hwango

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It's that time of year again - time for me to figure out which pieces of art to take to GenCon to show to game company reps while I use my spooky mental powers to compel them to commission me to create more art. I'd love advice from people on which pieces would be the best to take with me this year.

http://hwango.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://hwango.deviantart.com/gallery/?type=browse&offset=24

The cutoff point between what I took last year and what I made after GenCon is on that second page, at that hateful anthro lion, so the earliest piece up for consideration is the Scorpion Clan Samurai. I'm not sure I should take anything from earlier than that unless it's really awesome. Hopefully I've improved beyond stuff that old anyway, and I don't want to show people the same thing they saw last year either. I can still wear my sock-stealing bird t-shirt to show that off. = )

Current Mood: curious

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com

You basically need to take keystone pieces that show depth. As cool as monsters are, taking bait to appeal to the widest group possible is a good plan.

I would definitely take the Yawn maw Breezerider. It shows off creature skills, a cool light effect, and a landscape. Hits lots of areas.

The Scorpion Clan Samurai should probably also go. You on;y have about two people to pick from, and he's the better of the two. You might want to consider going back over his hair. it looks weird. Trees could also use a slight touch up, since you just got lots of practice with the Forest.

If you don't have time to touch up the Samurai, definitely take the Forest, to show off your tree skills have improved. If you do get a chance to noodle with samurai, take the Swamp instead. Again, shows off some light effects, getting reflections, and a limited color pallette.

Take the terrphage as well. More crazy light effects, more landscape. Has a bit more of a scifi flair then the other pieces, which all fit pretty well in the fantasy category.

The one problem I see is you're taking nothing but color pieces. Most of the RPG publishers are looking for black and white work. Your black and whites just aren't that strong. None of them would really qualify as portfolio pieces in and of themselves. They only make it in because you've got nothing from that category.

Side note, you may want to take a page of nothing but the Rage and Quest cards you worked on. Stick the four quest cards on a single page with a header indicating who and what they were done for. I can send you a page that has your Rage cards in it, with their framing and a header indicating they were done for Rage.

From:

hwango.livejournal.com

Yeah, I blew it on getting black and white art done to take with me, and that was really stupid. I shouldn't have kept putting it off in favor of more color things. If I get anything black and white done in the next week, I'll take it with me.

Hopefully I'll get the thing I'm working on right now done, too, and that will be worth taking. I'll also poke at the samurai piece to see if I can fix the trees and whatnot.

Sure, send along the page with the Rage cards - that would be good to show things in context. Thanks!

From:

hwango.livejournal.com

For pieces with backgrounds and stuff, what do you think of Cthulhu standing in the snow or the Decay Flute?

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/27972662/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/26823502/

From:

fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com

Decay flute dosn't quite look like its firmly anchored to its background. It's also a bit baffling out of context.

Cthulhu is amusing but has some problems. I'd take it along as an "extra" piece to tuck in the back of the folio to show to select groups (like Chaosium). Cthulhu's got two problems, the ground is tipped too steeply compared to the placement of feet. The horizon line need to be lower. Cthulhu's skin and wings also look too much like they had a quick photoshop filter effect applied. They're a bit too regular with the pattern.
It's a good piece to show off to places known for having rather tongue in cheek illustrations, but doesn't show off the technical skills as well as any of the landscapes do.

Since you're taking all color images, when you apply to RPG companies, you're basically competing to get hired to do a bookcover. Large technical pieces are you your best bet for that.

Since you'll also be showing some stuff off to CCG directors, doing a page of effectively "thumbnails" might work out well. While the big showy stuff might land you a book cover, it won't look good 2" tall. Doing a page of monsters that have been shrunk down to card art size shows off to them that your work will look good on a card too.
It also conveniently lets you stuff 9 monsters on a single page. :)