Need career advice: Am I good enough? (CONCEPT ARTIST)

@armaan8014

" Main thing is to get into the game industry as an artist...  Whatever helps me become better and helps me to make a great portfolio is the thing I need.   What I plan to do is, get into arts college, do all the traditional drawing and learn all the theory and whatever they want from me, and when i'm free in the day, practice my own, more game-focused drawings (maybe with the help of the online tutorials). Then after I get my degree I could go for a more specific game-art design course or PG something in it, and I'd pretty much learn all that I need to. What do you think? "

 
BADASS!!

If drawing art is something you feel you need to practice, perhaps you don't really enjoy it as much as you think you do. Maybe the difference between people who are great at doing things and people who are not is in their approach, where the great people don't think they're practicing, but simply just doing lots and lots of the thing they love. 
 
Personally, I'd say that your portfolio displayed in this thread (Photoshop TUTORIAL lesson aside - which is NOT all your own work) is average at best for an 18-year-old. Sorry if that's insulting.
 
Do you know what standards you must reach to get into art college? You may well get some useful answers from showing your work to some academic institutions.

Do tons of sketches, it really is a lot of practice.

" @animateria: Well, talking about diverse range of skills, I'm pretty good at writing too. I have loved writing stories and making comics since I was around 10 yr old. Do you think being creative overall could help? Since a lot of people here are saying that art is probably not the best field to get into, what other fields do you think a creative person could get into?
 oh im getting so confused now..
 

Also I want to say adding to my post, that I went to artschool for 2d animation. I wasn't very good at the time since nothing I drew was cartoony enough and animation wasn't my thing. My plan was to go into 3d afterwards. Only the best artist in the class can find work. If your mediocre at all, not cutting edge, you will fail just like I did and alot of my classmates. Alot of them that are good and i'm just saying I wasted alot of years going to this animation course and I still feel like I suck compared to my classmates. Maybe if your not good enough, it's not something to consider.  
 
Honestly what your drawing is copying, you can't even do that well. Drawing you see in animation, comic books, even some concept art has nothing to do with copying or using hand and eye cordination. You have to think in a wireframe to create structure and backgrounds. It's a skill anyone who wants to work in the industry has to have. You are just trying to eye the drawing and hope it looks like something, that's not what art is about, yet it's okay for painting and some painted concept. You have to think about joints, anatomy, lighting, structure, detail, perpective, perception, I could go on, however as a failed artist imo, it's not an easy carrer choice, you better be damn good, that's the harsh truth. Not everyone is good enough to be an artist and to find work, you can't make beginner mistakes, they all see it and know it. Imagine metaphorically your fighter, it's absolutly lousy if you make beginner mistakes, the competition will decimate you, they are all that good when they are professional. 
 
It's also not about your artschool, your diploma is nothing but a piece of paper which carrys little weight to your employers. They use a portfolio, or if your in animation a demo reel, a recording of your animation. The portfolio is your best work to show other ppl how good you are and anything that's weak or lousy will weight it down. I'm sorry, you have the motivation, however I know first hand how it is when your instructor tells you, you suck and need to get better since alot of my instructors works in the videogame industry. I am one of those failed artist and there are alot of ppl like me, though you should know what your getting into. I still lack the confidence in my art, i'm just a noob at artwork, a trained noob.

" @masterpaperlink:  Well I did mention a lot of times, but that's exactly what I plan to do.  I'll quote myself:
 
 

@armaan8014

said:

" Main thing is to get into the game industry as an artist...  Whatever helps me become better and helps me to make a great portfolio is the thing I need.   What I plan to do is, get into arts college, do all the traditional drawing and learn all the theory and whatever they want from me, and when i'm free in the day, practice my own, more game-focused drawings (maybe with the help of the online tutorials). Then after I get my degree I could go for a more specific game-art design course or PG something in it, and I'd pretty much learn all that I need to. What do you think? "

  So, with lots of independent practice everyday, I'd be in a good position then?
 
@Vito_Raliffe: I am on conceptart.org, but I've never been to Massiveblack. Thanks for that, it's got some great work  on it! "

For game design the best info I can give you is that if you want to work on the games you have to look for good game developers (not game publishers), there are a lot of small game developers that don't have money because there working on there 1st game and don't have a publisher yet and may never have one.  If you live near a good game developer then you might have a good chance at getting in and rubbing elbows but if it doesn't work out and you can't find any other good game developers near your location you might feel trapped.    

Freelance is a good option for when you can't find a full time gig but you really need to network and know where to look for clients.  The worst thing about today is its rough and people don't have a lot of money and they tend to think design work shouldn't cost a lot of money, they don't always want to pay you what you think its worth to put a few hours into there designs.

