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[Urist McScoopbeard]

Hallo!

Right, I need some advice. So, fun fact, I am indeed going to art school to pursue the career I have always wanted. I'm accepted, enrolled, and housing is paid. The only thing left is for me to do is to submit a portfolio + resume for more scholarship $$$. My resume is clean, polished, and waiting in my advisors inbox. The last item on the list is to resubmit that darn portfolio...

Honestly, it's a bad portfolio (I think, I really don't have a frame of reference other than the god-tier stuff of people who knew they wanted to be artists by the time high school rolled around). There's no two ways about it. As a hobbyist, I just haven't spent all that much time doing life drawings. I have messy, sketchy style and idk, just a lot of self doubt. I had some alright drawings from photographs, but it's obvious they're from photographs and I totally get why you don't want to see that in a student's portfolio. So, I'm in a bit of a bind. On one hand, I'm in, I already have some scholarship money and my resume should bump it up. On the other hand, I feel almost... fraudulent having secured entrance without a quality portfolio (To SCAD, if you were wondering). I know that trying to rush a portfolio in a, let's say several weeks, time is probably a horrible mistake, but it's kind of become a point of shame for me.

I know I don't have to be the next Picasso--that's why I'm going to art school after all--but... y'know now that it's more professional development then the college experience, I just feel bad presenting what is not really my best work (a lot of which has been lost through repeated hardware failures, multiple computers, and the tendency of my younger self to just rip stuff up and throw it out when I was done with it.) I don't know what to do. It's not make or break, but I'd like to have some pride in my work.

Any ideas or strategies?* I live in a visually nice area. Although it's a bit of a void in terms of open model sessions or any kind of artistic workshops? I'd like to finish maybe 5-10 additional pieces to give my portfolio some meat and feel comfortable about rounding it out with the stuff I've been working on as a hobby.

*I'm in for sequential arts (and may transfer over to animation, we'll see), so I was thinking about mostly getting some bonafide finished still life drawings to provide the core of the portfolio while I support it with some comic pages, little animations, and possibly a screenplay.

[Cathar]

I'm not formally taught so I can't help you build a portfolio, but maybe I can give some modest insight on your pieces should you post them. Good luck either way o/

(Only advice I can give is ; don't try to cheat your examiners by presenting art that is either traced or copied from other art. If you do, that is the first thing they will notice)

[Parsely]

If you want to know what you need in a portfolio, find the people who judge the portfolios and ask them since their opinion is what ultimately matters. So get on the horn with your adviser and find out what's the most appropriate way to figure this out, but don't be shy about emailing teachers or division chairs since usually their information is public on the school's website precisely so you can ask these kinds of questions.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Ya, that's probably the best advice. I will get on the horn with the relevant people's ASAP.

EDIT: @Cathar, I hope you didn't think I meant I was tracing images. I just meant I was drawing from a computer screen instead of from life.

[Cathar]

Holy shit no, don't worry lol. I meant to say something of the like of "be honest with your examiners, don't try to outsmart them". I never was in a jury for art, but I know some examiners for philosophy, who were super chill, except when it came to examinees trying to outsmart them, in which case they transformed into werewolves.

Plagiarism is a real thing, and the only thing I ever saw an examiner become openly hostile about, so I thought I should mention it. But no it's not an assessment of your character or anything related about you, just a general remark

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Haha, I didn't think so, but I just wanted to make sure you didn't think I had meant I was tracing. (Which wouldn't help anyone)

[TD1]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, certainly looks better, but still not very good. Still, improvement is an improvement, I guess.

[Cathar]

It is better, far more dynamic. And again, this is just your first try, keep this going and you'll get better and better. Acquiring the technique is hard, and you're on the right path !

[Parsely]

That's a huge improvement, you're on your way towards learning perspective! c:

I'm glad that you started the drawing completely over instead of trying to "sculpt" your original drawing, that's a good habit to get into.

[TD1]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So, meet an illustration based on a character from my attempt at a book. I've edited the mouth a wee bit to make it seem less strange, so really it's the eyes I want to ask about - I tried making them look like almost-mirror-images and failed. Is there any technique to help with this, or is it just a case of practice?

[karhell]

Practice definitely goes a long way, there. I'd personally recommend constructing them simultaneously with a hard pencil (2H or more), before actually committing to drawing them properly. You might also want to have a look at this, where Mark Crilley explains how he approaches the problem of the other eye.

[Parsely]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So, meet an illustration based on a character from my attempt at a book. I've edited the mouth a wee bit to make it seem less strange, so really it's the eyes I want to ask about - I tried making them look like almost-mirror-images and failed. Is there any technique to help with this, or is it just a case of practice?

In the future please rotate your image so it's easy for people to view. I did it for you this time using Imgur. If anyone needs help editing images you can ask here, I'd say that falls under "art support".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

E: I think you did a fine job on the eyes themselves and the spacing between them actually, the bigger problem I would argue is that there's too much space between the eyes and the nose and not enough between the eyebrows and the eyes.

Please excuse the quality of this edit, I just used marquee, brushes I made from the image, and blurring tools to make this, but hopefully it shows how with just some small changes to the proportions the drawing can be improved massively.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Shook]

Adding on to that, the proportions of a human face are actually pretty well defined by now. I'm pretty rubbish at realism, but here's what i was taught:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eyes dead center vertically, and horizontally equidistant (of course) from the center, with the distance between them being about the same as one eye width. The distance from center point to outer edge of eye is about the same as the distance to the bottom of the nose, and if you draw vertical lines down from the center of the eyes, you get where the corners of the mouth are. Vertically, the mouth "line" is about one third the way down to the chin from the bottom of the nose. Eyebrows are... Somewhere above the eyes (this varies a lot between people). Top of ear is roughly at eyebrow level, and bottom is at the same level as the bottom of the nose.

This is for a neutral face, mind you, and proportions exist to be messed with. Just be sure you're messing with them rather than messing them up. :v

[TD1]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's the way I sort of understand it. Halfway down for the eyes (a measurement I now see I messed up...), half of that again for bottom of nose, and half again for bottom of lip. Face itself is a circle and a half.

But if I corrected my proportions and moved both the eyes and nose down, surely it would still not look as proportioned as this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Have I misunderstood something somewhere?

Also, I appreciate the amount of time put into educating the ignorant, here. It's very good of you.

[Parsely]

Also, I appreciate the amount of time put into educating the ignorant, here. It's very good of you.

Ignorant sounds far too negative to me, I'd rather say you're inexperienced. What's important is you're willing to hear observations about your work!

But if I corrected my proportions and moved both the eyes and nose down, surely it would still not look as proportioned as this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Have I misunderstood something somewhere?

I'm not sure what your question is, are you saying you have a hard time accepting that all I changed was the position of the top of the head and the eyes? Looking back I did do some other subtle things but the most important thing was the proportions and the things I did were in support of that change.

Here were my general steps:
- Marquee the entire top of the head and pull it down
- Erase the hair that didn't line up so it looked less cropped
- Erase the eyebrows and redraw them using a brush I made from the original eyebrows

Here's a before and after animation that might help you see the difference:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Does that help?