My Advice for Creating an Effective Portfolio - Concept Art and Illustration

I’m so glad you mentioned that hard work trumps literally everything else. I learned that the hard way, not with art but with life in general. I was always the smartest kid in the class (at least, the most creative, most well read, best writer) but I was SO LAZY and complacent. In the real world being smart means jack shit if you aren’t willing to put in the work, if you aren’t consistent and reliable. That’s true in every profession. The kids I knew from high school who I had looked down on, who I saw as being less intelligent than me, are now successful because they worked much harder than I did. This is such a crucial life lesson that kids often learn too late

It’s crazy how at the end you said you don’t have the voice for this stuff, the whole time I was watching I thought ‘wow I love how he’s saying all this stuff, it sounds so real like I’m on a discord call with a friend’ 🤣 thank you for all the advice! This is super helpful 👌🏾

Very interesting

Lol. You had me at Sheridan… I went there for Classical and computer animation from 1990. &92. They let me in with such a simple test. Now 30 years later I am still in the business doing concept, but not a tenth as good as you. Love your work.

This is such good advice

hey man love your works and videos, youre trully a blessing to the art world for sharing all these knowledge for free. Would it be possible for you in the future to make a video discussing about what do you usually consider in designing composition ? thanks again.

Great advices and amazing art. I learned a lot from both, thanks a lot ❤

Great video! How about one about canvas sizes, computer builds and brush optimization? I always see concept artists painting smoothly with giant textured brushes... I have 40go ram, an M.2 SSD and a 10gb Radeon and I still can't do big brush strokes without waiting 10sec until it's done haha

Your voice is good, don't worry about that <3 Very nice video about this topic, especially using your own world to create the briefs for yourself to make a portfolio. Solid gold! ^^

This was super insightful! I have never heard before anyone talk about the storytelling stuff of concept! I really like your style or narrating

Great information! thank you for sharing! Would be amazing to here about story structure and world development from you!

not gonna lie, I want more of your videos, I love it so much and your works truly inspire me because i really do want to be an illustrator in the future and somehow i want to study your work so much, so thank you for your inspirations.

thanks for sharing

Thanks for sharing your experience. I used to be blinded by all the praise I got for being talented in drawing, growing up. Nowadays I try to keep my ego in check when receiving praise, seek constructive feedback and maintain a growth mindset to keep on finding new ways to improve.

this video is so underrated. thank u really!

Thanks for the great advice! I love this type of content. Hope you keep going with this. It's so much help for beginner artists like me! video and sound format is great don't even worry about it.

Dude love your content, currently watching all of your videos and excited for more.

Me encanto el video 💪🏼 thank you 🙌🏽

Loving this type of video, i did my homework while this is on the background. Well done 🎉🎉

thank you so much for the advice . I really don't know how to define the studio that I want to target. Do animation studios have specific groups and how to dig deeper. do studios hire freelancers when i see most animators working directly at the studio

This video answers pretty much my exact questions, thank you so much! No other video so far has done that, I'm really glad it was recommended to me

Thanks for the video. I've recently been developing a world and it's the perfect launch point to further my design skillset, which I think is lacking. I'm pretty comfortable with a lot of fundamentals now, but it's time to realize worlds and solve problems. Found your content last night and I'm soaking it up, thanks again!

p.s. Grady, we need the brushes, Grady!

It's very helfull ❣❣🥰

the part you mentioned about praise from your teachers really hit me. i was praised for my work hs all through university, came out with my bfa and was told that i was definitely gonna land a job/that there were going to be no doubts/i misunderstood this as "im more than enough for the real world" and welp nope obviously no. im nowhere near where i want to be. this year im trying to develop a proper plan and practice to create my portfolio. i have interests in both concept art and illustration and hope to learn a lot

Im beginner at art can you share some brushed to us

thank for the video ! can you share your brush set ? i need this brushes :(

Love It !! Really helped me to process how to work on my portfolio!

Nice one Grady, yes, please do more like this. It's cool what you explain and how you do it. It helps to make the right steps in this concept art world that sometimes it gets tricky to get in for the first time.
Things that I like to know your point of view: Approaching a briefing, dealing with art directors, networking from home for freelancers and for a technical side, creative process (3d+2d+...) shape language (you always work with very interesting ones)
Don't worry about your voice, sound perfectly fine. New follower here and I will follow on Twitter as well 😁

Thanks!

dude I saw this video at the perfect moment, I wanna work on my portfolio and I know I am not working hard enough, I had struggle keeping it consistent, 3 years ago I managed to have the perfect study scheduel and improve so much and getting back into it now is a real challenge but hearing stuff like you said, don't lie to yourself, there are people better and you can work harder, really gave me the confidence and motivation I needed

i like the create your own story part
sometimes when i am in idea block i take an old myth and do design inspired by that(it could be an asset/env/ character) and in the process of completing that concept, i get more ideas like a snowball effect. i think the snowball effect is very strong! i think prior to this i used to get overwhelmed with ideablock but sometimes its just better to start!

Awesome man thank you

Is this channel dead?

When is your next video coming? :)

Cool art and some good insight. What else could I ask for ;)

This is really cool, exactly what I needed. Can we have a look at your first portofolio?

Super helpful, really nice to listen to some gems of advice delivered in a casual way - love it. One of these videos that I feel I wish I'd heard earlier, but I guess you hear what you're ready to hear... Thanks!

You make very interesting videos and I look forward to seeing more of them!!! 🙏🏻
On your method of coloring from black and white and also on how to work as a freelancer! 👩‍💻

I love every minute of the video! You're right, usually the mindset thing isn't covered by skilled artists. I hope you will make more videos, in particular about developing your own story and networking as a freelancer! Thanks and looking forward

Thank you!

Really cool vid, liked listening to it whilst working on one of my personal projects, thanks for doing this!

Just watched all 3 of your videos, can’t wait for the next one.
Nothing wrong with your voice and I find your content entertaining!

Thank you so much for this, I always look for environment resources and there is not enough compared to character art. Love it!

Great video! Thanks for your advices. I would like to know how much is important a bachelor's degree in the industry. I'm currently at the second year of academy of fine arts in Milan but i'm not learning much and i dont like it. I feel like it would be better to take some concept art courses. What do you think?

Thank you for your Great Advices🙏🙏✨🍀

Dude, you're really awesome, I love your videos, you're very inspirational. You inspire me and clearly a-lot of other people, seriously thank you!

Excellent content, super helpful information

Thank you Grady! I'm nearly 50. Drawing and painting, and learning for most of that. I took a lot of notes from your vid, more than most. Good job man! Keep it up!

Very inspiring. Looking forward to the next videos!

I have a question. I consider I'm lucky enough cuz I got accepted in a small studio as a illustration and character design. So urh one thing that bothers me is salery of this studio which is pretty low for any artists. I love this job, it helps me improve a lot of skills, but idk. Should pay I more attention to the salery or just go with it, until I actually get good in this field? What do you think!?