This has been pecking away in my brain for awhile now - As the thread question implies, how many pieces should be in an artist's portfolio before they start applying for freelance or full-time opportunities?

I'm specifically interested in reflections on a character artist's port (how many full body, how many busts, etc.) but any advice from any perspective and discipline will most certainly help.

Ideally more than say, three. And also show range, i.e. not three generic women. I'm putting together in my portfolio, one guy, a woman, a creature/non-human and a hard surface orientated character. So basically a range of characters a studio would expect you to be able to create.

Depends if you're showing consistency in style or just all out attention to detail.

Well the biggest thing is, you want to show off your best work. Having only a few pieces is better than having a large number of old/unfinished/not very good pieces. So just concentrate on getting up work that really highlights your skills as an artist, and the rest should work itself out.

If I was reviewing a portfolio, I would rather see a small amount of good pieces, then a small amount of good plus some more bad/old work thrown in for kicks, that would make me question whether the artist can produce at a consistent level.

4

4

Oh and you have some nice work in your portfolio by the way! The only thing I'd personally like to see (it's not needed if you don't plan to work at a company that does this) is some hand painted texture work. I think it would help cover all of your bases.

I would think at the point you only have 3 or 4 models one would be wondering what you do with all your free time... I agree all should be really good and not a bunch of junk, but when Spark was teaching us he always said "I don't know where this school thinks 5 portfolio pieces should get you... You should be pushing for 10."

Originally Posted by jeremiah_bigley

I would think at the point you only have 3 or 4 models one would be wondering what you do with all your free time... I agree all should be really good and not a bunch of junk, but when Spark was teaching us he always said "I don't know where this school thinks 5 portfolio pieces should get you... You should be pushing for 10."

The problem with this idea come into play when you try to rationalize this with the other factor of only having your best work.
I personally just have 3 pieces up right now (my three most recent)
but I have a bunch more that are of much lower quality.

take this into account with the fact that an artist should always be growing and each piece should ideally be better than his last and you have a dilemma.

show more work? or show a low amount of great work?

Originally Posted by Bonebrew22

show more work? or show a low amount of great work?

Show lower amount of great work. 3-4 pieces is enough to get a job if it shows variety or what the company is looking for specifically.

Tenchi - Ah! I see you took a peak at my folio. Yes, I currently don't have very many pieces. Reason being that I started a new portfolio from scratch at the beginning of this year. You bring up some great suggestions like including a creature and hard-surface character. I'll have to add those to my to-do list.

frell - I definitely want to show consistency so people combing their eyes over my port understand I can maintain a steady ship. At the same time, I also think it's important that variety of content/style can create a strong impression, if done right. I'm sure most artists stumble across this challenge.

EarthQuake - In complete agreement here. I've actually heard this many times from different types of sources. I would imagine that it probably only takes a couple of strong pieces to help an art director determine if an artist's abilities are fit for their particular project. Surely, if the artist has a couple of works that are strong enough in skill but are not exemplary of a specific style for that project, there would be consideration for an art test?

BoBo_the_seal - Blessings Bobo, thanks! It's excellent that you bring that up as, yes, I'm actually planning to do a stylized character with wholly painted textures sometime in the near future. It would help expand the folio, and I'm sure that's a welcome benefit to any artist's port, if done right of course.

So then the magic number appears to be right around "4". Though I'll most likely end up having around 5 pieces with the two I still plan to do before beginning my application spams.

jeremiah_bigley - That's the problem, there's not enough free time! And we all know: the more quality we want to pour into a piece, the more time it takes - generally speaking. It does sound like the consensus is that you only need several strong pieces for proper consideration, so that's pretty relieving to hear.

Bonebrew22 - Although that's the issue I'm facing (and others, I'm sure). Even three pieces may not be enough to create a convincing enough impression for an art director that says, "Hey, this artist can do the job and do it right".

JMYoung - Sounds like that's the general consensus. Now I just need to work on variety in style/execution.