heres sum portfolioz stuff that COULD be scaned in

[m0n1k3r]

here you guys go jsut sum stuff that i decided to post not all of it is the portfolio stuff but some of it is obviously i need more figures, trust m theres a bunch and there lying right here infron of me i jsut havent gotten to scan them in yet. not only that but all of my paintings are beign held hostage at my girlfriends place, as is my self portrait and a bunch else....theres mroe to come heres jsut a lttle taste from the past year so far.....seriously guys rip this stuff apart i want you to jsut destroy it thanks!

[m0n1k3r]

obviously i prlly made them to big so heres jsut alink to my blog where they can all be found sorry guys =( http://skarabgod.blogspot.com/

[J-Taylor]

It's really hard to understand what you've typed, but I think you wanted your stuff ripped apart?

(As a courtesy, though, you should perhaps write more clearly; you don't get points for speed anyway.)

Okay. Your artwork? Two words. Too cartoony. The drawings that would otherwise work aren't finished. It's one thing to have a complete gesture with incomplete detail, but don't omit entire pieces of the figure.

If you take away one piece of advice, take this. Get the entirety of the structure and pose down before going into more detail. Hierarchal priority.

Rendering (or what I called "shading" as a child) is icing on the cake. Some people try to use it as a compensational crutch, which actually hinders them. Don't render the form until you can create believable volume with line work alone. Like, don't ice a cake that hasn't been baked yet.

Other than that, I recognized the drawing of the musculature of the head and neck from the Anatomy for Artists book. Great thing to master copy. I don't know if anatomy copies belong in portfolios, though. I don't think so, but feel free to correct me on this, anyone.

Keep drawing!

[Tool]

Rendering (or what I called "shading" as a child) is icing on the cake. Some people try to use it as a compensational crutch, which actually hinders them. Don't render the form until you can create believable volume with line work alone. Like, don't ice a cake that hasn't been baked yet.

That's not necessarily true.

When I discovered seeing and drawing by tonal masses, I realised I had a simple and direct means of organizing a picture[...] The process of assembling a picture with what amounted to threads and sticks now seemed unnatural and time consuming. Why should a drawing be done so peicemeal when it can be executed with free, bold areas of tone put down in their correct juxtaposition? Instead of a slow, tedious building up process(the transition from thin contour lines to to a full tone or color) you should be able to strike in the image just as you see it -providing you can see your subject as masses of tone and color.

Not that rendering can't be a crutch, but it's simplistic to say tone is nothing more than icing.

[J-Taylor]

That was a hell of a well-made point.

I'm not unaware of that drawing approach. A drawing professor I had spent, like, one class on it.

The main thing is that this kind of drawing isn't really for animators.

[Tool]

The main thing is that this kind of drawing isn't really for animators.

Animators can only do

[m0n1k3r]

hey J, thanks so much for the critique on the cartoony pieces, i wasnt really planning on placing those in my portfolio but i was curious if anyone liked the stylizing of them? most of my time is spent on developing my own stylized cartoons making my characters original in their own respects.

also, GREAT point made by tool, it was interesting because i normally like to steer away from tones when i do my figure drawing.

speaking of stylizing, ill be posting some figure drawings in a moment and im curious if perhaps my figures are TOO stylized, if perhaps i need to tone it down a bit and i was really hoping if some of you guys could steer it in the right direction since its one of those things thats been bothering me as to exactly HOW distorted the figures can be. is there a specific "goldness" that the portfolio viewers regard like, a favored style? a few months back i was given some interesting advice by a painter who said that art colleges LOVE when you spend ridiculous amounts of time on just the rendering of one specific figure, if thats the case, great but id like to know based on others experience where the direction of my figures should be focused on.
(thanks by the way J, on the cake advice ill keep that in mind everytime i begin my renderings)

generaly, i was wondering if perhaps theres some way that i could get some pointers to NOT do and what to do over this summer. thanks guys! looking forward to more bashings =)

[m0n1k3r]

apparently either the forum hates me or my files are too big so just check the blog for right now sorry about this guys any one know how to make this problem go away?

