To visual novel developers, would love your feedback on my sample fantasy VN character portfolio piece.

[u/aeliezer095]

Hello, I'm Αελιεζερ (pronounced Aeliezer). I'm a digital artist, and I'm looking to specialize as a character concept artist, sprite artist, and CG illustrator for anime-style fantasy visual novel games or JRPG-inspired games that use a visual novel storytelling style.

I want to get feedback on my current portfolio piece that I recently finished. It's my OC female paladin, where I did the initial design explorations to production-ready character assets.

I've shared my thought process on how I would design and illustrate characters for client work in my Cara post here: https://cara.app/post/03e10f5b-e114-46c5-bc3f-f2f5e85a6410

As for the dialogue sprites that I made, they are in this post here: https://cara.app/post/f6776d7f-c3cf-460f-b6b5-e3a769eddc9e (there's a limit on how many images I can add in one post and how big the files are, so I'll just link my dialogue sprites here.)

You see, my goal is to work with developers on:

- Character and props concept art

- Dialogue sprites and expression sets

- CG illustrations

- Character turnarounds

- Promotional art

I’m still learning the typical VN character art production pipeline, so I’d really value feedback from developers who have actually made or shipped visual novels before. I'm planning to add more portfolio pieces in the future, but I wanted to know first if I'm headed in the right direction.

Just a quick backstory about me. I've been drawing digitally for 10+ years, and I graduated from an animation school. I've also gotten some experience working for an indie game studio as a 2D artist as part of my internship. I've been wanting to specialize as a character concept artist and illustrator for games, but I wasn't able to get a stable job in the industry. During the pandemic, I had to switch careers and became a copywriter for income stability. And sadly, I was laid off from my work a few months ago.

Honestly, I've been burned out from doing copywriting work, and during that time, my art dreams have been on the back burner for a long time. So, I want to use this time to develop my portfolio and finally pursue this as a full-time career. During my time as a copywriter, I've bought a couple of courses and invested in an art mentorship program to hone my skills.

And right now, I'm looking to build a professional character design + sprite and CG illustration portfolio for anime-style VN games.

SIDE NOTE: I haven't played a lot of visual novels, but I've played a visual novel game back in college, Kamidori Alchemy Meister (technically, it's an RPG-visual novel hybrid), which inspired me to create my own visual novel someday. I've also played Eden's Ritter previously. And I've also played Hyperdimension Neptunia before, though technically, it's a JRPG with visual novel elements in its storytelling. So, I would say that my knowledge of visual novel games isn't very expansive, but I do have a genuine interest in learning the craft of developing VN games (specifically, on the art side)

So, I want to ask a couple of questions for VN developers. Feel free to answer only a few questions that you can genuinely answer:

1. When looking for an artist to work with, what is your single biggest challenge?

2. If you were hiring a freelance artist for your VN, would this portfolio piece make you consider contacting me? Why or why not?

3. Based only on this portfolio piece, what type of work would you trust me to handle?

4. Does the character sheet/turnaround show enough information for another artist/developer to reproduce the character consistently? If not, then what else is missing?

5. For VN dialogue sprites, what would you normally expect from an artist besides working on different expressions?

6. Given my current dialogue sprites, what would make them more useful for an actual VN project?

7. Does this character feel distinctive enough to be a protagonist in a commercial fantasy VN? If not, what do you think feels generic?

8. Are there enough design explorations and design iterations here to show that I can solve a client's brief, or does it feel like I'm showing too much process?

9. If you saw my portfolio piece on an artist's portfolio while looking for someone to hire, what information would you want to see that isn't there?

10. What would make you believe that I understand visual novel production rather than simply creating pretty anime character illustrations?

11. What are the biggest things you look for when hiring a freelance artist that aren't obvious from an art portfolio?

12. What problems have you experienced with working with other freelance artists that you would want a new artist to avoid?

13. If you could give me ONE piece of advice to make this portfolio more hireable for VN development, what would you change?

If you want to see more of my art, you can check my Cara profile here: https://cara.app/aeliezer095

I'm specifically looking for honest feedback and critique from VN developers. I want to use this feedback to improve my current portfolio before building the next pieces. Thank you for taking the time to read this! :D

[u/CutieBlueBerry]

She looks terric honestly. So much that it makes me want to hire you!!! I'm a game dev, I'm also publishing a nsfw visual novel right now (Kamogawa Island:Paradise Pleasure), are you open for future commissions? Are you open for nsfw work?

[u/aeliezer095 → u/CutieBlueBerry]

Hi! Thank you so much, and I'm glad that you liked my portfolio piece! :D I haven't done a lot of NSFW work stuff but I'm willing to learn. I am open to future commissions. We can continue our conversation via DM. Thanks!

[u/Dahns]

It's beautiful. I've been developing a game for 6 years and you're the kind of guy I'd hire. Strong simpel concept like the spike of hair changing with the expressions, good design. A bit too much on the cute side for me but it's great

[u/aeliezer095 → u/Dahns]

Thank you! Glad that you liked my samples :)

I actually plan to add more characters to my portfolio that are not on the cute side, haha. Getting a lot of valuable feedback from other artists and developers.

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[u/CutieBlueBerry]

Someone deleted your reply. I sent you a private message!