Art Director Perspectives - Portfolios that Get Picked

WHAT DO ART DIRECTORS WANT?!! Let's ask them! If you are aspiring professional concept artist or illustrator, your success hinges on the impression you make on this one person making the hiring decisions - the art director. I have sent a list of questions around to 7 art directors (indie studios, AAAs and everything in between) to give us some real data and actionable insights on how we can make our portfolio and our approach as impactful as possible.

I'll be putting the full list of questions and answers into a blog article on DPS (Coming soon!)

0:00 - Intro
1:45 - When hiring, where do you look?
4:22 - What do you value most in portfolios?
7:09 - Portfolio dealbreakers
9:34 - Approach dealbreakers
12:23 - Best way to approach art directors
15:45 - Scary Question 6

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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.

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[omaior]

My friend that I meet in a game works as a 3d artist in AAA game studio and he worked in many studio of high caliber and I asked him what's the best advice for someone looking into getting into a AAA studio and he said that its networking. He did like 30 art tests for his first job but after that he got jobs in other studio just by being recommended by one of his friends that works in that studio, he even stopped updating his portfolio after few years because he didn't need it to get jobs. So make friends guys x)

[stu_e]

The point about showing process/sketches is really high-yield, and probably the biggest area for improvement in my own portfolio. And I found the points about generalizing vs specializing, and social media really interesting. I've heard people say that social media presence doesn't translate to jobs, but from this I gather that it doesn't hurt to maintain one.

[danmilligan]

After many years in the industry, I’ve come to most of these conclusions on my own. Some through instinct, most through trial and error. However it is great to hear these affirmations. The importance of thought processes is everything, especially today. Thanks for doing this Hardy!

[andypoon]

Thank you for this video! I’m an art director who has been searching for artists for a new project. I must have gone through 200 applicants in the past 2 weeks diligently and at least half of the applicants are not even designers, and 10 % of them have exaggerated positions on their resumes. I’ve posted about it on linked in and got a lot of negative feedback that I’m the one who gets pay to reject people and I l am just
whining that I work too hard. So I really appreciate this very insightful video so I can share.

[vergilpraiser]

im currently a student in college for 3D designer actually my first year and im already thinking of finding some job rn and honestly this video seems really good and it helped me with some stuff around portfolio. I know how to make portfolio since i got also into art academy but i decided to go with something i was always into. Thank you again for this!

[arnoldesigns]

"As an inquisitive child...." is the best part of this video 🤣🤣

[lazyoctopus]

Found your channel recently and just wanted to say thanks! A lot of valuable information here.

[JoshuaCArt]

This was a great video with solid insight and info. Thank you for doing this!

[mrwhitey]

I was debating with myself if I should be a specialist to do everything. Because I only had a focus on character design. And never gotten nothing, and since I came back doing art, I realise I like doing anything, so thank you for the video. I also decided to open a youtube channel (is not this one, this is my personal account ) to do more illustration stuff since I also found enjoyment to do that.

[Mienarrr]

Soooo basically it depends and sometimes its completely the opposite of other times? 👀

Haha half jokes aside, there were some real good chunks of information here, thank you very much for doing this!

I‘m taking with me that its good to have a space where you post curated, done pieces that can show off your expertise, as well as a place where you can show off your workflow and more sketches, behind the scenes etc and then show those off accordingly. Plus being a good person to work with in general :)

[bonniek]

This was so helpful, def going to check out the full blog article. Thanks for doing the work on this!

[amielsanders]

Great vid. Really appreciate the effort to create and put this out here for artists to learn from.

[YassineCherifi]

This is really awesome this helps a looot and am really thankful for the effort you went through Hardy you are amazing 🙏

[Amir-]

Great! One of the best contents I could see today!

[StarmanG]

First of all, thank you for your outstanding video - it was incredibly informative and helpful!

I was wondering if you might consider creating a similar analysis from the opposite perspective: how can young authors, writers, and board game designers find artists for collaboration?

Specifically, I'd love to hear your thoughts on:
• How do artists decide whether to work with a writer, especially when it involves small studios or modest budgets?
• What can we offer to experienced artists to interest them in our projects?
• Is there any chance of collaborating with renowned masters, even if the project is small or non-commercial (for me, but not for the artist)?

Your perspective on this would be incredibly valuable to many of us who are seeking successful collaborations with artists.

If other viewers would love to see a video on this topic too, give this comment a thumbs up so Hardy notices our request! 👍🏻

[Alkanaut]

1. You have the exact same jacket I do
2. This is incredibly helpful, thx!

[hunteriadkins]

This is great information and will definitely help when refining a portfolio. Thank you so much, Hardy!

[kemuelhbl]

I really love content like this. We're not able to know that because we hardly can talk much with AD when we start and are looking for first contacts in the industry. More AD feedbacks would be really great to be up to date with their needs !

[pier-oliviermartel]

Great Video. It helps so much to have feedbacks from Art Directors. Thank you Hardy !

[yvesnarbonne]

Thanks for the video, Hardy! Very insightful.