2012 Drew Hill - Employability

summarized response

HAVE BETTER JUDGEMENT: DON'T INCLUDE WEAK WORK: Art Leads notice when they see work that is rushed or lazy.

MORE DYNAMIC AND GESTURAL POSES IN THE DRAWINGS: Characters should not be stiff, they should be in an action. Model Sheets are not useful.

MORE MAINSTREAM WORK: Work that is friendly, funny and has character.

COMBINATION OF WORK FOR KIDS AND ADULTS: Even the adult work could be for kids.

PAGES AND PAGES OF SKETCHING: sketches are friendly, character driven, poses are dynamic and work through many styles.

FACES SHOULD HAVE EXPRESSION.

REELS: should be short.

DIGITAL PAINTING: Don't paint in a "concept art" sketchy style rather use brush strokes to create form. A painterly style isn't effective when there's unnecessary brush strokes for the sake of making it feel loose.

STYLIZATION OF THE FIGURE: needs to come after understanding the anatomy.

ANIMATION IN MOTION GRAPHICS: The basic concepts of anticipation, overshoot, and settle will strengthen even animated text and graphics.

Detailed Response

PORTFOLIO REVIEWS:

Drew was showed portfolios that were not accepted for hire to WMS and asked what we at Kendall could do to improve the portfolios for employability.

Their portfolios are well rounded as far as the type of content we want to see (sketches, animation, finished illustration, and process) but they lack quality. They don't demonstrate consistency in the fundamentals such as color, design, drawing, painting & animation principles. I see a few nice elements in their work, but inconsistency in quality scares art leads. They want to be confident that their artists can produce great work on every project. Resumes and software knowledge are secondary to their drawing/design abilities. If someone is good enough, WMS will take the time to teach them the right software.

QUALITY IN EVERYTHING:

I've noticed art students often go through the motions to make passable schoolwork for a grade, rather than going above and beyond what's required. They need to think of projects as portfolio pieces rather than school assignments. Whether it's freelance or my full-time job, I regularly get projects I'm not excited about. That's the reality of the business. A while back I decided to try to make each project I work on the best thing I've ever created, no matter how uninteresting or insignificant the project is. I don't always succeed in this, but sometimes I do. In either case, the end result is better and I've noticed it's helped me grow a lot as an artist. And it's a fun challenge to see if you can make a boring idea exciting.

SKETCHING:

I'm glad you're encouraging your students to sketch. It's a very important part of growing as an artist. In fact, we're also trying to create a culture of sketching at WMS. A couple co-workers and I recently had a meeting with our art director about how we can inspire others to sketch more. They realize that the company indirectly benefits when we are inspired and have fresh ideas. It's easy to get lost in mundane tasks and go days without drawing. I think you're on the right track with this. I'll let you know what we come up with. I'd like to hear what you guys come up with too!

KNOW THE COMPANY YOU APPLY FOR:

A big complaint I hear from the leads is that people applying and interviewing don't research the company. It's important that they at least visit our web page or Youtube to see the kind art we do to gear their portfolio to it. As you know, this is true with any company. One guy we hired actually went to the casino to play our games before his interview. The leads were very impressed that he knew so much about our games and they could tell he was genuinely excited about the job.

PEOPLE WMS HIRED RECENTLY:

http://enriquerivera.blogspot.com

http://ryanbowlin.blogspot.com