by Eliott Lilly | Jul 15, 2015 | Interviews
PHIL WOHR IS A PROFESSIONAL CONCEPT ARTIST WITH OVER A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE WORKING IN THE VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY.
Website
http://artofphilwohr.blogspot.com/
Phil Wohr’s current portfolio examples
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1 of this interview, where we asked him specific questions about what it’s like to be a concept artist in the entertainment industry, dispel a few common misconceptions that aspiring artists tend to have about the field, and discuss his educational background. Here, in part two of this interview, we ask Phil Wohr specific questions about building his portfolio, marketing himself in the industry and more. Here’s what Phil Wohr had to say:
HOW VALUABLE WILL GETTING AN EDUCATION FROM A UNIVERSITY OR COLLEGE BE FOR ASPIRING ARTISTS WHO WANT TO BREAK INTO THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY? SHOULD THEY ATTEND A REGULAR SCHOOL WITH A LIBERAL ARTS PROGRAM? A 4 YEAR ART SCHOOL? OR JOB SPECIFIC TRADE SCHOOL (LIKE GNOMON, CONCEPT DESIGN ACADEMY, FZD, ETC). OTHER?
If you can afford to go to art school, then that’s awesome (it’s very expensive). For concept art I think your portfolio is really what is going to matter most. I would almost recommend something like an art atelier school, or just a dedicated art program. At the end of the day having a degree might get you paid a bit more, but if someone comes in with a significantly better portfolio (regardless of their education), the company will probably hire them.
Personally, I’m glad I went to school because it taught me about other parts of the pipeline and exposed me to things that I couldn’t have experienced on my own.
The one thing I will say loudly is that if you can’t afford to go to school, don’t let that stop you. There is so much information available online that will educate you without ever having to go to a big name school. If you go that route try to befriend some artists or join a community who can teach you some things along the way.
WERE YOU DISCIPLINED AND/OR FOCUSED IN SCHOOL? WHAT WAS YOUR ROUTINE? HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU SPEND ON YOUR HOMEWORK VS. SOCIALIZING?
I definitely spent a lot of time creating art while in school. I used to have this goal of having a “perfect” day of creating art all day long. Then trying to string those days together. It never really fully worked out, but the idea kept me working.
It’s pretty impossible not to get distracted sometimes, but I definitely spent a lot of long days and late nights creating art — especially in portfolio classes.
I spent a fair amount of time socializing too though, but socializing with other artists is still helpful, I guess. I didn’t go to a lot of parties, or spend tons of time doing that kind of stuff. I probably spent about 10 hours each day working/attending class— you have to work hard in school because it’s the foundation for things to come.
BESIDES THE FUNDAMENTAL ART CLASSES (PERSPECTIVE, ANATOMY, COLOR THEORY, ETC.), WHAT CLASSES DO YOU THINK STUDENTS SHOULD TAKE IN COLLEGE? ARE THERE ANY CLASSES YOU TOOK WHICH SURPRISINGLY HELPED YOU MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT THEY WOULD?
I can’t really say that there was some non mandatory class I took that highly rasied my own skill level to a surprising degree. But I have seen that people who practice cast drawing seem to really improve their abillities a lot. It sort of forces you to focus on a tight quality control and a high range of midtone values. So I’d just say if you have a chance to take a course on cast drawing I bet it would help you quite a bit.
Also, this isn’t a class, but I would recommend that students practice still life drawings, and try to make them highly accurate. It’s a great way to improve your understanding of lighting, reflections, and materials, and you can do it at home for free. And to clarify I mean create a little still life, light it, and paint that digitally or traditionally. It’s more beneficial than painting from a flat photo because you can get a better look at what is going on and understand it at a higher level by seeing it in 3D space and not just mimicking a flat picture.
DID YOU HAVE ANY OUTSIDE HELP PUSHING YOU ALONG WITH YOUR TRAINING? FROM A MENTOR, PASSIONATE TEACHER? FAMILY? FELLOW STUDENT?
I didn’t have like one person specifically that was a mentor but rather a lot of other artists at school that were all pretty inspiring.
I made a lot of friends in college and we all pushed each other and talked about tips and that sort of stuff.
That’s one thing that is really nice about being in an art school. Sometimes you can learn as much from the other students as you would from the instructors or the curriculum.
DID YOU STUDY OR TAKE ADDITIONAL CLASSES/ LESSONS, OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL? IF SO, HOW FREQUENTLY?
A lot of the studying I was doing outside of school was really just me practicing or watching tutorial videos, drawing still life, and that sort of thing. There are so many training tutorials available. Especially now, even if you don’t have time or money to take extra lessons, that doesn’t mean you can’t keep learning.
