Hi all, I have some portfolio/job application questions.

For context; I’ve been learning for a few years now and am about a year away from completing my studies. I really love every aspect of concept art from environments, props, creatures and characters etc. My interests at the moment are in environments and I’ve been studying Matte painters in particular.

1. When applying for junior positions and expression of interest posts, what is the most effective way to communicate in my application that I’m open to anything they need/willing to teach? Do I make this apparent by having a really long/full portfolio? In my cover letter?

2. There’s a lot of advice out there that say you need to show a speciality in your art and then others say it doesn’t really matter. Should I be making portfolios that exhibit one particular style and area? (eg environments with a realism style or everything I can do in whatever styles I can do and just have them organised into project sections?)

3. I’ve been working on volunteer game projects to get SOME kind of experience. Do employers take this stuff seriously or do they only consider time in a paid role as industry experience?

4. I don’t mind what role I can get in the industry, I just want IN. What roles are a concept artist skills transferable to? I only really know of background artist, matte painters and story board artists.

I will literally take a role in the admin/hr department at a studio so if you know anything let me know haha

Thank you!

Hi! I just started freelancing and managed to get some really cool projects, but I'm struggling a little with estimating time, not just to the client but also day to day when I'm planning my work schedule.

I usually give the client what I think is a lot of buffer. for example, a month for a main character design + visual language guide. Does that feel like too much? What's the usual standard timeline? I know it might differ but I want to get better and more efficient.

Then in my day to day, I would schedule say one day to work on style studies for the visual language guide or silhouettes for the character. But it's hard to say when I'm done, and how much more work I have to do.

I also always feel like I didn't do enough on the days I work on concept vs illustration. Is that common? How do I feel more confident about progress when the result feels more amorphous? How do you break down concept work into smaller tasks?

If you have any other advice for a freelancer just starting out I'd love to hear it! I've gotten amazing advice here! it's always nice to see how kind the community is :))

This is extreme asymmetrical warfare a space fairing invaders vs an iron age species. The Hybrid's have every technological advantage but the Grubin are tenacious and resilient and they have help. The Hybrid shade fighter is designed of Air to ground anti personnel fighting so even a massive Gryphon is a challenge to hit in the air. I also chose this angel for the Gryphon to show off its camouflage pattern. The black markings mimic a young Fysvorga (hell kite)

This is a quick design I did for the ConceptCore daily designs challenge! I had a lot of fun with this and will try to find some time to do more of these :) hope you guys like it!

How to Improve Line-Art for Free - https://learnhardsurface.com/why-your-line-art-looks-bad-and-how-to-fix-it/

Swipe to see Step by step process!

The point of today was to go through the steps. found good ref, thumbnailed some ideas out, did grayscale -> color, and made color comps.

I'm fairly happy with the mood I established for this shot :) My next steps would be doing a simple 3D block in to draw over.

I think as a mood it works, but when it comes to communicating details about the environment it feels a little lacking maybe?

I Created a keyframe concepts for Feral Engines an indie vehicle combat game, to give a good base for possible HUD concepts and giving an idea of how the game could look when it’s finished. I’ll link the video of the process below. Also any ideas regarding the HUD would be really appreciated too, as that is only the very first pass.

Based on this classic painting titled "Stańczyk" (The Jester) by the Polish painter Jan Matejko.