Portfolio Review #1

Having put more work into my Portfolio I sent off my Portfolio to different personal illustrators to receive advise and their person opinion on my work.
This first review is taking by a graduate of my course Dom, who is also mine and my friends illustration guru, here is her review.

Hi Alex

Yep no worries! Hope your FMP is going well!

I'm trying to remember which pieces were in your folio the last time you sent it over,.. it looks like there are a few new observational pieces in there.

Again, I think it's looking good and seems to have stepped up since the last time I saw it, good stuff!

By adding in some new pieces your portfolio is looking more consistent too which is good.

Your use of line drawing and block colour seems to be really working well Alex, particularly in the observational pieces. 

The new pieces about The Journey of War (is this your FMP?) are a nice addition. 

The new piece showing the war memorial on St Peters square is particularly nice. Your lines are clean and describe the shapes really well, and your use of colour is nice, just picking out some parts to colour and leaving some white in the foreground seems to give the image a nice balance and depth, and is a nice way to emphasise certain details. Very confidently executed! 

Do you enjoy doing these reportage type illustrations as much as your comic work? 

The other Journey of war pieces are nice too. Perhaps think about varying your line weight on these as well, to highlight or emphasise certain parts? Just a thought as your fine line work on the St Peters Square piece is so nice it would be good to see that carried through in to some other pieces!

Your new Scary Stories piece is lovely too. Nice choice of colours and mix of block colour and more detailed trees in the foreground. I could see this as a book illustration or something!

Overall I think it's definitely improved since last year Alex! Just keep up the good work and attention to detail. And as always keep creating more work, and doing what you want to do, whatever that may be! The only way you can get commissioned to do your dream work is by already having examples of it in your portfolio already, so start creating the work you want to do now! Whether thats comics, editorial, reportage, etc.

Also perhaps put a title page on your pdf with all your contact details on etc, just to make as easy as possible for people to remember your name or get in touch!

Would love to hear how your FMP is going too! Did you decide to go down the comics route or..? 

Hope this was of some use!

Dom

Hope, Fears and Opportunities

Hopes
My hopes after my graduation are to take my strong way of working and apply these skills to my personal projects that I have planned after I finish University I believe the use of visual referencing through photographing models or areas, also my way of line work and using colours would be something unique to apply to my dream hope of becoming a comic book artist.
I hope that one day my work would get somewhere or noticed and that my dream of my chosen profession can become my live career and continue this for the rest of my life. I have read comic books for a long time and seen the worlds and characters that are created some more memorable then others. That is what I want to accomplish in my life I want to make something people will remember and keep making more amazing creations amazing worlds and characters everyone will love, I have a couple of stories I have been working on for years and since I will finally be out of education and have more time aside from my job to work on these projects I want to bring these idea's to life and I hope that these projects will be successful.

Fears
My fears, my darkest fears. I am currently working in a superstore as a means to receive an income so that I can fund myself as well as my projects. This is something I don't really want to consider as a permanent  placement but something to look at as a career until I find further work in the future. I just don't want to be stuck in it as a dead end job and getting absolutely no where in life.
Another fear of mine is my work getting nowhere in life, being slated and I know criticism something to take into account and to work with, but it being hated by all not going anywhere is something that seriously scares me.
Another fear is to fail, I am scared of being a failure, its something that has been a fear of me for years. Failure affects me badly and I aim to do everything but fail and I don't stop until I succeed, and I will do my best in life to succeed with my art and I refuse to be a failure.

Opportunities 
I have several opportunities that are waiting for me after this course. As I mentioned before I have a writer I will be working with on my comic book story and project and hopefully to be something that would kick off and attract a lot of people looking at a dark twist to a classic famous fairy tale, it is something I have been working on since around last year so I hope I can actually start getting this project on a roll. I have also a post apocalyptic comic book story based on a mutant virus which I have also found another writer to work with on this project also. With my way of working submitting to editorial and seeing about getting work published that way also work in several formats, broadening the horizon so to say so a line in comic books and a line in editorial would be something of a career choice.