A senoior artist making tutorial vids to help entry level artists improve portfolios

[BrashMonkey]

Hi fellow game artists, please help spread the word. Also, would this community be interested in "hosting" a permanent thread specifically for entry level artists to submit portfolio pieces that seasoned pros could then create Youtube videos for constructive feedback such as the videos I've made (mentioned below)?

Michael Parent, who's career started as the first artist in Gameloft's NY studio, and has spanned 8 years working for leading mobile game companies such as Glu mobile and Wayforward, has begun creating tutorial videos for aspiring game artists. ( Michael's portfolio, resume and testimonials can be found here: HolyMonkey Studio )

Michael is also the co-founder of Brash Monkey and co-creator of Spriter, a highly optimized game specific 2d animation tool which had a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. Spriter by edgar muniz — Kickstarter

As a tier reward for some of the backers, Michael offered a 30 minute live interview and portfolio review for aspiring game artists, with the specific goal of helping them to make their portfolio as strong as possible as quickly as possible.

“I'd helped art directors and studio managers choose new additions to the art team for years, starting at Gameloft. What really struck me was not just the obvious diversity in skill levels between different applicants portfolios, but more importantly the fact that almost without fail the applicants who's portfolios we're rejected outright all exhibited the same hand full of tell-tale features in their art that showed they were not yet producing work to professional standards.”

Michael had always loved teaching, and before entering the game industry had taught traditional painting to adults and children both privately and as a guest teacher in the design course at a local college. The portfolio reviews reawaken that love and the appreciation of the aspiring artists reassured him that he had valuable information to share:

“Mike has helped me progress professionally through his amazing portfolio review sessions and subsequent videos. In a matter of short months, through Mike's guidance, I have made huge progress as an artist. “- Pride St. Clair- wuth's deviantART gallery

Michael decided to begin a series of videos helping artists to pinpoint the common flaws in aspiring artists work. “I've seen countless fantastic tutorials online, explaining how to draw specific things, or specific methods for digital painting etc, but I never saw any videos specifically warning artists what not to do.” Some of the artist who Michael had helped agreed to let him review some of their art in these videos and Michael began recording.

You can see an example of one such video here:portfolio_tutorial_2_a.AVI - YouTube

“I hope that many aspiring game artists will find these videos helpful, But I also hope it will encourage even more veterans of the industry (and other industries)to make similar videos from their specific points of view and areas of expertise. I think there's also a treasure trove of information and instruction to be gained from this mind-set that gets overlooked all too often... sometimes learning what not to do can be more instructive than learning what to do, and often, learning what to leave out leads to a better finished product than learning all the possible things you can put in.”

One of the aspiring artists that Michael interviewed and has since been mentoring in exchange for work has begun work on a game with a Kickstarter campaign of her own: Hyper Segtendio Siblings by Renita Orellana — Kickstarter

As an addition to his current videos, Michael will be creating “behind the scenes” videos showing art direction, iteration and then finally implementation of the finished art assets into the game itself. “ I think these videos will offer an invaluable insight into full blown art asset creation for aspiring artists and game makers in general...going far beyond how to make pretty art, and going deep into the philosophy and science of making art that works cohesively to create a specific atmosphere, signature visual style and most importantly to perform its function well as a game play element.”

Michael plans eventually to host a forum specifically for aspiring artists to be able to post their art to receive instructive review from not just Michael, but other industry professionals as well. News of its launch will be posted at Brash Monkey

[kanga]

Yeah sure this site is always interested in anything that will help it's community. Start a thread in the tute section and if it goes well we will push it here. If it goes really well with regular contributions we will turn it into a sticky.