Yes, this is a rip off from the Patricia’s art thread ;-). Then again, the thought never crossed my mind to show you guys on the forum my own artwork. So, if I may present to you, here it is: Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos Please feel free to comment as I am a striving Graphic Arts student. Thanks a lot you guys!
Wow… not one person wants to even take a look-see? Incredible…
Jeff, Don’t feel bad. I posted a link to my gallery of custom action figures in a thread about what do u do besides training and no one commented on that either. Not even you are a dork! Oh well.
I know nothing about graphic arts but I checked out your site anyway. Your work looks very good. I really like the monochromatic self portrait. Pretty cool stuff. Good luck.
In faith,
Matt
Looks good to me. Keep it up!
It is always a risk to express and open up part of yourself on a forum like this. I am always interested in seeing people’s work, but often don’t really know how to comment on it.
On that note - I enjoyed seeing your work and I wish you the best of luck as you pursue a career in graphic arts.
Jeff, congrats for having the guts to show your work.
I once considered posting examples of my art, but I don’t think anyone is interested in stick figures with gigantic breasts.
Lately, I’ve moved on to clay genitalia.
And people still have the nerve to say that I’m emotionally stunted. :(
Hey, thanks guys for taking a look. I know what you mean too, Demo Dick, about having the guts to show work for everyone to critique. Eventually, this is something that I’m going to have to learn to do more often in order to get my name “out there” (so to speak). Also, Matt, I think your figures look pretty sweet. Very professional looking I must say. As you all have done to me, in return I wish you all the best of luck on your endeavors and I welcome any more comments from you guys as well as from others (positive or negative). Thanks again!
Cool stuff. Faces are your strength. One question did you take bad ass pills inbetween drawing “mirror reflection” and “monochromatic”? 
From one designer to another here you go:
The web site is well organized and clear but the first thing that struck me was, your little introductory quote was in a much smaller font, than the interface itself on the front page so it struck me as a little off. I think the color scheme is good and should stay the way it is. The layout is very simple which is fine for the amount of information you have. Most graphic designers put too much extra crap into their interface when its not justified by the amount of actual information.
In regards to your resume, I would exclude anything that doesn’t fit with the job you are looking for. For example, if you wanted a graphic design job, the interviewer will probably be annoyed if he has to read about how you do stock work for college money. I’m not suggesting your web resume is the one you hand to someone at an interview but keep that in mind. Its perfectly acceptable to hand someone a resume filled with: side-jobs, logo’s you’ve done, and classes that pertain to the job you want. Your resume does NOT have to only list paid jobs. Your a student and they understand that you haven’t worked in the business before. The key being that it directly relates to what job your applying for. My student resume, which landed me my current internship, was filled almost entirely with class experience, and side-jobs relating to design. You can also have different resumes for different jobs you may be looking into. If your employer asks about your entire work history then just have another page/paper ready with all the other stuff.
As far as the designs themselves the ideas aren’t bad but they need some more 3-dimensional qualities. The layouts themselves are fine, but I think they need to pop out more. Try playing around with adding shadows for depth and also play around with transparency. I like the black and white version of the 2OG logo, its very strong when just in black and white. The triangle itself seems to take up too much negative space proportional to the other elements.
I really enjoy the monochromatic self portrait. It would be nice to see more work like this. Beleive it or not, employers want good fine art skills. Its much harder to teach a person how to draw properly than it its to teach them how to use photoshop!
Another plus is the fact that you showed design progresssion in regards to the “Magic Home Improvement” layout. When being interviewed you need to show how you arrive at your final designs.
Ok, so now I’m going to have to put my site up online so that I can subject myself to a similar critique! I hope you don’t take offense to anything I said, I tried to make it as fair as possible. It’s very hard to put your portfolio out there in front of a bunch of strangers.
nkeago - lol. At first I didn’t know what you meant, but after looking at the two pictures I finally figured it out. It’s funny how you mention that because I actually did throw back a few Bad Ass 2000 before getting my picture taken. Hehe, j/k. Actually, the original photograph of myself looked normal, but after playing around with it in Photoshop that’s how it turned out… so I just ended up drawing it as you see it. Many people have commented how I look “scary” in that picture - all I can say is beware… jonnyjon - Dude, no offense taken at all. I put the whole site together in less than half a day’s time to be presented to a Career Counselor, so I definitely expected someone to pick up the flaws on my site. What’s cool is that there really are other artists/designers that are into “bodybuilding game.” Seriously though, being honest and critiquing what you saw will save me so much grief in the future, so in turn I thank you for that. And believe me, I’ve had some hard blows dealt my way before from some of my teachers. As for your portfolio, definitely post it and I’d be more than happy to critique it. What I’ve learned is to take criticism and turn it into a way to make whatever it is I’m doing stronger. Once again, thanks for the advice and I look forward to seeing your portfolio.
Jeff T—So, a Brookdale student. Is Dan Schroll still head of the graphics dept. I had him as a professor too. Anyway, your artwork is really good. I hope you’ll be adding more pieces as time goes on. Here is some advice to help you on your endevour as a designer.
- Draw everything! Even the things that seem boring. This will help to improve your skills.
- Learn anatomy (not from comic books). Take as many figure drawing/painting classes as possible.
- Learn Illustrator, Freehand, Photoshop, Quark, Flash, Dreamweaver and to a lesser extent 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Maya. If your competent in these programs you can pretty much work anywhere.
- The computer, although an extremely valuable tool, cannot make up for bad design. No amount of filters, lens flares, inner glows, cloud rendering etc. will make a bad design look good.
- Study typefaces. This is important!
- Learn as much about the printing process as possible. The more you know about printing methods, the more affectively you can design for a given medium.
Good luck and keep up the good work.
