Lightbox 2021 Portfolio Reviews
3yr
Stan Prokopenko
Hey everyone! As part of Lightbox 2021 this year I was able to get some pro artists together to do some portfolio reviews for you free of charge :) This list may grow during Lightbox, but so far we have @Tj Geisen, @Anthony Francisco, @Scott Flanders , @Tayler Olivas , @Antonio Stappaerts, @Christina Cornett, @Tyler James, and @Marco Bucci that will review the work that you submit. Feel free to post your portfolios between September 6th and September 12th for a chance to have your work reviewed. If you want to be a career artist this is an excellent chance to get feedback from others that are already succeeding in the field! Please remember to write a few sentences about your goals so our artists know what feedback to give and attach up to 10 images when you post. Thanks! Special Note: Posting does not guarantee a review by a certain artist or artists. This is also an open thread and artists will be popping in and out to leave reviews during Lightbox.
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@mrgregorykrazed
When do the reviews happen? Or have they already happened?
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Roxane Lapa
Asked for help
I posted my info here yesterday in the hopes of getting a review, but my comment was immediately hidden by a bot "for spam". I'm guessing it didn't like the link to my ArtStation portfolio. I did open a dispute, but I guess moderators don't work on Sundays so if it ever gets unhidden, it will sadly be too late for that review. Your bot is a real jerk. Just saying.
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Danilo Mata
Other ppl post their artstation links and pictures without problems maybe you should try help center at the botton of the page, that can help you get your problem fixed .
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Katey Jensma
Hi @Roxane Lapa it looks like the comment was posted few times so it was flagged as spam. This can happen by accidently clicking the "post" button more then once. I am so sorry about the poor timing of this.
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Frank Ferrer
Same thing happened to me but it was approved the following day by a moderator... I called the bot worse names lol
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Nikol P.
Asked for help
Hi, my name is Nikol, and I would love to hear your thoughts on my art. I'd love to know what you like, don't like, how I can push it further, etc, and how I can be a better and more well rounded competitive candidate for industry work. What jobs I should be applying to based on my body of work? My niche from my current portfolio is more of an illustrative / 2D generalist sort of role, with a specialty in fantasy art, creatures, painting, and figures, but I want to do anything and everything my skillset is suited toward, and take a big interest in painting, illustration, concept art and vis dev, working more with Zbrush, etc and just love jumping into challenges and learning new things and making friends along the way, but I feel like my portfolio is not yet a strong concept / vis dev and entertainment design portfolio to really confidently apply to jobs that will get my foot in that big industry job door. I am about to start hunting for jobs again while I've been working as an art teacher and studio manager at a local art studio since Dec 2020, and am seeking any advice and suggestions on how to apply to work and what to keep expanding upon and working on in my portfolio that will get me where you think I need to go. I want a stable creative 9-5 job with benefits and a salary, now its a matter of the steps to get there. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and thanks so much for this opportunity for feedback. Big lizard man at the end is my ZBrush Final after just 1 semester of it, and I unfortunately have not touched it since (but have dreamed to and now am too intimidated to touch it again). Hope to hear from you soon! More of my art here: https://www.instagram.com/prismaticvixen/
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@redthepencilmonster
Asked for help
I have worked with a wide range of media, from paper collage to CGI. I enjoy creating for its own sake, but professionally, I am pursuing an animation career. I haven't strictly settled on traditional vs CGI, but I greatly enjoy working with both. Apologies if the wide range of media on display makes this portfolio hard to analyze!
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Natalia Gil
Asked for help
Hi! My name is Natalia Gil. I am 24 years old and just recently graduated from the Academy of Art University for Visual Development. I am struggling the most with figuring out where to apply myself. I have always been interested in video game art but 3D is not my strength (although I am currently working on that). My focus in 2D art with photoshop and procreate. I am open to working with anything like props, environment, character, and even UI design. I would mostly like to know how to decide where to apply myself, and especially organize my portfolio.  Thank you for the opportunity! 
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Antonio Stappaerts
Hey Natalia, You have a really fun style and sense of storytelling! Don't make the mistake of thinking you need to master 3D to work on video games. It's just a tool like anything else, and can help you with your ideation. But it's great ideas that are important! That said from what I'm seeing in this portfolio you tend to lean more towards designing for animation. Seeing what you can already do, I would consider gravitating towards a specialty. To increase your value as a designer and a creative thinker in the job market. This will attract recruiters and art directors to your portfolio. I would suggest you expand on your world building with that in mind and showcase what you love to do. On a techincal note, I think you can really benefit from improving your lighting and material indication skills. This will help you sell the believability (not realism) of your designs. That said, keep up the great work!
