LETTERS, I GET LETTERS
Occasionally, I’ll share with you some correspondences that I think will benefit other people. Here we go….
This was in my Email today…(this is a cut-and-paste):
««<Hi David I checked out your art work and its awsome.Ill keep it short ,my son has talent,not like you ,but better then me when it comes to drawing and schetching this characters he comes up with.He plays video games everytime he gets a chance.All day if he could.He wants to get into the videogame industry.I think he could get into the comic book business too.I know its not easy to get into either one as you have to be very ,very good but practice ,practice can get you there.Anyway he posts his drawings on this sight .Here is the link .when you get on it click (browse gallery)and the rest of his drawings are in there.»»>
…and he gave me the link. The artist called himself by a morbid name, with no real monicker identified. His portfolio, as such, consisted of a couple of dozen serviceable monsters without backgrounds, just single figurework. The couple of headshots of real people were less successful.
I replied:
Dear “Dad” (you didn’t identify yourself) —
It’s not only about practice; without having guidance, a person can practice the wrong things. :)
You forgot to tell me your son’s age…15, 18, 21, 25, 30….or whatever. It makes a difference to study his work in relationship to his age.
Truthfully, there’s nothing here that will tell me if he can get a job doing videogame work or especially comics work, because he’s not even trying to develop a professional portfolio. A professional portfolio looks like the artist already has the job.
Videogame designs would show, for example, NOT just one figure, but would be an actual, usable design — showing front, side, and back views, as well as closer head studies from various angles and expressions, so that an animator digitally could build the character from the designs. Your son hasn’t done any of that here.
For comics, it’s even more obvious — comics are like storyboards for movies. It’s all sequential STORIES being told in panel-to-panel format, but as completely finished ready-to-print quality illustrations. A comics artist has to be able to draw everything well — people, real clothes, expressions, children, animals, buildings, cars, something soaking wet, explosions, shattering glass, etc., etc. — and do it all convincingly in a consistent style, while telling a story in pictures.
He’s given no indication that he’s capable of doing that. In fact, he doesn’t even have any single illustrations depicting any dramatic, compelling scenes (such as a book’s cover would depict)…so, in truth, his portfolio online is merely a sketchbook of stuff and doesn’t tell me anything.
It’s like the old joke where every day the old man prays to God, “I’m a good man, let me win the lottery!” Every day it’s the same. And after years of this, God finally booms down, “Saul! Meet me halfway! Buy a ticket!’ Your son needs to “buy the ticket” — in other words, DO THE WORK of preparing a professional portfolio as a first step toward his goals.
If he’s 15 and this is his online portfolio, it’s understandable. If he’s 25, that’s a different story, because plenty of info is out there how to do it right.
In fact, on my own website, for drawing comics, we offer plenty of advice — not only in our Glass House Graphics message boards, but in the “Show Us Your Portfolio” section, which offers, beyond plenty of tips, sample test plots and scripts from which he can work. So there’s no real excuse for a dedicated artist to fail to develop a professional portfolio designed to get him work. Here’s the link:
http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/breakingin/
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
— David
