Hi Ahti, I really your animal paintings. Do you ever watch Aaron Blaise's youtube videos? I think you'll like him. The advice I'd give you is to go to school and learn all of the fundamentals. Find out the things you like and don't like then let the art take you where it wants to. I remember thinking I'd work as an album artist but when I graduated from school there were only CD-roms and then those went away. So you never now what opportunities await but the doors never open if you don't do the required training. Good luck!

Hi Jann, Here is the best advice I can give you. 1 You have two big tasks after graduating. One is to find a way to feed yourself and pay your bill to live. The second job is to grow your art skills and improve your portfolio over time. Be kind to yourself if that doesn't happen right away. I think too many artists give up too quickly because their art doesn't monetize right away. If you stick with it, over time it will come. Until the quality of your work grows from student level to professional level you'll get a lot of rejections. We all get rejections all the time in our careers. It's something you have to grow thick skin towards and not let it discourage you. The other important thing I want you to do is to download 2D art and 3D rendered models of assets from the companies you want to work for. Place those images next to your images and pick out some things they are doing better than you at this moment and try to work for that until the art in your portfolio is as good as the art you see produced by the companies you want to work for. It takes time, patience, and a consistent work ethic.

Hi Liz, Nice oil paintings. I have two answers for you. 1. The majority of artist I work with use digital but I do work with and hire oil painters. Look at the work of Brom, Alex Horley, Chris Rahn, Greg Staples and Mike Sass. All of them are oil painters who create paintings for Blizzard and many more working on Magic: the gathering. So yes, there is a place for oil painting in the entertainment industry. That said, I'd get a copy of Corel painter and learn how to paint digitally as it's such a useful tool to quickly make revisions and modifications to your paintings after you scan it or shoot it with photography. 2. All of your work is beautiful but it's really geared toward gallery paintings. Most entertainment properties do no have nudes in the game. So if you wanted to work in the entertainment industry you'd need to start creating illustrations of "costumed characters".

Hi Asian Sam! I'm glad you're liking Battlegrounds. You have some nice characters designs but try to show them in a T-pose so we can appreciate the design of the character. Don't show them on black backgrounds and there is not need to pose them. I like falconers (Fana and Rezel) but you are using very realistic proportions. I'd encourage you to push the characterization and exaggerate the proportions more in your characters and move past realism. Research the character designs of Carter Goodrich as an example of what I'm referring to.

Hi Olga, to answer your question, I know there are quite a few artist such as Jesper Ejsing, Chris Rahn, and Jim Nelson who create art for both Hearthstone and M:tG I don't have an exact number off the top of my head. I do know most artist tend to lean one way or the other. Artist who like to paint more realistic characters with a more "filmic" look will do more work with WotC and artist who like more cartoony and stylized character designs will want to work for Hearthstone. There is no right or wrong answer. It's more like do you like coffee or tea. Only you know the answer. I like the art work of Dark Souls and Diablo also. I'd encourage you to make more monster images without such a heavy reliance of black in the background. I think you'll like the results.

Hi Yiming, I understand your question. I have friends that ask the same thing about the music and film industry. The short answer is game companies want to make games that have visual appeal. Just like the music industry wants to make hit songs with appeal. If something is too unique or strange the company worries maybe there will not be a large enough fan base to support the game. That said, I thought games like "Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet" and "Limbo" had very unique art styles. I really like your work. It's very realistic with this wonderful sense of surrealism. I love the image of the man on the paper airplane flying toward the jumbo jet. Great values, good composition, fun storying and nice brush work. I wanted to see this animation. What's happening? Why is he flying toward the plane. Tell more! The image is doing its job with "story telling". Nice work. Keep it up. I see you working in the animation industry one day.

Hi Michael, great high-school portfolio. You have a lot of good stuff here. Love the use of colors and value in your boat painting. The frog image feels like it could be a promo image from the Obsidian game "Grounded" or a pre-viz image for a new animated movie. What you need to do now is decide if you want to work in animation, video games or?? You have an illustration portfolio now but you should know the difference between illustration jobs and design/concept art jobs. Feng Zhu does a really good explaining the difference in this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fPq1AF7v0E&t=2501s Once you're clear on where you want to go with your career create a portfolio with images that demonstrate you can do that job. Good luck!

Hi John, the paintings are really good. Try not to always have the center of focus be in the middle (where it is on the 3 of your 5 paintings), trying to add a bit more area of focus and have that area look more finished. Go in and clean up the rendering and edges. Right now everything looks "rough" and a bit unfinished. By bringing one area into focus will really help.

Hi Litmuski, That is the trick. Most people with some practice can copy and image but "copying" an image is a good training method is not the same thing as creating art. You'll need to take some classes that cover the foundations of character invention. So you can start with a simple gesture or even stick like figure and pose your character and then build up from there using reference. I think you've copied enough, put that away for awhile and not write some short stories with characters and then create some layouts and start making your own graphic novel now. That will give you the fuel to learn "on the job" when something doesn't look good take an online class on the subject then move on. Having a "live" project to work on is one of the best ways to improve and to have something to show when you're done.