In this economy it is really hard to survive as a artist.  I would say keep your option's open because you might not have a job 10 years down the road depending on the way the economy ends up.   

Also very important make sure the school your choosing is the right one for you, these schools will say anything to get you to spend money to learn with them, and in the end they don't care if you make it in that field just as long as you paid them money..

My opinion; you need to sketch  A LOT MORE. Practice makes perfect.

Go ahead and give art a shot.  Do NOT feel like you can't change your major.  

" @armaan8014:   Art is a hard field its also the field I got into.  The most important thing I can tell you that I have learned from my experiences is that when the economy is broken and companies are struggling the 1st department that gets laid off is the Art Department.  Its also a lot of competition and location matters.  

For game design the best info I can give you is that if you want to work on the games you have to look for good game developers (not game publishers), there are a lot of small game developers that don't have money because there working on there 1st game and don't have a publisher yet and may never have one.  If you live near a good game developer then you might have a good chance at getting in and rubbing elbows but if it doesn't work out and you can't find any other good game developers near your location you might feel trapped."

@animateria

" And yeah, comics and writing is a very good skill you have. As a concept artist, your goal is to create worlds and characters that are unique and significant for the producers as well as the end user.  It's not always that a game has a story first, a lot of them start from game mechanic concept and then into worlds and characters.   "

 @masterpaperlink said:

" @armaan8014:why don't you just start now? Theres nothing stopping you, its never too early.  "

" If you enjoy drawing and that's what you want to do than go for it. But be warned, in art school you'll be in class with people who can draw so good you'll wonder why they're even in school instead of living in Paris, spending equal amounts of time creating timeless masterpieces and fucking their supermodel girlfriend. "

" @armaan8014 said:

Well the thing is I need to be sure about it, cause switching around lines will get me in trouble with my parents. They want me to do something "safe", like engineering. And since they know I like art, they're pushing me towards architecture. But that's totally not what I want.  So my point is, is the risk that I am taking worth it? Will I be able to improve and get into the industry, or am I doing something stupid? "

Dude, do what YOU want to do. Don't let your parents push you into something you don't really want to do with your life. "

Alright everyone thanks for all the advice! I have decided to go ahead with it and deal with whatever comes in my way...
Hope I do well! :)

@armaan8014: think you may need a bit more practice. if those eyelashes took 6 hours then think you need to speed up a bit. work on hand drawing skills and not photoshop. afterall, you can scan images in and then edit them afterwards. just keep it as an hobby. I went to art school, got straight As and im still unemployed

So much necromancy lately...

Just keep in mind that your path to success is far more likely to be through a small start up game company then being hired out the gate by a big studio.

Small companies want creative people, not just skilled people. Drawing a realistic Beckham is fine and all, but don't forget that a concept artists greatest power is creation, not representation.

@geraltitude: @gunslingerpanda: @melthepunk: WOAH this is extreme necromancy! It's been almost 4 years since I created this topic, and since then Im almost done with my Architecture degree too! :P I plan to follow it with a course in Film, and I'm not as confused about that as I was about this.

I still draw, mostly just for fun and share them on blogs here :)

hahaha amazing.

Well glad to hear you're doing well.

Extreme Necromancy is a good name for a game, filing that away.

I'm really glad you are still on this site. As soon as I saw this was bumped I started wondering what the OP was now up to. Good to hear things are going well. Congratulations!

Edit: Just looked at your more recent work. I've seen it around the site, but didn't make the connection. Holy shit, dude. You've improved a lot over the past few years. Your recent work definitely seems concept artist level. I mean, I'm not authority on that, so take it with a grain of salt. But based on all the unlockable concept art I've seen over the years, your work stacks up.

@armaan8014: Your portfolio looks to be about right for where your at experience wise. You'll need to add a lot more to get enough to be presentable to a game studio.

Some things to practice

Replicate someone else art well. Pick a few existing characters, human male/female + non-human male/female and get really good at drawing them alone and in various backgrounds. You will not start as a lead concept artist so expect to have to take a sample from a lead and build upon it. This will often mean taking a character you didn't create and drawing them a dozen times in new scenes and settings.

Additionally, if you pick a well known character anyone reviewing your portfolio will have a base idea of where you skill is if you draw Master Chief perfectly. Drawing original characters is good but without a common point of reference it's tough to judge someones skill.

Color Treatments / Adjectives. Draw a character, any character then draw them again and again with different adjectives. As a concept artist people will shout adjectives at you to modify a concept you drew. "Bluer" "Thinner" "Bulkier" "Older" "Younger" practice doing modifications on an image is important, game development is super iterative.

