Topics created by Griffin

Hey Griffin, in my experience with corporate type jobs and companies it is not unheard of for them ask for you to work in a different style. That being said it doesn't mean you have to say no. I often find that someone developing an app or website gives examples on what they've seen that they either like or they know works bc its the new trend. What I have done in the past is mention "I don't work in this specified style but I think we can work together to make something cool/something that will fit/etc." That way they know ahead of time that what you produce will be somewhere in the middle but will be more than likely leaning towards your style of work. A bonus when this has happened to me is the client has liked what I made plus its a unique take on something they like. You working in your style or somewhere in-between may shed a new look or perspective that they aren't aware of.

Get a copy of Will Eisner's books - Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative as well as Comics and Sequential Art. Those are the Bible on graphic novels for story and art. Eisner invented the medium (and he was a great guy too!) After that, start a graphic novel and do whatever else you need to in order to pay the bills.

@Griffin I looked back at mine and remembered I had a variety so this is how I laid mine out (below). Maybe it will help you also because I didn't want to snip off the edges of any of the work. Note these are digital and I don't work digital anymore. I love seeing these and what people choose. I think I tried to limit to 3-4 values which was tricky.

@Griffin If the assignment is composition and value try to find drawings "coloured in" not just line-based. I think if you find some really nice compositions in line work then use them for the composition part only. I suppose once you find work whether paintings or drawings and do the value study part, you could try and place what you learn value wise to the line drawing compositions to experiment. If you don't want to do that much work I'd stick to the homework more closely. I am sure you could find other line based work that has more values -graphic novels etc. I very much enjoyed this class though I never completed it and struggled to apply it to my own work. I look forward to returning to it in the future.

@Griffin I know you didn't receive feedback before but I really like the style and the simplicity of the design. I don't remember your yeti sorry. I like the bareness, it's peaceful. I like the round edges on the largest window and I know you have already handed it in but I would round the corners of the other windows and also maybe round other corners (flag and on the chimney). I like the barren sky but not sure about the water colour texture, it distracts a bit. Maybe if you did it in the same brush as the house.

@Frost-Drive yeah it’s definitely good to look at things critically like that but I don’t think art directors spend all day going to artists websites. If an art director is on my site then I have already gotten their attention in some way so they’re already there with a purpose, not just busily hunting for illustrators on the web. I can still understand how it may not be clear that there are individual galleries on the illustrations page. I just made a simple change to that page that to help that.

Cool idea! Here's some I know. Squint your eyes, to see the value in your drawings. if things become blurred together, they are too close in value. Internal Colored Lineart - coloring all lineart takes way too long, but if you only color the lineart on the inside of things (like the internal finger outlines on a hand drawing) then it can look really cool! Shape Design - if somethings hard to shape, if you draw varying connected triangles, big medium and small ones. That can help you shape it well. Ethan Becker on Youtube has some videos about this.

I’ve been feeling this way, too, but more extreme: I have their weird expectation to think up an idea for an illustration and draw it beautifully and flawlessly in 5 seconds. Not sure where that came from! Though I suspect the root comes from the “best practice” of posting frequently on Instagram. This thread reminds me of something I’ve heard over from one artist YouTube video to another and I think also on the 3 Point Perspective podcast is “remember to have fun”. Something I keep forgetting to do.

@Jake-Parker ill take a look at that, im useless at social media.

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@Griffin you may be going about it backwards. Choose your traits and make the shapes match them. That's what I got out of the class. I wanted a solid jovial yeti. An oblong shape is rounded (friendly) and have some heft to them. So that is what I chose. Maybe if you think like that (traits first, shape to match) the process will be easier. Need someone menacing? Make him angled and sharp. Dependable? Go with a square. Turn the problem on its head. Hope this helps.

Going through your work I expected a whole different situation but your work honestly surprised me, I'm not a pro at all but I can see that your work has a level of proficiency that a lot of people find difficulty getting to. In terms of style and sticking to it, my opinion is that we are made up of many things and have many influences, it's often implied that we must pick one thing and stick to it, but honestly, I think that's not necessary I think it's okay to have a few styles to work in, to have different ways in which we express, render and illustrate what you see as inconsistency, I see as variation I'm not sure of what your situation is so I can't tell you what you should or must do, But I don't personally think you will have much trouble getting work because of using a couple different styles of which they are all appealing and interesting to me! your work is so cool and I can totally imagine it fitting into so many areas of professional careers !

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@Griffin A potential way to make the hammers work is a subtle shift of the character's pose, so he's turned more toward the viewer, the hammer coming more toward us also. I also agree with @gavpartridge about adding some more dynamism, and maybe having the focus of all three characters in the same direction so that it reinforces that they will be working together to solve whatever problem they're facing.

I think a good place to start is to ask yourself: What do I like to draw? What am I good at drawing? What are the lucrative art markets out there? Which market will my style be good at?

@Griffin i don’t have much time so I’ll just point out the biggest issues I’m seeing. Your illustration categories. I honestly did not know they were categories because there was no title. I thought you only had 4 images in your illustration tab. It was only when @NessIllustration mentioned them that it dawned on me that I could click on them. This could either mean I’m just that stupid or you need to make your categories more discernible. Long Bio. I think your about me page is sweet and really thought out but if I was an art director with very little time, I won’t read it. All I want to know is if you got the skills that’s where your portfolio comes in. I don’t want to hear your life story. Your decision to make a brief bio and another more detailed one sounds like a good idea. Domain. It’s too long. I like the suggestions @NessIllustration gave. I know I sound very curt right now but I just want to be honest and direct to the point as much as possible. Overall, I think you have good works. I wish you all the best.

@StudioLooong I think you’re right about being in a learning mindset. I’ll stick to the class as is and see what comes out of it and I can always just recreate the characters to better suit my portfolio later if that feels appropriate. Thank you, and everyone else in the comments!

@davidhohn Can you clarify the situation you refer to? Do you mean you had a Work For Hire design fee that both you AND your client would have agreed to but you chose to go the license route? It was something I did personally (we hadn't discussed the two options). Normally when I'm working with smaller companies, most of the work I'm doing is work for hire (for things like web development). I had done some logo licensing in the past where it was a lower fee but I retained the license, but more often than not these smaller companies end up getting a new logo made every 5 years or so. In the past 10 years of working, I've never actually made more money on a licensed logo because these ma and pa companies just were never going to get big and they never had much interest in their brand. So I had switched to doing it as a work for hire because I could bill a good amount more. I do see that I could be leaving money on the table if they ever did something with it, but I just never saw any fruit from it which is why I had switched.

@Griffin said in Advice for starting a website: @jdubz Thanks so much, Josh! This answered a lot of my questions. I'm terrible with any computer related things so it's sounding like wix or squarepsace is the roue for me and if I ever feel like I need more control I could try wordpress. If I ever want to switch me website though will I be able to transfer the domain over to that new site and take down the old one? Yessir. Domains and hosting are really easy to move around. If you moved it later, you'd just need to initiate a transfer. It sounds more technical than it is and most hosts can help you do it or do most of the steps for you.

I feel like you could still make the perspective work by playing with where the horizon line actually is and playing with how far apart the vanishing points are from each other. If you have to tweak and refine the silhouette though, I don't really see a problem with that. The silhouette initially serves as an interesting unexpected design result which you achieved, and then you can further play with it if it makes it better.