Help with Dream Portfolio
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So I’ve recently returned to building my dream portfolio for the How to Discover Your Style class and I’ve realized that everything in it so far is extremely similar. That sounds like it would be a good thing but it has only left me more confused.
The theme with these seems to be, loneliness, isolation, and scale. I have always loved these themes, even as a child I loved picture books with themes like this. The assignment instructions were to collect 20 images that you think are great. Since I enjoy these types of images so much more than others it didn’t make sense for me to pick anything that I didn’t enjoy as much as much.
Here’s what I have so far. Let me know what you make of this/ how I could approach this to better help me find my style because currently I don’t feel much closer to finding it 🥲
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@Griffin-McPherson I’m not sure I understand your question fully, so let me just double check before I start answering something which might not be what you’re actually asking… The way I understand your question is that you have gathered a bunch of images you really like, and while you can see a thematic likeness between them, you don’t see the stylistic likeness, and thus you feel like you’re not anywhere closer to finding your style? Is this your issue?
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@mia-clarke hmm, now that you say that I realize that I was selecting pieces based on theme rather than style because I guess that’s just what grabs my attention. I actually really hadn’t thought about style much at all which is odd. Maybe I need to restart this whole process and focus on the styles that appeal to me rather than the images? I just feel like I’ll have a hard time doing this because theme is so much more important than style to me. I don’t know if this clarified my original question but after reading your comment I think I have a new question. How do I make a portfolio of styles that I like if styles aren’t the part of an illustration that appeals to me?
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@Griffin-McPherson @Griffin-McPherson Ok, so I might not be right, but I don’t think you’re wrong in the approach you’ve taken. The way I see it, when I look at yhe pictures you put in your dream folio, is that there are clear similarities between them all, even if one disregard the theme. They are all limited palette, with muted colours and full value. Most of them (with the exception of the windmill, the dam, and the cliff) are quite low detail, working with bigger shapes and higher abstraction. Almost all of them rely on big shadow shapes to relay their message, and human proportions are drawn in a more naturalistic way rather than in a cartoony way. As for target audience, I’d say you’re in the tween-teen space, based on your picture selection…
So with all this said, I don’t really think you need to start over, but maybe just spend a bit more time analyzing your images and really pick apart what it is in each of them that you like….
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@mia-clarke those are some excellent observations. I think you might be right about the fact that I just need to spend more time analyzing these pieces. I still have a lot more questions for myself so I’ll mull it all over for a bit. Thanks for your help!
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I actually think you already have a very defined style. You might think you’re working different styles sometimes and it might vary a little bit, but ultimately I can always tell your work apart, that includes things you have on your website. And a lot of the things you have pictured are very similar in style to those on your dream board not just in theme. So I don’t think your as lost as you might think. Or if you want to separate your styles there’s nothing wrong with have more than one! I think I might be headed that way myself. Just make separate areas for each one (like you already have)
hope this helps you find piece of mind
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