Hi Angela, your character designs are looking good. I really like the beard design of the wizard's beard the proportions on the bear are really fun also. Good use of drapery as well. Besides a career in animation you can also consider a career as a character concept artist in the games industry. If you're interested in that I'd encourage you to even more stylization and exaggeration in your characters as that is in demand in the games industry. Good luck!

Hi Stefano, good use of color and value grouping. You definitely understand the Hearthstone color pallet. Now I would encourage you to use characters from WOW and Hearthstone and try keeping them "on model" so they look like characters from the game and not "fan art interpretations". Try to remove the outlines, avoid pure black in the background and push the material rendering more. When you're ready send your portfolio to: artsubmissions@blizzard.com Good luck, you're well on your way.

Hi Lukas! You are one your way. I'd encourage you to work more on different material rendering and make sure you have a variety of edges to your figures. Think about where to put Hard edges, firm, soft, and lost edges). Right now you have the same HARD edge all around the character silhouette. Once you feel you work is at the same level as the current level of art in the m:tg card game email your portfolio to: artdrop@wizards.com.

The most important thing to do when getting hired is creating a solid portfolio that demonstrates a clear understanding of the foundations of art. Right now you have a student looking portfolio. If you want to see the type of jobs and qualifications you will need after school I’d suggest signing up for the Art Station new job listing news letter and always go to the websites of companies you want to work for and look at their job boards. Good luck.

Hi Aaryan, I definitely see your enthusiasm for art but you need to move past coping photos to get to the next level. You’ll want to sign up for some foundation drawing classes. You need to be able to look at a photo and then brake down the simple geometric forms and structures before adding the shading and detail. Make sure to watch Prokos head drawing videos where he demos the Loomis head break down to see what I’m trying to explain in words. Good luck!

Hi Piusalien! In addition to the good advice Janna gave, I’ll add a few of my thoughts. Let’s answer your question: “ why are studios not responding to my work?” Most studios need concept artist to design characters, props and environments but you only show one character design. The rest are more “splash art illustrations.” If you want to get hired to creat these type of splash art paintings you have to be really good. Please some of the fun Overwatch marketing illustrations new to your images and see if you can spot the differences in quality between where you are now and more images with a more professional finish. It would be good to work on composition, painting and your drawing skills more. I’ll give a few specific comments on the images you submitted. Egg image is a fun illustration but it looks like a “block-in” and not a final rendered painting. I think there could be some more interesting compositional choices besides having the egg take up have the picture frame. Character concept is fun but I would show her in a “T” pose and then show the weapon drawing next to the character pose. Right now the sword is hiding part of the character design. The truck image with a blue ground plane is odd. Why is the ground blue? Characters scale is inconsistent, there are no cast shadows from objects. These are things are all areas for you to explore and improve. Try not to use bla k backgrounds behind the Thunder Cat type character. Your dividing your images into light and dark using a lasso painting technique well but then you need to take the next steps and add middle values. So the number one thing you need to decide is if you’re going to be a concept artist or a illustrator then make sure your portfolio reflects that. Then make sure your art in the portfolio matches the quality level of what’s currently being done in that industry. I hope that helps. Good luck with your journey!

Hi Rubén , you’re off to a great start. The three big areas you need to improve upon is the drawing, modeling of form (getting good separation of light and dark WITH good middle vale’s in between. Also push more “stylized realism” in the work. For example look how many verticals and horizontals are in the town image. Good Charléne Le Scanff’s build designs. You’ll see an example of how much fun and whimsy you can add to your building designs. This gives them more appeal. Stiff wooden designs won’t get your haired. Also the front and the side of the buildings are the same value. Sell you light source better by having one side be in shadow and one in light. The blue light from the sky should affect the roof colors as well. Living room scene is not really “concept art” it’s and illustration. Your using too much pure white and pure black. Try not to do that. Black could be used in the finished dark show accents and whit Evan be used as speculative highlights but not as the local color for hair. The guys right arm in the foreground is drawing poorly, did you have reference for that when you drew it? Also edges are a bit mess, soft where they should be hard. Watch this tutorial from Marco Bucci about the importance of edges. He explains it better than I can. I think it will give you an eye opener. https://youtu.be/nnhj5efzN_w Best of luck!

