What is MISSING from your Concept Art Portfolio?

I have spent years trying to fill my portfolio with the most polished, rendered, gorgeous artwork that I could possibly produce, but the one missing thing that clients are always asking me for? SKETCHES!
Don't hide those sketchbooks! Your absent minded doodles are a great way to practice BUT clients and art directors love seeing what you can scratch out quickly - sketches are window into an artist's visual library and can show some true artistic mastery.
0:00 - Intro
1:10 - Sketches for Yourself
9:30 - Sketches for Your Career
16:55 - Fake Sketches
22:21 - Insanely Cool Sketch Treatment
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PAINT YOUR WORLD
Hardy Fowler is a professional Digital Painter with work seen in productions for Disney, Magic the Gathering, and Games Workshop among many others.
Hardy's online academy, Digital Painting Studio, teaches the master-level skills, process and mindset he's learned from decades of experience as a professional digital artist.
Browse Courses Here: www.digitalpaintingstudio.com...
CONNECT
→ digitalpaintingstudio.com/
→ / hardy_digitalpaintings...
→ www.artstation.com/hfowler
→ www.digitalpaintingstudio.com...
→FREE BRUSHES! As always, any brushes used in this video are available for free in DPS Discord "Freebies" channel - join our server here: www.digitalpaintingstudio.com...
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Friends of the channel and awesome artists and teachers:
Christophe Young: / @christopheyoungart
Adam Duff: / @adamduffart
Antonio Stappaerts: / @artwod
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[@Oakbeast]

I've had graduated art students give me shit for the past two years for having a sketchy style... they all got fired I'm still here.

[@fowlerillus]

Still standing! I love it.

[@ashtoncartner]

Lol Gigachad

[@WackerTheMaker]

I think this might be a sign from the universe telling me to focus on the design phase more. More room to explore, to sketch ideas and applying it to a canvas and comparing which sticks. Between this vid and FengZhu's latest vid and spending almost a year focusing the rendering aspect on the big medium small, It's time to jump back to good ol lineart!

[@fowlerillus]

Welcome back! :)

[@BTT16]

I've heard some rare instances where designers would get hired based on their sketches alone. Very rare, but it's nice to know that there are some art directors out there that appreciate the significance of ideation sketches, and the thought process of a Concept Artist.

[@fowlerillus]

Definitely and I find that to be something I hear requests for - there is definitely a demand and appetite out there for artists who can show those skills vs just highly polished rendering.

[@vampireantihero]

I sketch a lot, but I usually just don't save my work when I'm done with my doodles. I'll need to start saving my little sketches. Thank you as always Hardy!

[@fowlerillus]

Awesome! Thanks Artemis - glad this was helpful

[@vaango143]

Today is when I decided to go down the concept art rabbit hole and I just found your video which makes me even more motivated!

[@fowlerillus]

Perfect - I love when the right video comes along on the exact right day :)

[@ericmasker6330]

GNOMON! I still have several DVDs and videos of theirs, they really helped supplement my learning while I was in school. Scott Robertson's and Feng Zhu's designs definitely have that technique of adding that little bit of value to their work, I'm so psyched to see another talented designer implement it and share it with the rest of us.

[@fowlerillus]

Right?! Those videos really were ahead of their time - before there were online art schools and art KZbinrs, this was how we had to learn how to paint the cool stuff :) Such legends.

[@jeromenicolasart]

Awesome stuff as always, Hardy! So glad to be mentored by you.

[@fowlerillus]

Thanks Jerome! It has been awesome working with you

[@mongeziqambi2574]

I am in Africa and I have a couple of months drawing digitally...THANK YOU FOR YOUR CHANNEL

[@fowlerillus]

Greetings from the US! I'm so glad you're enjoying the channel :)

[@pjosxyz]

been sketching and drawing for an hour or two a day reliably for a month now, man my skills have improved so much. I still suck but definite improvement.

[@fowlerillus]

It's crazy how big of an impact it can have. I can't believe how much I undervalued this

[@pjosxyz]

@@fowlerillus same, turns out if you want to get better at drawing shapes in perspective then drawing lots of shapes in perspective is what you need to do 😆 though it's understandable, there's so many shiny objects (roughness: 0 objects?) to get lost in with digital art it's easy to deprioritise the things that aren't as... shiny...

[@carlosmirandajr508]

Amazing! You are one of the best teachers and artists I have ever met along with Matt Kohr, Aaron Blaise, Marco Bucci, John Park, Proko and Marc Brunet

[@fowlerillus]

Wow thank you! That is high praise indeed. I'm so glad these have been helpful.