[themonkmob]

That was a hell of a well-made point.

I'm not unaware of that drawing approach. A drawing professor I had spent, like, one class on it.

The main thing is that this kind of drawing isn't really for animators.

Yes it is. This helps with silohettes and seeing the whole form.

[Tool]

generaly, i was wondering if perhaps theres some way that i could get some pointers to NOT do and what to do over this summer. thanks guys! looking forward to more bashings =)

Definitely don't do anything that animators shouldn't do because animators should only do certain things in their artistic lives.

And I'm not just making a point on semantics because at the least Taylor meant that certain types of drawings won't even compliment anything related to your animation film making and that's horseshit.

[J-Taylor]

Just copy the image location from your blog, and paste it in your post between image tags.

There is not really any style CalArts and the other schools look for. They do NOT want cartoons, but you don't have to do just boring ol' "realistic"-looking drawings either.

If you want a good example check out Orange Rush's portfolio pieces. According to my reckoning, he's the best on artist on AnimatedBuzz.

Over the summer? Get a job. Draw everything you see. Master copy. Check out some books. Watch films. And never stop drawing.

[J-Taylor]

Oh guys, I didn't mean don't do that at all.

I meant that there are better priority systems. By "not really for animators" I don't mean animators shouldn't bother with any other kind of art. I'm not that much of an idiot. I go to a school that exposes you to the whole breadth of art for an entire year before you even get to animate, so I understand the value of that kind of thing.

Like, doing sculpture is really helpful, but still not at the expense of doing tons of short-pose life drawing. That's the meat and potatoes. If someone posted a portfolio for an animation school of half-finished sculptures, I'd say hold on there; you should work on drawing first. Not to say that it will NEVER do you any good.

I suppose you could still get good at short-pose life drawing (which I think we agree is essential?) by taking the time to incrementally color in every drawing (I really doubt it, though), but I just thought I'd tell this guy the more efficient, effective pathway there.

[themonkmob]

Taylor, I think youre trying to find a formula or structure to getting into Cal Arts when there isn't one. People HAVE gotten in with cartoons. Not everyone there is great at figure drawing and there are people that abstract the form and there are others who draw academically. At what point can one say what Cal Arts is looking for when theres a range of different people there! Each person has their own areas of expertise. Its all about what you do and what motivates you.

[J-Taylor]

Well, the formula CalArts itself gives is 80% real people/animals from real life.

The "NOT want cartoons" was for "other schools." Some don't want to see cartoons. Thanks for catching me, monk. I really don't want to mislead anyone with my poorly-considered wording.

If you want to do cartoons (and, really, who doesn't?) go ahead, but you can get in with absolutely no cartoons in your portfolio. As always, short pose life drawing is the focus.

And whats weird is, I'll go months at a time not drawing cartoons, and just doing life drawing and other design things, and then when I come back to cartooning, I'm automatically better, and better in a way I couldn't have gotten if I had just spent the time drawing cartoons. If that makes sense. So that's something interesting.

I'm not a fan of the "good job! Keep up whatever you're doing" kind of critique. It's actually unhelpful. While I understand that what works best for one person is not going to work best for everyone, it's at least something.

I don't consider myself an expert on art, but whenever someone asks, I will try to pass along advice from actual experts that I've found helpful.

And I don't mind anyone qualifying or excepting what I say. It's totally cool.

[themonkmob]

Well, the formula CalArts itself gives is 80% real people/animals from real life.

the faculty barely abides by that in review. they just want people who do what they do, and not what anyone else does.

The "NOT want cartoons" was for "other schools." Some don't want to see cartoons. Thanks for catching me, monk. I really don't want to mislead anyone with my poorly-considered wording.

If you want to do cartoons (and, really, who doesn't?) go ahead, but you can get in with absolutely no cartoons in your portfolio. As always, short pose life drawing is the focus.

And whats weird is, I'll go months at a time not drawing cartoons, and just doing life drawing and other design things, and then when I come back to cartooning, I'm automatically better, and better in a way I couldn't have gotten if I had just spent the time drawing cartoons. If that makes sense. So that's something interesting.

The both of them compliment each other.