I have to admit, those first few lines kinda freaked me out - but then I remembered that my resume has all my info on it. So yeah, I’m a Brookdale student and Dan Schroll is still head of the department. =) Very cool guy in my opinion. In fact, he was my Typography I and II instructor, which is kinda funny that everything that you’ve said parallels what I’ve learned this past year. I guess all Schroll students will come out learning the same things, lol. In anyways, this serves as a good reminder of what I should be putting into perspective in order to succeed in this business. Also, where did you transfer afer Brookdale - I need some ideas of where to go after I finish Brookdale for Graphic Design. Thanks a lot.
Not bad, Jeff. However, do go to the site where I have my online portfolio. www.portfolios.com While there, read the different discriptions used by the artists for their work. Also, do a search for only the Graphic Artists that are working in a style that appeals to you or the style you want to work in. Check out their “stuff”. Also go to the Graphic Artists Guild website: www.gag.org. Really study what current top notch professionals are doing.
While I do not use comic books for my anatomy study, I do use comic book artists for such things as inking and composition. Especially dynamic inking and dynamic composition. For inking, I would look at stuff by: Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, Gary Martin (who has a book out about inking - worth buying, I have it), Dick Giordano, and of course, Frank Miller. For just general really good anatomy studies (comic books or otherwise): Kevin Nowlan (this guys stuff is AMAZING), Adam Hughes (for some of the best stuff on women ever), Brian Bolland, Dave Stevens, Art Adams, Alex Toth, Dave Gibbons. Also, study the woodblock prints of Gustav Dore. Great black and whtes.
Anatomy books: Any of the "Dynamic" anatomy books by Burne Hogarth. And a must have: the anatomy books by George Bridgeman. Great books.
Go a little farther and study the stuff of Alphonse Mucha (composition - one of my faves), Talouse Latric (line work- wonderful) and even check out Maxfield Parish (colors - very important in design). Go out and sit in a park and draw people, benches, trees, parked cars. Get to be as versatile as possible as a artist/designer. I see everything as a possibility in a future piece - be it the retro table lamp by my Mac or my neighbor's dogs.
Yeah, a lot of work, but that's what it takes to be good at ANYTHING you do. And the business of a creative professional is highly competitive!!!! I hope this helps.
Hey Jeff, nice portfolio. Seems like your stuff is really coming along. I’ve got a BFA in Fine Art, it’s been a few years since I’ve done any serious drawing but since you asked for comments I thought I’d throw in my two cents. Your drawings seem a little flat to me. I think it’s because of the heavy emphasis on contour - makes it look like you drew a contour drawing and then filled it in with shading. Try experimenting with varying the heaviness of the line - darker in recessed areas, lighter (or non-existant) in other areas. Also, ever play around with gesture drawing? I always found that it was easier to make a “fuller” image by starting off with a light gesture and building on it from there, erasing or adding as I go… think layers (I do see you erased out some highlights in your one portrait). And try harder/softer lead pencils if you haven’t already… I really like 5 or 6 B’s for getting an area nice and dark, or a mid-H if I’m worried that I might get an area too dark. You do a good job with shading, though, seems like you really pic up on details where this is concerned. To add to Patricia’s advice, consider looking at some pen and ink and graphite/charcoal drawings of the masters, particularly Leonardo and Albrecht Durer (two faves of mine)… they really do a great job of balancing anatomy with artistic rendition. As far as your design stuff goes, looks good to me - I like your logo better than your relative’s. Mind you, all of this is constructive criticism, hopefully it helps somehow. Keep it up!
Jeff-T—Yeah, Dan’s a good guy. He use to downplay the computer a lot back when I went. Now most graphics are 90% computer generated. Anyway after Brookdale I didn’t transfer because I wound up getting a job doing graphics and pre-press for a large corporation in Neptune. I learned more in 1 year on the job than most people learn in 4 years of school. It is literally sink or swim. Anyway, I was considering 3 schools Kean in Union, SVA in NYC, or Cooper Union in NYC. FIT and Pratt are also top notch, however Pratt costs a fortune. I am now considering going back just for the sake of finishing my degree. Probably to Kean or Rutgers as they offer night classes. Currently I work as the art director for a pharmaceutical company designing packaging, marketing material etc. On the side I’m working on my fantasy illustration and 3D graphics. If by chance your considering doing comics and such, the Kubert School in Dover is the best place to go. I went there for some workshop classes and the instructors are top notch as most of them do work for either marvel, DC, or Disney etc. Good Luck!!!
Check out Andrew Loomis’s classic tome on anatomy at www.yoyodyne.net. It’s free, and it’s what many current comic book artists learned from and swear by. Also, Dynamic Anatomy (or whatever it’s called 
by Andy Smith is a great book.
Patricia, in case you haven’t seen it yet. Gary Martin has just put out The Art of Comicbook Inking Volume 2. This one comes with some very nice non photo blue comic pages for inking practice. Definitely worth the price of the book.
In addition to Nephorm’s yoyodine link to Loomi’s book, you can go here www.fineart.sk/index.html and find all/most of Loomi’s books for download.
Well you know, I kinda know Gary. From Aaron Lopresti (www.aaronlopresti.com). And I haven’t gotten that book since I’m not quite done with the first yet. I have so many reference materials that it takes me awhile to completely finish even just one! Hey, how’s your art coming along?
Yeah I know what you mean about reference materials. I’ve got so many books I can’t keep track of them all. The Inking Vol 2 is really cool, I highly recommend it. As for my art, I’m currently roughing out some fantasy stuff to digitally paint, I’m teaching myself Maya, and experimenting with Poser (great program). If your into digital art check out www.renderosity.com Amazing work going on over there. What is the nature of the work from the con you mentioned in another post?