I'm glad I checked before asking how things went over the past three years and ten months. Good to hear the went well!

Art Scholarships

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

@armaan8014: High five I also have an architecture degree. Turned out wonderfully useless at the time because of the economy but at least the classes were fun!

@armaan8014: I think your concept work is good enough for the indie scene. It is detailed enough, and expressive. But for AAA development it is a ways off. I think you should follow your heart, and in the meantime try, as an exercise, to understand how you can draw a picture like that dragon. In four years there is a lot you can accomplish. Believe in yourself, and try your luck.

And I'm going to grab that picture of a baby to inspire my style for drawings that I will do soon enough.

Edit: Yeah this thread is old.......

Edit: God fucking damn it, sorry duder, I didn't realize this was a necro of a THREE YEAR OLD THREAD.

God, people with 1 post shouldn't be able to necro threads this old.

Well?

First Art, then Architecture now Film? Your going for the unemployment trifecta!

From your first post it sounds like you were worried about your future. Will you get a job or not? In which case you should have followed the advice of the first person and went with Engineering. I graduated in 08 during a recession and had 3 job offers 1 month before i graduated because engineers are always in high demand.

It's sounds like your almost done with your Architecture degree, what exactly do you mean you are going to follow it with a course in film? Are you getting another degree in film or just taking one class in film for fun?

hahahah!! :') had to say something though because I just think everyone can draw and thats why I aint got an apprentiship yet haha!! :') sorry!!

That wasn't a bad necro. It's cool to see what you decided to do.

@jeust: Haha yeah it's old. I thought you would have known though :P

@humanity: High five! The classes are incredibly cool actually :) Especially history. We've been basically taught the history of the world over the past couple of years (whether or not it had any ties to architecture) and the kind of thinking that design asks you to develop is really cool. Also it has been a great course in learning how to deal with pressure and huge amounts of work, and manage time as well.

I most definitely won't continue with architecture as a profession, but I don't regret studying the course. It taught me way more about a lot of subjects than school ever did.

@believer258: Thanks :)

@salarn: Thanks for the tips. As I wrote above though, the thread is about 4 years old and things have somewhat changed since then, and I'm not really pursuing it as a profession anymore. Still, I draw for fun and the tips might come in handy for that.

@hatking: Hey thanks a lot man! :) I might not pursue it as a profession but it still feels good to hear that you believe I've improved that much.

@geraltitude: Haha yeah that sounds like a fun title for a game :D

@49th: :)

Haha I get your confusion.

The thing that started this was, that when I joined Architecture I didn't really have an idea what I wanted to do with my career, except that I wanted to go towards the art side rather than any technical side. I just joined it at the time thinking it would be a relaxed course where I could also learn art and then smoothly transition into something more specific later.

Only, in my first year I realized how crazily demanding the course is, and that scared me a lot. I was scared I wasn't gonna be able to cope with the pressure and immediately wanted to move to something more relaxed (That's why the OP 4 years ago)

But then I tried for that other art college and then didn't make it past the interview stage (They told me to finish my arch degree) After that, I decided that I'd have to stick with the arch course and do my best to ensure I finished it asap and with good grades, and think about the future after I got my degree.

Once I began to concentrate, I started to do pretty well in architecture, and things have been way breezier since then. Only thing is, I never had any passion for architecture (and I really do know what passion feels like) Also I got a chance to intern in an architect's office and it felt as unsatisfactory as I thought it would.

I always had a passion for films though, but never thought of it as a career option. But 4 years of architecture gave me a lot of time to think about it all in peace too. I had a lot of opportunities to make short films for the college as part of inter-college fests (which I won too) and apart from that I made a lot of music videos in my free time as well. After 4 years of contemplating it's become pretty obvious what I'd like to spend my life doing, and I'm pretty excited. 1 more year of architecture, after which I'll join a post graduate course for film. I have some other contacts too, who said they would like me working as an asst. director under them, which I can follow after I'm done with the course. So though things ahead might involve difficulty, I'm sure about what I wanna do :)

(Sorry about the long reply but I sorta wanted to clear things up:P)

(Also, it's funny/sad how this 4 yr old thread of mine got all these responses while my recent blog on AC IV Black flag lies unnoticed in the black flag forums :'( 0 replies!)

When i saw the title of this thread, all i saw was:

Need career advice: Am I good enough? (CONCEPT ARTIST)

I'm just going to say you may want to heavily heavily weigh your options before you decide to sign dotted lines on anything. School is expensive. Very expensive and you aren't guaranteed a job out of it either. The amount of student debt in this country (assuming you're USA) keeps on skyrocketing. Its a scary hole to be in so make informed decisions.