[@Willlustrates]

Man, every time I watch your work I'm more inspired to do great art. You've had a huge influence on my artistic journey. Thanks for another awesome video Hardy!

[@fowlerillus]

That's so cool to hear. Thank you :)

[@Natala00]

I am always overjoyed when you upload, you've had such an influence on my art journey.

[@fowlerillus]

That makes my day - thank you

[@jameswhitelawanimation]

Awesome video, Hardy - thank you! Love your work.

[@fowlerillus]

Thanks! I really appreciate it

[@ujwallimbu9657]

Thank you for sharing your experience ❤❤🙌🙌

[@fowlerillus]

My pleasure! I'm glad this is helpful

[@igorl.schmidtsojka607]

i really like sketching, it´s when i have the most fun drawing and i'm always happy to open my sketchbook and remember fun ideas i had make it as a finished work.

[@fowlerillus]

Agreed 100%.

[@arithdev]

Thats one very valuable advice i had received from Hardy weeks earlier...saving my sketches made a ton of difference to my portfolio

[@fowlerillus]

Glad to hear that Arith. Your portfolio has gotten incredibly strong lately - congratulations on all of your excellent work.

[@hunteriadkins]

I can't thank you enough for your videos. I would love to learn more from you and am interested in your Academic courses! Such a great teacher.

[@fowlerillus]

I'm so glad these have been helpful. Sure, I'd love to chat about the Academy - you can email us at [e-mail] and I'll get back to you.

[@pier-oliviermartel713]

Great tips !! I will definitely include this in my next portfolio piece ;)

[@fowlerillus]

Glad it was helpful!

[@user-fc5gh8zq4n]

thx. great answers u give for my art growing, good luck :)

[@fowlerillus]

I'm so glad these are helpful :)

[@michaelrasmussen1342]

Wonderful as always Hardy! And an awesome trick. Thanks again for your time and efforts providing such useful and inspiring content. Though I’ve stepped away from seeking pro art work, what I’ve learned from your instruction in the Academy, Udemy, and your KZbin has helped me improve my digital art and design work 1000 percent! And given me thousands of hours of entertainment and focused improvement… not an easy thing to find in other disciplines (and I’ve looked!) … thanks again!

[@fowlerillus]

Hi Mike. Thanks for this and I hope that you still keep the art engines moving and climbing. It has been a pleasure watching you're skills develop.

[@joaopedrosantana7073]

amazing teacher, i start doing ur course and see how amazing my drawing could be :D thanks for ur work! help me a lot :D

[@fowlerillus]

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it. Good luck!

[@ardmary22]

It was impressive! Thanks a lot)

[@fowlerillus]

Glad you liked it!

[@greboge]

Thanks for this video, Hardy! I'm struggling with this at the moment, my portfolio lacks a lot of this more expressive work, even tho I'm not professional yet, I will include a folder with some sketches in my portfolio!

[@fowlerillus]

Awesome! Good luck

[@devilichus]

Refining the sketches feels like killing the alternative suggestive moves and possibilities like how quantum wave function collapses when an observant enters the system. That's why sometimes I don't like cleaning up or finalizing work. However, I still have to. So I try to make the best preferences.

[@fowlerillus]

Wow, that's a super interesting connection. It's like we trade possibility for certainty and things get less interesting with each decision. Very cool point - thanks

[@devilichus]

@@fowlerillus Thanks for the reply and the idea of making sketch presentation old school style advise. It sparked some inspiration for me to clean up my sketch presentation style making it a bit more tidy and analogue feel to them. Have a nice day take care!

[@taniatigris]

Thanks for another useful video, Hardy! I definitely need to pay more attention to sketches and include more of them in my portfolio. But to me my sketches seem too messy to showcase, l'd rather stuff them into a back pocket and wouldn't show to anyone.

[@fowlerillus]

Hey! Glad this was helpful. I know what you mean - it can be hard to feel proud about something messy but it does seem to be worth pursuing and something I have been asked for repeatedly after showing the polished stuff

[@Tahasikeri]

Thank u

[@fowlerillus]

My pleasure. Thanks for watching

[@n-credible0753]

That looks sick! Though I don't understand exactly how you did it or what specifically the color look up is doing (or what a color look up is lol). I don't actually use Photoshop though (I use a free software called Krita), so it might not even apply. But anyway, nice video 👍

[@fowlerillus]

I'm glad you liked it. I wonder if Krita has something similar - these are essentially just color profile filters so I would imagine it's an effect that can be replicated. I think the tonal wash is the more important ingredient so I hope that at least will work in Krita. Thanks for checking this out

[@duongquan4986]

When I was doing final project at University, my work was a bit light so I kinda cheated by putting like 3 pages of sketches into the end of the presentation. And one of the teacher commented that my sketches looks more interesting that the polished renders.