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Rodrigo Suárez
Gretings, i'm Rodrigo Suárez a freelance Graphic Designer and self tough artist based in Ecuador. My dream is work making ilstration and concept art. I've been comisioned mainly ilustrations and story board works more than design so i really want to persue a carrier in concept art and ilustration. But i do feel very lost in the art industry and i do strugle finding jobs. Maybe my technical skills are not up to the standards yet. Thank very much for this great service. My best wishes.
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Amit Amliwala
Fancy seeing you here haha, awesome work mate, I especially love the crocodiles/alligator piece.
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KC Carl
Asked for help
Hello! I'm KC, and I'm an aspiring artist interested in 2D art - mainly illustration and concept art. I'm working to step out of my comfort zone and really move forward to gain better skills, so I'd appreciate feedback! Top questions I have are: what fundamentals or practices should I focus on to round out my skill set, and how do you decide what direction to go? I love so many different kinds of art (comics, concept art, stop motion, indie games...), it has been difficult for me to decide where to focus my efforts so I can pursue a job: what kind of things should I consider as I refine my focus? Thank you for the opportunity to get feedback! I really appreciate you all offering your time and expertise.
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Ross Cline
Hi, I am looking to improve my gesture, use of color, and anything else that needs improving. My goals are to become a viable freelance artist and a teacher. I work with traditional media and experiment with some quasi exotic materials. Please make me better!
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@jdn
3yr
awesome! 😄🤘
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Amit Amliwala
My name is Amit I am a self taught digital illustrator based in the UK. I want to work in the industry as a pin up/poster artist or cover artist. I would eventually like make my own graphic novel in the future.
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Rodrigo Suárez
I knew i faound you here jajaja nice work mate!
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@kermos
hello I go by Ker Mos, I'm a teen trying to get into Video Game industry, focusing more on character concept art. Most of there works are old but decided to share :)
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@sarahatef
Asked for help
I never got a chance to study art at a school, I'm 26 now, and I feel overwhelmed and so back behind to think about changing my career. My goal is to be a character designer, but I still feel that I'm in the learning process. I've been studying for a year and a half now fundamentals like anatomy, form, line quality and so. I'm looking for feedback on my work as I still struggle with rendering and imagining forms in 3D space. Sometimes I try to design a character, but the proportions and the clothes design (like drapery) get out of hand.
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Laurel Beam
Asked for help
Hello! It seems like a lot of work to review everybody's porfolio - you all are amazing, thanks for doing this. I am Laurel, aspiring to illustrate children's literature, or similar opportunities, admist being a busy mom. Consequently, I do not have much of a portfolio but attached here is my first book that is near finished and a few other pieces to compliment. I used to work with oil but for a lack of time and space, have switched to rely on ink and watercolour. I would appreciate any advice and critique you may have. Again, thank you so much for taking the time. Cheers!
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3yr
My name is Loes. I use illustrations/art to educate on nature or make people wonder. I am also learning digital drawing (the jaguar is digitally done in gimp with a wacom). And i like infograhics or illustrations that tell a story (mixed tecniques) I studied biology in the past century. I have not made a portfolio before but believe it needs to show variation. Should i include non realistic styles too? I also have plants, landscapes, model sketched and so much more. I would like help on what to include and what not. I have an instagram account @artbyloesroos in case you wish to recommend me to include others. A lot of my sketches are in Panama and i am currently in the Netherlands. Ps Just realised that the rubythrowted hummingbird is the version with the spelling error but i do no know how to change it here... melanosomes... not melasonomes
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Moonfey
Hi! I don’t really know there I want to go with my art yet, except I want express myself through it and hopefully create meaningful and beautiful art pieces. I wish to learn and improve so if anyone of you would like to give me a critique or feedback I would appriciate it very much! Thank you! :D
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@jdn
3yr
OMG! 😍 these are all so good really though just woah! i love all of the different colors and the beautiful shapes and lines . not gonna lie seeing all of these kind of makes me a bit jelly of you're skill 😅 👌 very unique work might i add. its just awesome to see such good work done by others such as yourself . so keep it up i cant wait to see more. god bless and take care ✌😉
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Verónica Carrasco
Hi! My name is Veronica Carrasco (@VecapArtist). I currently work as a Graphic Designer, but drawing has always been my biggest interest. I am trying to take part in the video games industry, although drawing and producing my own contents is a tempting idea. Anyway, your advice is very precious for me and I will really appreciate anything from your admirable experience and talent. Thank you really much!