This concludes Part 2 of our interview with Phil Wohr. In Part three, we discuss with Phil how he marketed himself coming out of college, how he landed his first job and more. All images used with permission by the artist. ©Phil Wohr
by Eliott Lilly | Jul 15, 2015 | Interviews
PHIL WOHR IS A PROFESSIONAL CONCEPT ARTIST WITH OVER A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE WORKING IN THE VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY.
Website
http://artofphilwohr.blogspot.com/
Phil Wohr’s current portfolio examples
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this interview, where we asked him specific questions about what it’s like to be a concept artist in the entertainment industry, dispel a few common misconceptions that aspiring artists tend to have about the field, and discuss his educational background. Here, in part two of this interview, we ask Phil Wohr specific questions about building his portfolio, marketing himself in the industry and more. Here’s what Phil Wohr had to say:
WHAT ARE YOUR LIST OF DOS AND DON’TS TO BUILDING A STRONG PORTFOLIO?
When building a portfolio it is important to show your strengths and your range. It is equally important to remove weaker pieces that no longer represent your abilities.
Also tailoring a portfolio towards a specific position can be helpful. Most of these companies like to see that you already have pieces in your portfolio that would be acceptable as concepts in their game, or are at least close. So, for example, if you want to work for a company that does cartoony style stuff, your portfolio should have at least some of that in it. Have others look at your portfolio and help you decide what pieces are bringing it down. It’s much better to have a portfolio with 20 strong pieces than one with 20 plus 5 pieces that aren’t as good. Those weaker pieces will make people think that you are at a lower overall skill level. Also, even if you have 100 strong pieces, try to bring it down to a manageable number so the other person can get through it. If there are too many, they’ll probably only look at half of them and those might not be the strongest ones.
IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND RE-EVALUATE YOUR OWN GRADUATING PORTFOLIO, HOW WOULD YOU DO? WHAT DO YOU THINK MADE YOUR PORTFOLIO STAND OUT? WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER?.
I probably had more work than I needed in some areas, I think I might reduce the total number of pieces in favor of a more concise read.
From what I was told at the time, my portfolio stood out as being fairly “broad” in terms of showing characters, vehicles, weapons, environments while still maintaining quality.
Looking back, my environments could have been a lot stronger, but you really can’t expect to be a master of all things, especially fresh out of school — and for me a 2 year school.
HOW DID YOU HUNT DOWN YOUR FIRST JOBS IN THE INDUSTRY? FRIEND/ WORD OF MOUTH/ REFERRAL? DID YOU APPLY ONLINE THROUGH THE COMPANY? ON A JOB FORUM/ HEAD HUNTER/ ETC.
My first job in the industry was at TKO Software in the Dallas area. I got the job because one of the artists there was a former art institute graduate who would watch the forums. At the time, he was impressed with my ability to create concept art and also 3D art at a reasonably high level for a student.
HOW DID YOU MARKET YOURSELF COMING OUT OF COLLEGE/ FIRST STARTING OUT? WHAT DIFFICULTIES DID YOU HAVE TO OVERCOME?
I probably didn’t do a great job of marketing myself because I was already interning at TKO before I got out of school. I really didn’t surmount any major marketing difficulties as I got really lucky getting picked up so early.
I will offer this piece of advice for students:
When presenting art, especially with physical, printed portfolio; neatness is important. You don’t want an employer opening your portfolio and it looks all sloppy with a bunch of notes and crap falling out. When you are making a piece of art, think about how it will look in a portfolio. As you finish each piece, try to make it presentation worthy by giving the image a label and a simple background. This helps sell your work as a “professional” and will save you a bit of headache later.
WHERE DO YOU CURRENTLY MARKET YOURSELF? WHAT GIVES YOU THE MOST RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT (YOUR WEBSITE, SOCIAL MEDIA, WORD OF MOUTH?, ETC.)
I really don’t market myself a whole lot. I have a free blogspot account that gets a fair amount of attention. If you google my name it is the first thing that comes up and I think working on projects like borderlands and halo wars that people actually were searching for helped. I’ve found that once you get out of school, the projects you work on tend to draw their own attention as long as there is a place where people can search for related art.
When I’m looking for work though, I rely mostly on word of mouth and “who you know”. Almost every job I’ve gotten after Gearbox was through knowing someone and having an “in” at the company.
The industry is super small, so once you’ve been in it a while, the people who you’ve worked with tend to move around, and next thing you know you have 1st and 2nd party connections all over the place.
It can work in reverse if you upset people or are hard to work with, so play nice and check your ego at the door.
DO YOU THINK THE INDUSTRY IS VEERING TOWARDS A MORE CONTRACT AND OUTSOURCING MODEL FOR ARTISTS?