[@fowlerillus]

That's really interesting and I actually hear that quite a bit. I find that to be true in my own work often as well - the sketch was better than the final painting.

[@user-hc6mn4bx7d]

What is this program you're using called? I recently wanted to change softwares, but I couldn't find a good one where everything is available and clear

[@fowlerillus]

This is Photoshop - it's awesome for digital painting and really powerful

[@aciduss]

Hello! do you have a video of how to design this kind of mechs?

[@fowlerillus]

Hi! I teach shape design like this in my mentorship Concept Art Academy but I have a course called Painting Machines in the DPS skillbuilder subscription that is much cheaper if you want to check that out. I don't really have a KZbin video about designing machines specifically but this one may be helpful kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3-0epiaq96Cja8

[@torrentthom4734]

It's solid advise. tho if one's sketches do not match the quality of what u are drawing on the screen, it's questionable to include em.

[@fowlerillus]

Definitely, we always want to show work that helps our case so I definitely would pick the sketches that you include carefully.

[@progwithpaul]

I have process sketches. But don't have highly polished or rendered works. If I make a portfolio with those sketch works will it hold any leverage??

[@fowlerillus]

I think a professional portfolio should definitely mostly feature finished, polished works. Sketches are there as support and to show the artist's quick skills and blue sky imaginative capability but I think a portfolio should show an artist with a fairly complete skillset in order to be competitive and that means sketches and finished paintings

[@progwithpaul]

This really cleared up my confusion. Thanks a ton.

[@yurivashcinko1360]

Dear Hardy, will there be new courses on Udemy?

[@fowlerillus]

Hi! Possibly but I'm spending most of my teaching time and energy on Digital Painting Studios these days. I do have a lot of new course content in the works but I'm not sure if it will be on Udemy or not.

[@yurivashcinko1360]

@fowlerillus will it be possible to purchase courses on your website?

[@fowlerillus]

@@yurivashcinko1360 Absolutely! That's where I'll be putting everything

[@yurivashcinko1360]

@fowlerillus I have a question about this course. The Concept Artist’s Career Planner , how the training is going, and the main problem for me is my very poor English and this is my fear of whether I will understand. But at the same time, I have great motivation and a great desire to learn this craft.

[@fowlerillus]

@@yurivashcinko1360 Hi Yuri - that could definitely be difficult. I wish we had better captioning or translation options but as things are currently - I think conversational English is definitely something that you'll need in order to really benefit. You should be ok if what I'm saying in this video makes sense, but if not, then I'm worried I would be wasting your time and money on lessons that wouldn't fully help.

[@inkthinker]

My whole career has been backwards too, and I wonder if it's not more common than we realize... Scott McCloud (in "Understanding Comics") talks about a natural progression in learning from surface to craft to structure to idiom, form, idea and purpose, and the irony of it is that we're supposed to go *the other way* when we purposefully create something; an idea or purpose determines the form and idiomatic language, which builds the structure and guides the craft that defines the surface. It's counterintuitive, but I'm not sure it's unusual.

[@fowlerillus]

That's super interesting to hear. So glad that I'm not alone in that - I really always thought of that as a wrong turn that I took somewhere, but now you mention it - it does make sense. I'll have to check out Scott McCloud - thank you!

[@lttrickster5643]

Just got out of school and my hardy fowler upload sensor went off

[@fowlerillus]

woohoo! :)

[@samankucher5117]

awesome bots my guy :) :3

[@fowlerillus]

Glad you like them!

[@mrnakomoto7241]

First comment

[@fowlerillus]

Blue ribbon emoji :)

[@royalecrafts6252]

what is missing? simple, design problem solutions

[@fowlerillus]

Totally - agreed

[@dominykasmotiejunas737]

Great video man 🤌🤌, was getting flashbacks to my first year of university when you mentioned sketching out finished artworks to 'fake sketches' 🥲, at least I see now how fun and crucial it actually is to sketch!

[@fowlerillus]

That's awesome! Glad this was helpful