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Honest critique needed
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Hello my name is Aram, and i am currently a high school student in my senior year, and I am applying for CalArts this January.So these are couple of my works in one of my sketcbooks, so tell me what you think and what should i add to my skechbook..THANKS
http://animatedbuzz.com/albums/view/1603
This post was edited by Aram Sargsyan at June 30, 2012 7:47:14 PM PDT -
I don't really know how to feel about your work. On one hand you're clearly very talented at making studies and I could tell you've put a lot of effort in them.
I'm struggling to find what makes you you, though. Studies are great and all and they look really nice, but it's sort of a "been there, done that" type of thing. No offense, but they look really good but are just dull. These don't really show your style. My main comment is that it seems like you're making studies to just make studies, and there's no real thought about composition. Try to think of your sketchbook as a huge book of legitimate illustrations. When I'm doing a study of a page of hands, I may be just doing it to study hands but I'm constantly now thinking about where each hand goes on the page, how big they could be, how they interact with my other hands, how they interact with any other images in my sketchbook, and so on. It's not just a "Well I'm going to draw hands randomly on the page" thought process, you know? And even when you stray out from studies and do some character design related stuff, it still suffers from these same problems.
So basically my advice is to not think of your sketchbook as an actual sketchbook with a bunch of throwaway drawings in it. Make it look awesome. Make it look as though if someone were to want to look at it they would be drawn in and wouldn't be able to put it down. It might be extremely rare that people would do that, but that's basically what you're doing when you're making a sketchbook for a portfolio. In the CalArts Admissions process, an awesome sketchbook could be something that convinces them to accept you. Try to mainly draw in pen, not pencil, and experiement with a bunch of different mediums, too. That animation style thing in Photo 7 would look great in pen.
Just try to focus on loosening up and finding your style. Check out James Jean if you're confused about sketchbook composition.
http://www.jamesjean.com/sketch/
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I totally agree with you my man, I am kind of strugling on trying to find out my own unique style. In a way you can't blame me because my main goal in these past few years was to study anotamy, academic drawing, and painting. I am in a way an old school type of person, you know? you don't know how thankful i am for your honest critique, because from now on I am gonna focus on my style more, than my skills. and about using different mediums.....what mediums should i use in my sketchbook? someting that pops out, you know? because i used color pencils in my sketchbook, it didn't pop out..........overall thank you very very much for your honest ideas and suggestions, you basically changed my perspective
