techniques and create small swatches or samples of the different traits.

[Meta]

@Heather-Boyd @jakecrowe @Miriam @Zachary-Drenski, Thank you all a lot for your feedback! It is just great to have different pairs of eyes to look over things. I think I have a good base now to continue to the next step What I found interesting and surprised me most, was Miriam mentioning how the composition makes the eye move around. I think I do already try to create that within some of my own drawings. One could use it it even more on purpose for telling storys. Sort of little sequences within one image. I'll definitely keep that in mind.
My second dream portfolio will look totally different! I've gathered everything and sort it out now.

[braden H]

How is everyone here FINDING their dream portfolio images. Do you have artists already in mind? Are you simply surfing google?

My pinterest and google rabbit holes rarely lead me to anything I really LIKE. Or it's 'I like that, but I don't wanna DO that'.

[NicolaSchofield]

I've been sort of doing this for a little while now but always gave up as my collection seemed all over the place. I saw a comment (I can't seem to find it again now to quote it) about focussing on a picture book portfolio and then doing a separate one for other topics (comics in the case of the comment I saw. Fine art painting type stuff for me). This helped so much! I am revisiting my dream portfolio and asking for each image "yes, you like it but would you see it in a picture book?" Et voilà, I am starting to see some overall themes emerging! Can I join in and post it here to get your thoughts? I feel there's a lot that I'm not seeing - particularly around colour. I will also try and comment on all your gorgeous portfolios but it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to put my thoughts into words!

[Heather Boyd]

@neschof yes join in

[Chip Valecek]

@Braden-Hallett mine are from the artists that I love.

[Meta]

@neschof Absolutely welcome!

@Braden-Hallett For me the task was only picking from what I already collected. Since I knew I'd go back to drawing (half a year ago maybe?) I was liking and following stuff/people on instagram, saving some other non-instagram-related images on my computer. If you start from scratch, this is definitely time consuming. It still was for me, but I had that base ... Have you got nothing and no one from arts that does what you want to do? If there would be one at least you could go to instagram or pinterest and look up the things that are related to that art. Though it can be very tireing to click around ...

@Elena-Marengoni I also see a lot of desaturated and brownish colors. Your backgroundas are very basic and there is few rendering. At least a part of the images use geometrical shapes. They use abstaraction in many cases - mostly for plant matters! Almost everything has an air of fairytale. There's a high variety of different compositions. Is there any that attracts you in particular?

An interesting thing that I notice is, that within your dream portfolios, I am attracted most to those images that fulfill the criteria we've analyzed about mine. Do you guys notice the same?

[Elena Marengoni]

@Meta yep I see all these things as well, except maybe for simple backgrounds... I mean yes, they aren't super complex either, but I like that they have details to look at and that the images are quite busy overall. As for compositions, I do like variety! I like when an artist is capable of changing the point of view to support the narrative in the best possible way and get the message across. I would love to achieve that in my own portfolio!

[Elena Marengoni]

@Braden-Hallett I went to a big bookstore in Milan this week, one that has a huge section dedicated to children's books. I've spent a couple hours looking at picture books and book covers, taking photos and noting down names of illustrators that I found visually interesting. I am building a simple Excel database of those names and looking at their websites. Plus I looked at the work of illustrators whose work I was already familiar with. I find Pinterest full of inspirations, but also tiring and not really the best if you want to discover the name of the artist and be able to look at their overall portfolio.