I think it will always be more or less half and half. I believe there will be a continued trend of large studios “ballooning up” to meet ship dates, and then shrinking back down once the project has shipped. I think outsourcing and freelancing fills those needs without forcing companies to make big hires and then big layoffs.
Personally, I still prefer having a salaried position to pure freelance. I might take the occasional side job, but I try to avoid larger commitments because I like to have time for personal work.
This concludes our interview with Phil Wohr. if you woudl like to read more, check out Phil’s Words Of Wisdom. All images used with permission by the artist. ©Phil Wohr
by Eliott Lilly | Jul 6, 2015 | Words of Wisdom
Phil Wohr is an in-house concept artist, currently working at Nerve Software, in Dallas Texas.
Website: http://artofphilwohr.blogspot.com/
Educational background: The Art Institute of Dallas, Degree: Associate of Applied Arts, Pre-Visualization. Graduated 2005
Number of years in industry: 10 yrs (since 2005)
Shipped titles/ Projects worked on: Call of Duty Advanced warfare Havoc DLC, Borderlands, Halo Wars, Castle Ville, SteamBandits Outpost (Steam early access), and many more.
Phil Wohrs’ Current Portfolio examples:
WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE(S) OF ADVICE YOU CAN OFFER STUDENTS THAT YOU WISH THEY HAD TOLD YOU IN ART SCHOOL?
Definitely work on what you find inspiring but also remember that you want to be creating work that is going to be relevant to the industry and the jobs you want. A portfolio full of manga art or furries probably won’t get you a game job working on a realistic first person shooter. Most of the time you can find some crossover between the kind of art you want to make and the kind of art that will get you hired.
Also, there will be some companies that will try to take advantage of young talent. If someone is trying to get you to help them on their startup project or kickstarter campaign or whatever, often without pay, just make sure it’s helping you as well.
Promises don’t pay bills, and a lot of indie projects fail. Analyze the situation based on what’s happening right now, not what could happen in the future.
If you are going to do that kind of work to help your own portfolio or to make some money just don’t sacrifice too much making art you don’t like, or doing work based on some future promise that may never come true. That can be a hard lesson so, if at any point you feel like it’s not working for you or you aren’t benefiting then move on, even if it’s just to work on your own portfolio some more.
…You have to be the one who guides your own career.
ASSUMING THAT THERE ARE NO SPACE-TIME PARADOX’S INVOLVED… IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME 10 YEARS (KNOWING WHAT YOU KNOW NOW), WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR YOUNGER SELF TO DO DIFFERENTLY?
I don’t even know that I’d want to change anything. I certainly wouldn’t want to relive some things, but all the hardship (and even the things that I would have avoided at the time), have made me the person I am. I don’t think I’d appreciate where I’m at today without the struggles of yesterday.
Don’t compromise on your passions!
If you are working on a job, and most (not just some) of the work you are doing is stuff you aren’t passionate about, or you can’t use most of it in your portfolio; then leave that job as soon as possible. I definitely had some situations that if I had gotten out of sooner I’d probably be a better artist today.
WHAT DOES “SUCCESS” MEAN TO YOU AND, WHAT ARE AT LEAST THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE IT?
Success for me is following your creative passion and using those passions to create works of art that keep you inspired, while inspiring and entertaining others.
It’s easy to say, but acting on it can be difficult when “following your passion” doesn’t seem financially viable. It’s also easy to end up compromising yourself by staying at a company just because it’s “safe”, or out of fear of the unknown, or just for financial reasons. In the end though, I think passion breeds hard work- and hard work brings money, (but you have to be in the right position to take advantage of this). If you find that home is the only place where you are ever able to follow your passions, even while working at a “good” studio, then it might be time for a job switch.
So the road map to success is simply to work on the kind of art that you are passionate about, find a job that has overlap with what you like to work on that supports those passions, then push hard in the direction of your dreams without too much compromise.
If you can stay with your passions you’ll be much less likely to burn out, and it will be easier to work hard. If you do find yourself stuck at a job you aren’t happy with then make sure you find your passion outside of it because it takes a lot of work to build up the momentum to get a portfolio together when you aren’t making any portfolio work on the job. If you are in that situtaion, stick with it though, it’s definitely possible to dig out of that situation. And when you are in school it’s kind of the same thing. You are working hard towards building a collection of images that when other people see them they can immediately tell that you really care about the work you are making. And when they see that extra effort and care that you put in and if it lines up with what they need, then with any luck you’ll get the position.
If you would like to read more from Phil Wohr, check out his full interview. In it, we ask him specific questions about what it’s like to be a concept artist in the entertainment industry, dispel a few common misconceptions that aspiring artists tend to have about the field, discuss his educational background, how he markets himself in the industry and more.
All images used with permission by the artist. ©Phil Wohr