Hi Arthur, creating great art art is worthy goal in life. To do this you need to train your hand and eye. Overall when I look at your images I see three categories of images. First group is the four characters that are too dark and hard to read because of poor character/ background value separation. Second group are characters on generic unappealing gray backgrounds, and the third group of images is are the two that have good values and colors. That last group is what I want you to make more of. Take a look, does your eye see those three buckets also? I’ll make a few specific notes on the individual notes as well. Mecha-woman: Fun idea but the background is way too dark. Study good plein aire paintings in black and white to realize how light of value you should be using in the backgrounds. Take another look at her legs, they lack structure and solid anatomy. Good back and see if you can resolve that. You don’t want any “weak” areas in a great painting. Gnome: I like this one, good vale’s and coloring. It would be nice if this was for WOW that you actually keep the body proportion “on model” to what they are in the game. That is an important skill to develop if you want to make commercial work. Goblin is cool also but I like you to try a cooler color as the background playing warm skin of the character against a cooler color in the background. Area right behind his head is a bit flat and lacking depth. Robot: Too dark, needs better value grouping and more color. Soooo much gray in this image. Blue haired sprite: Look at the right ear placement compared to the left ear. They don’t match. You need to adjust the placement of his right ear. Minotaur must be one of your oldest images. It has drawing errors on the arm, colors are washed out another black ground. Focus on these areas and I’m sure you’ll see your work improve. Best of luck!

Hi Doug, First things first. I think you draw really well but in an very stylized way. I think your saying “When I want to have more control of my drawing and be stylized I find it difficult” Well that just comes with classes and lots of practice. A good competitive runner puts in a lot of hours training each week and so must artist and musicians but let’s jump into the work. 1. The first guy with the crown has nice lighting on the face. Again face is exaggerated in a fun “editorial” way. That said if you’d like to get commercial work with a game like Hearthstone start studying how Blizzard stylizes their characters. I would love to see what you’d do if this character was a big thick dwarf. Also don’t leave the background white. I expect a background to be part of the painting. 2. The purple elf looks like it could be a character from WOW which is a good thing to do if you want to get that kind of work in the future. Always draw and paint things from universes that inspire you and are the industry you’d like to work in. The face is lacking structure and forms are looking a bit rubbery. I classic head drawing and portrait class where you study the Assael head will help you get that dialed in. HER right ear is not in he same perspective as he left ear if you draw through. I’d light the side of the head facing the viewer. The end curls of her hair is too mechanical and repetitive. Fingers are way too long for hand size. You need to develop an eye for these things in your work and then make the edits if you want more professional work. 3. Boat image is cool. Nice action. Watch your edges are figures. Right now everything is a HARD edge. Would be nice to see some softer edges on the hair. I like how the clouds point to the figures. 4. Girl with the knife has a white background again. See if you can stop that and finish the backgrounds on all your paintings. This type of stylization (which I really like) is different then the way characters are styled in Hearthstone. You should be aware of this and be doing it out of skill and not out of lack of control. 5. Skull cav doesn’t pass the squint test. Go back and add some lighter warm purple values to the middle ground and far background. Right now you have the orange glows and then everything is near black. You want to establish better value grouping. 6. Naruto image feels too distorted and broken for my taste. 7. Spider-Man is great. Reall love the exaggeration. Try rounding out parts of the rings to get past the square privative shape. 8, Band of heroes image is the most commercial work you have. It would work well in the mobile space.

Hi Mercé, these designs are looking great. You have a good grasp of drawing and form. I have one big Overarching comment on all theses. Your color pallets are a bit too dull, gray and muted for the WOW / Hearthstone universe. Really try pushing color more. Pick one key color and then using color theory pick the other supporting colors so you have a clearer color hierarchy. It canta just be brown, gray, and one muted color. I’ll now make a few notes on the other specific characters. 1. ERIS: I would show one of the options that has more color. The details on her costume are a bit too busy. Try to design areas of “rest” into the costume as welll as areas of high density detail. Would be nice to seee the gun barrel shapes flare more to avoid the parallel lines. Here left foot looks a bit small. 2. REDHACK: I like the asymmetric design but HIS right shoulder pad shape is the same mass as the forearm barrel. Get some stronger variety of shames between those shapes. For example have a small coconut shape for the shoulder pad, a medium shape for his floraremos and a large shape for the claw. You need a clearer shape hierarchy. Maybe add some gears and pullers to that arm? Also, wooden leg peg looks too small. Can you make that THICKER and flare out the base more? 3. SCYTHES: The had design is not working and hurts the character design. Make a few more iterations on the hat design that are smaller and compliment the outer costume elements instead fight with it. I’d put the sword in front of her right leg also. Loos awkward where it is now. 4. PROPS: Treasure chest is my favorite. The others are good but if you look at WOW I think you could be more dynamic and exaggerate the weapon shapes more. 5. Inter looks gray but the colors are too dull. No real focal area and no color hierarchy. Too much same brown going on here. I hope that gives you some areas to work on and improve. Good luck!

Hi Luigi, Yes, I think you can do work for WotC but you need to get stronger lighting and better value grouping. Don’t back light your figures. Squint you eyes as you look at these images. Many of the the values in the background are the same as in the figure. In your next paintings try using a value 3 or 4 in the background, a value 5 in the middle ground and use a value 7 or 8 in the figure. It will give your images a solid read. Keep checking the images in black and white too see if your keeping the value groups. If you want the dig more into this search for: Three value compositions on. YouTube.