Rob - we may need to talk. I'll send you a message soon.

Hmm, do you really want feedback? Not saying that you're work is bad, or anything, I can just be particularly brutal when it comes to feedback. I'm a director at a large art school, so this is my bread and butter!

Say the word, and I'll dig in!

Rob, some of that looks like the older Magic the Gathering card art. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

And by art, would you include photography? If so...

I'm located over here:

Dev Art

It's not much. At all. But it's there. I'll have to update it soon. I have pictures laying around that I need to work on.

D: me too!

Might as well throw my latest piece up here: Lady Leia, Princess of Alderaan from my Steampunk Star Wars series.

I keep the rest of my art over at my portfolio: http://www.whereismyeyeball.com
I've also got a blog I post my new work, as well as sketches and whatnot, on.

Rob: I'd say the robot is your strongest piece here (it's got a charming design, and a nice action pose), followed by the spiky demon painting (a cool design, original and creepy). Your characters are generally nice and dynamic, but anatomy is definitely something you need to focus on to bring your character work to the next level. Another thing to watch with your characters is that none of them are planted on the ground. It's fine to draw a jumping character, as long as you're not doing it to avoid drawing a standing one. Creating a relationship between a character and the ground is tougher than one would think, but is pretty important. Unless you're drawing a comic book in the 90's. I don't think any superhero touched the ground for that entire decade.

Anyway, overall you seem to be on the right track. Hope this critique was helpful!

Should, perhaps, a 56k warning be put on this thread? Not that I've known anyone actually using a 56k in the last six years or so, but still... seems polite.

Some day I'll have something real to show, but so far everything I've done is for work and I can't really share it. I'm hoping to have the beginnings of a decent short animation finished within the next month to show off to everyone in the world and go, "I MADE ALL OF THAT YOU BUY NOW!!!"

Eric, I stumbled over a link to your blog some time ago on RPG.net. Wonderful idea, very well executed. Also, your blog has the quite likely coolest name ever.

@ Aramina:

Awesome work. I wish I had the level of dedication to keep practicing my traditional artwork. Anyway, for digital art, I would suggest the Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet. Since you are more into traditional work, and if you can afford it, maybe try the new Cintiq (sp?) by Wacom-- it's a monitor that you draw directly onto with a stylus, basically like a graphics tablet. Good stuff, and a lot of fun.

Also, try getting a Print Gocco for screen printing. I used one for my wedding invitations (pictures of them coming soon) with good results. It is a lot smaller than a traditional screen printer, and a lot simpler, but you can produce some wicked stuff if you really try. Since your at the AAU too (I'm graduating in May!), go to Arch on Missouri & 17th Street-- they have Goccos there, you should check it out.

@0kelvin:

Dude, your steampunk Star Wars stuff is friggin' awesome. I was checking that out a while ago when searching for steampunk reference for an old website design I had done last year.

@ Most:

Your stuff is cool beans too. I would suggest getting into sharper detail, as your work looks very loose (which isn't bad). I should heed my own advice though... I need more detail/less-cartoony work in my portfolio as well.

@ Rob_Anybody:

Seph will definitely give you some good criticism. He's the co-director of the Animation/VFX department (is that the right title?) & Games Lead at the Academy of Art, so it's his job to criticize people's work

Some really great stuff here! I especially like the Steampunk Starwars stuff - didn't know it was a Goodjer who had done those as i'd previously seen them featured on another site such as Kotaku.

Here's a few things i did literally 7 years ago... a bit embarassing really and i should get back to drawing again once i have more time.

I've spent many years doing paint jobs on race cars for the various games I play, and for the longest time I only used Paint Shop Pro. After being brow-beaten enough times to ditch PSP and learn Photoshop, I found: http://www.lynda.com

They have a wonderful team of instructors. I took one of their basic lessons on Photoshop which consisted of 3 CD's and a weekend spent watching and doing. They include files in the disks that allow you to work along with the instructor and do what he/she is doing at the same time. I won't say that after that weekend I was a pro, but now, I can easily move around in Photoshop and really understand what needs to be done in order to achieve the desired outcome. There are more advanced tutorials you can get as well, but as limited as my artistic needs were, I never felt it necessary to do more.

Hope this helps.
Nyxs

P.S. Your artwork is great!

*sob*

But it's so true.

I love that guitar, Chiggie.

@Aramina, the Cintiq is probably the way to go. And apparently don't get the small one as you can get a used big one on ebay for not much more.

Also, look into Painter instead of Photoshop. Its probably more in line with what you want as it is solely a digital paint app.

@Rob - There was an exercise I did in figure drawing where we were supposed to take a master's work, copy it and then layer tracing paper on top of the drawing. While looking at a hanging plastic skeleton for reference, on the tracing paper we were supposed to insert a skeleton into the figures in the drawing underneath. It was to check the masters to see if their subjects were anatomically correct or if they used models for reference.

You've undeniably got talent. I think working on your anatomy or some skeleton studies would push your work over the top.