Illustrator/Concept Artist advice Thread

Hi guys, I've been struggling a bit trying to find a group to get into and figured just making a post
and getting some advice would be a good idea.

I was dealing with some health issues for about a year, and now I'm trying to work and make up
for the lost time. Figured maybe it was time to try and be of use somehow to a group, and in the
process knock off the rust.

I tried to get in contact with a few postings and just never heard back from all except one
who had already found some people. Any other sites I should be looking at in my searches?
As well as any other suggestions for knocking the rust off, competitions or challenges etc
would be cool and I'd appreciate it.

Edit: Oh, I updated a few sketches and things to my moddb area as well. Figured it would help.

Edited by: Soundlust

Hey there,

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for. Just a group to contribute to and get some feedback for your work? Or are you looking for a mod/indie development team to contribute to a real project?

The quality you present on your profile is quite high already and would definitely be good enough for many mods and indie teams. I suggest that you open a thread in this forum: Moddb.com to advertise your skills. I'm sure that you'll get quite some offers, as again, your work is of high quality. You can also look through those forums and see, whether there's a project looking for an artist, which would fit your interests.

Otherwise, there's the concept art group on ModDB: Moddb.com people don't post super often in there, but you'll get a few comments. If you're looking for competitions and such, I highly recommend to visit www.conceptart.org,, there are a lot of professionals and aspiring artists active on there and you also have to possibility to open a sketchbook like many other artists do, too.

There's also www.cghub.com and www.deviantart.com where you can register and share your art with the community.

One warning though, if you decide to join a team, never ever join a team that promises royalities at the end or any kind of shares at the end, it's a 99% guarantee that the project will die. Either join paid positions (most of the quality you show is of the quality of freelance work) in indie teams or look out for promising projects.

Hope that helped!

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I'm sorry my original post reads a little jumbled. I'd preferably like to join a real project, I think the feedback in that kind of situation is what I'm looking for.

I went through the job board and tried to get in contact with 7-8 of the groups and like I said, no reponses except the one. Thanks for the site suggestions, I think I will
follow your advice and make a post there and see if it puts me in contact with some serious groups. And of course cghub and ca.org! I love those sites, amazing amount of talent on both.

Thanks again, appreciate all the advice and suggestions. Take care.

I went through your portfolio and see you have a knack for character. You're good at anatomy and character in general. Very inventive looks! I think you'd need to find a project yourself, most likely something remotely like Mass Effect, or Natural Selection 2. Or maybe you want a challenge and try something else. You won't achieve that by joining any concept art groups. Find interesting projects and apply for a job as concept artist, I'm sure you will get a response.

Your artwork is great, but there is nothing there that lets me assume you actually developed anything gameworthy yet. Meaning you want to work for free and expand your portfolio on interesting projects, for now. If you are looking for pocket money go to Deviantart and get some publicity for your images, so people will buy prints. To me that's only satisfying ones own vanity, though.

There's nothing to be said about getting a deviantart or conceptart account, of course. Yet, if you want to get into game design, join a mod or indie development (or a few) and build an actual working portfolio. When forced to iterate countless times and work on other people's ideas an ideal workflow establishes for you and you get to build a portfolio that is not only impressive at first glance, but meaningful towards professional game developers, who see this. In general there is a lot of competition between artists, so money is something that comes in small doses at first (if it comes at all). Enjoy it for what it is and in time you will find how to best make a living from your skills.

Edited by: SinKing

The Job board Isn't the only place, check out the forums and you'll definitely find someone.

Indiedb.com

In fact I could use you on my team, check us out at Siege of Inaolia.

SinKing, I think you are pretty dead on with your assessment. I've spent the last few mornings searching for projects for just those reasons.

I guess my task now is trying to find some groups.
Helmlock, I'm open to anything. I'd love to hear more,maybe shoot me a PM or
something along those lines?