Concept Art Career Advice from an Art Director-Mike Vaillancourt of
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- What do Art Directors look for when hiring artists? Which portfolios get chosen and why? Which common mistakes hold artists back?
Mike Vaillancourt is the art director in charge of packaging and product at Magic: The Gathering. His perspectives and advice in this exclusive live event-are absolutely gold for any artist building a pro portfolio.
Join us as we get inside the mind of an Art Director, as he reviews real portfolios and answers critical career questions.
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the last piece of advice he gave about being in school, how to treat your assignments, and what you really are learning was great insight. Never did I get advice like that while in art school. It may have helped if I found it, when I graduated, the portfolio showed I understood the foundations really well, but it was a mess, it had no direction. Now it shows I lean more into scifi. But the biggest take away was the critique for the gun prop, now I ask myself, "if someone builds this, will it work?" That is my new question to me now, because I remembered a youtuber building a bow from Genshin Impact. And that thing actually fired and delivered.
Mike is really knowledgable - I loved that bit too. Glad you enjoyed the stream!
Thank you so much for keeping this up after the fact! This was incredibly informative and thank you all for your time, insight, and knowledge.
My pleasure!!!
That was awesome. Thank you Mike and everyone else for your time and insight. The one thing I will say I wasn't super happy with was the answer to the AI question. I completely understand Mike is not in a position to speak for such a huge company but it can be discouraging to new artists to see so much uncertainty. We know we have 1000s of hours of work to achieve a level of professionalism to get us jobs at Wizards and it can make someone evaluate if it's worth the effort. Will we be out of a job in 5 years when we're finally good enough and AI is indistinguishable? I know the past 6 months have taken a toll on me and my art. I know we're supposed to love making art for the sake of making art but, we also dream to make a good living from our skills and dream of becoming the next Seb McKinnon , Brom or Karla Ortiz. Maybe it's effecting me more then most because I started my art journey in my late 30s and I see time investment differently then when I was 20.
Totally agree with your words. I also started my artistic journey at the end of my 30s, and the subject of AI is somewhat daunting, but I have to admit that part of Mike's talk has given me hope and made me think about the foundations of almost every discipline: try hard, practice and study day by day, at all times, and we will reach our goal. If possible!
I have some sympathy for Mike in his position here. He must be aware of how exploitative current AI is and how awful it is for artists. He was effectively asked whether Wizards would be relying on AI and hiring fewer artists in the future, and it is SUPER discouraging that he basically replied with “we’ll see”. But, none of the blame for that can really be laid on Mike. Really appreciate that he took the time to do this :).
Definitely a tough spot for Mike and I think he gave a very fair and honest answer to a very complex issue but yeah, I sure wish AI image generators didn't exist. They just cast such a shadow over everything fun and exciting about this and it takes a lot of energy to muscle through it, but try we must. Keep painting and become those artists you revere and I'm confident that your skills will still be valued, AI be damned.
@@aarantheartist I wasn't trying to lay any blame on Mike. I know it's not his responsibility or place to discuss these matters. But yeah , still discouraging.
@@fowlerillus I agree with you fully. I wasn't trying to pin any negativity on Mike. It's just a difficult conversation right now. Thanks for your encouraging words. I havent given up. Its just been more difficult as of late to put in the effort.
Really wonderful advice, I've recently committed myself back to the fundamentals instead of just struggling through illustrations I knew weren't up to par. Good to hear I'm on the right track again.
I'm glad you enjoyed it - great stuff from Mike!
I'm super excited for this, partly because...wisdom, but also I've wanted to do work on MtG for years. Bucket list job!
Definitely. Such an iconic brand with so much amazing art attached to it - a very worthwhile bucket list item :) Good luck!
amazing, thank you so much for this
Mike was amazing. So many great things here that will ring in my ears. Thanks for watching.
I’m incredibly happy that Hardy invited me on board. To be clear, I’m not in charge of packaging and product, we have a large team and I’m one of five AD’s who are also incredible at what they do and are amazing humans!
Thanks Hardy for featuring my portfolio and thank you Mike for the awesome critique! It’s awesome having clear goals and mine is to add more story to my illustrations! Thanks again guys!
Beautiful work Randy. Thanks for bravely putting your stuff out there - it really shines. Mike has very high standards of excellence and seemed really into it.
It is a dream of mine to work on anything for Magic the Gathering. I have been a fan since I was really young. Thanks for the great video Hardy!
Also, Matt Grau is my cousin and it is neat to hear him and CthuluTech get mentioned in this video.
That's so cool - small world! Magic is such a cool world to work within and the art directors have been really creative and professional. Definitely a great company to pursue!
I couldnt attend the live but this was really great to watch - what a great guest you had on who gave such USEFUL and inspiring information, even about his own life - it really hit me when he said he used to work his day job then when he got home, from 6-12pm draw...a lesson we should all take - there is always time if you make it. Reminds me of what gary vee says to do!! Also going to take his advide about useing my sketchbook more, and draw life studies to learn perspective etc. And always have one with me...! Thankyou!
Thank you so much!!! Whenever I talk to current or aspiring professionals I try to speak from the heart and give the words of wisdom I’ve had imparted on me over the last 15+ years.
Mike it was so awesome. Thank you so much for doing this.
These kinds of interviews are so motivating and insightful!
That's great! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Awesome video, I missed this live due to the time difference in the uk.
Glad you enjoyed it!
57:36 "Steam punk or sci Fi? Pick your poison." (Hardy Fowler) What the gear specialist would ask before a mission. Gotta admit the attention to detail that Mike was talking about is exhaustingly intimidating. Some of the artwork he was criticizing I thought was perfect, and I wonder does someone get hired if they need to improve. I wish I could've thought of that last night.
That's a great question John. I would have liked to hear the answer too. It sounds like Mike keeps his eye on developing artists and has kind of a watch list of artists right on the verge. I imagine his answer would be somewhere along those lines.
Very interesting Video! watching it 3 times already :D
Glad to hear that! Mike really had some awesome insights.
@@fowlerillus Yea for sure! I hope to maybe work for mtg so it was very insightful video. They are not very much videos like that , straight talk with the Art director. Bobby Chiu is doing it but I dont know anyone else. So Kudos ! Looking forward for the Blizzard art director video lol.
Thanks for this Hardy, as always, fantastic and informative content!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing interview! Very Inspiring!
Glad you enjoyed it! Very kind of Mike to do this for us.
This man is so scary, but i love his almost brutal honesty.
He's actually a super nice guy :) I know what you mean, he is hitting us with some facts right here :)
is there an age limit to get into concept art?
I would say it's never to early or too late to start. Young people can always begin building skills and filling up their visual libraries with cool stuff. For older artists or those starting a second career - there is really no ageism or exclusiveness - older artists seem to have a longer and broader memory of cool design languages and pop culture and can often bring unique value to a project. Whether you feel you are on the too young or too old end of the spectrum, I would strongly urge you not to rule yourself out
I waited for it but unfortunately the video has no subtitles.
Sorry about that!
@@fowlerillus You're welcome.