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Rodrigo Suárez
Jajaja i'm a simple man, i just see Sypha Belnades and great art and i upvote jajaj. Great work!
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israel safra
Hi! My name is Israel 23 years old and I am a local freelance illustrator in Tel Aviv, Israel. Today I illustrate mainly for children's books and a little for commercials. My ambition is to illustrate books and children's books in the global scene, as well as to illustrate commercials and character design for gaming and animation. I have attached some illustrations from a book I am now illustrating, a few more from a book I illustrated in the past and a few more posters for publication and more ...  You can see more works on my website: https://www.israelsafra.com/ I would love to hear your opinion, how you would recommend working with clients in other countries, and of course how and what you should focus on to improve your illustration skills (Apologies in advance for my poor English, I'm still honing this skill)
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Dahianna Sagastume
Hello! My name is Dahianna Sagastume, a Graphic Design Student at San Carlos University at Guatemala, and being a character designer it's my passion, I'm fully committed to this path, I love telling stories and I hope one day work for an animation studio as a character designer. Thank you for this amazing opportunity to share my work and get feedback to keep working hard and improving my designs.
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T.J. Geisen
Hi Dahianna! I see the budding of great potential in the work you've shared with us here. You're making effort to explore different character types which is good. Also, while it's a liiitle bit vague, I see you making an effort to put hits of storytelling into your designs/illustrations which is often overlooked by aspiring artists. Kudos! My feedback is somewhat general stuff that you may have already been told, but is nonetheless essential to your growth as an artist and professional: Keep pushing to better understand anatomy, rendering, color theory, perspective, and the other fundamentals of illustration. Even though you're working in a heavily stylized style, I can still see a few holes in your execution of characters' faces and the objects/scenes they are interacting with. Also, do more of a deepdive on what is unique/special/interesting about your characters. At the moment they appear relatively generic. For instance, the gorilla you've designed: Your design communicates that they are a gorilla which we can imagine in a Disney-like animated feature, however what do the character's silhouette, body language, proportioning, and expressions specify is unique about this gorilla in contrast to the rest of their family, or on a broader scale, the stylizing of gorillas in different animations (such as Disney's Tarzan, Zootopia, Madagascar, etc.)? I'm not really providing you the answers here, but hopefully giving you a direction to think deeper on and help you further define your path as an artist. Thanks for sharing!
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Sonia Carrasco de Pablo
Hi! My name is Sonia (Whispering Dreams in social network). Nowadays I am working as a Graphic Designer, but I feel that it does not fit me. 10 Years ago I wanted to work as a character design. Some time after, I created a full comic project and get some interest from relevant french editorials but I never got a real offer. Currently I don't really know what to do with my skills or what I need to improve... I would love to work as an artist, but I don't know where to focus or how to do it. Thank you for the portfolio review!
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T.J. Geisen
Hi Sonia! With a bit of direction, I believe your work can blow up! The breadth of aesthetics I see you attempting in your different character designs is comparable to that I see in our League of Legends champion skin designers. Given the foundation you've built for your art so far I could see you going into the animation/game industry as a character designer or illustration. I think we'd need to enrich your designs with just a few more details of uniqueness, but you've already nailed the personability with your characters and hints of storytelling. If this is a path you'd like to pursue, I would advise that you put more work into further developing your characters in regards to their narrative function and/or personality. A solid example of this kind of work I'm referring to is one of my esteemed co-workers, Simon Dubuc: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DQD69. Alternatively, I could see you gaining momentum as an independent social media art star if you dig deeper and really blow people's minds with original concepts or level of illustration polish. Similar to Knight Zhang: https://www.instagram.com/arucelli/ Either way, just continue to boldly keep creating the kind of work you enjoy or feel compelled to do and I guarantee your future is bright.
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@stelpsd
Hey my name is Stel and im a 19 yearsold bulgarian artist Thse are drawings from the past half a year. Really want to get more painterly style to my digital art
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Sophia Paez
Asked for help
Hi! My name is Sophia and I am an aspiring character designer and visual developer based in Toronto. I have worked as a graphic illustrator for UNICEF Voices of Youth, but I aim to enter the animation industry in the future. I was unable to apply to an art school this year, but I wish to continue on as a self-taught artist until I get the chance to apply. Many of my illustrations are geared toward character art, and I like to take inspiration from my Filipino heritage and culture. The first four images were inspired by the Filipino myth of the Bakunawa and the Seven Moons. I am currently trying to diversify my images and subject matter to create more story and character-driven illustrations. I would love to have some advice on what to work on in the future to make my portfolio stand out so I may continue to develop in spite of my not going to art school. Thank you!
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