|  | | Linda Bergkvist wins the CGPortfolio Poll for most popular online gallery. | The CGPortfolio of Linda Bergkvist has been voted as the most popular online gallery space in the CGPortfolio Poll. In the CGPortfolio 100,000th image Poll, out of 750-odd voters, Linda Bergkvist won 298 votes and to date her CGPortfolio has been viewed over 986,000 times. The Poll was staged as part of the 100,000th image upload milestone. Linda's gallery was selected out of 100 CGPortfolios with the most visits. There are many prizes for the top three CGPortfolios and also for some lucky random voters as well.
The Top 100 Poll
The CGPortfolios listed in the Top 100 Poll included any that had three or more pieces of art from artists who have received CGChoice awards. The 100 CGPortfolios have been open for viewing for three weeks. This has also given the community an extra chance to go and browse the beautiful art in the portfolios as well, while voting for their ten favorite CGPortfolios. | CGPortfolio. How good is it for you?
Since CGPortfolio was rolled out to the community on March 21 in 2006, there have been many improvements and expansions, such as the ability to show animations and videos. With over 32,000 portfolios and over 100,000 images, CGPortfolio is the hub for the digital arts community, and growing daily! Take some time and have a look at this great work, created by CGSociety members whose CGPortfolios are in the top ten most visited.
Goodies for voters!
As well as the people behind the CGPortfolios that have made it to the top of the crop, those CGSociety members that voted in the Poll all have the chance to win a prize. After a totally random selection of names by Ballistic Media, we have come up with three voters. They each receive a copy of the latest Ballistic title: EXOTIQUE 3. Congratulations to Daniel Eißing in Germany, Petja Salmio from Finland and Paolo Simonazzi in Italy!
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 | Linda Bergkvist is an award-winning artist from Sweden whose digital painting creations have featured in many editions of EXPOSÉ and EXOTIQUE. She has also been featured as co-author in the first d’artiste: Digital Painting Master Class book. Linda’s work is also featured in the inaugural Ballistic Masters Poster series. The Ballistic Masters set contains twelve full-color prints of her work.
Linda Bergkvist initially wanted to be a writer and a teacher of languages. As an avid fan of Tolkien, she really took to the style after discovering John Bauer. “I never let go of the ‘fairytale’ fascination as I grew older,” Linda says. Using both Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop in equal measure, Linda has made her name and style famous with some brave experimentation and beautiful portraiture. “What advanced me the most with my digital work,” explains Linda in ‘d’artiste: Digital Painting’, “was when I figured out I could try all of the things that I was far too shy to do on traditional canvas. I didn’t need to fear ruining a painting by completely altering something.”
Bergkvist has solid advice for young artists gathering work together for their own CGPortfolio. “The strongest benefit of using the digital medium is the ability to test out a new technique without destroying the entirety. Be playful with your paintings,” she says. “Save often, save different versions." Linda has also recently completed work on New Line Cinema and Christopher Weitz’s film “The Golden Compass” as concept artist.
Prize: choice of XSI | Essentials, Luxology Modo or ZBrush 3.1 plus a 4 book Ballistic Bundle. |  |
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 | Bobby Chiu is the owner of Imaginism Studios in Toronto, one of the more prolific art schools. Bobby began as an enthusiastic CGTalker, starting the Subway Sketchgroup, a kind of unscripted live model class, out in the real world. His prowess in gathering local artists together became his calling, resulting in him opening his own arts studio and school. Imaginism Studios has become one of the mainstays of arts training, both online and class-based.
As Bobby has said, “Without a doubt, having a CGPortfolio has elevated the visibility of my work considerably! If I want my work to be seen and appreciated, I have to put it where there are people who will view it and understand it. For this reason, no matter how crazy my schedule might get, I always try to make time to maintain my CGPortfolio and make sure that it's updated with all my latest stuff."
"I love CGPortfolio! I think it's a great system and an essential tool that every artist should take advantage of in order to get themselves out there! Not only does a CGPortfolio allow people to appreciate an artist's work, it is also something that an artist can easily show to other artists that they admire to get tips and constructive criticism. CGPortfolio is a wonderful concept and system that I recommend to every intern and student that comes to work with us in our studio.”
Prize: Choice of XSI | Essentials, Luxology Modo or ZBrush 3.1 plus a 3 book Ballistic Bundle |  |
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 | Marta is a widely published young artist from Poland who is still only 23 years of age. She has been drawing and painting with traditional media since ‘before she could walk’, as her parents are quoted. Marta progressed onto the computer at the age of 16, and this is when she became a freelance painter. First completing private commissions and commercial book illustrations, Marta is now working for Future Publishing, creating various painting tutorials for their ImagineFX magazine. Marta’s ‘Umbrella Sky’ was also selected for the cover of Ballistic Publishing’s EXOTIQUE 3 book.
“I’m very proud to be involved in CGPortfolio. Not only is the CGPortfolio a very nice portal, a pleasure to use and simply good-looking, but it also puts me in touch with some really interesting people. Because of the consistent quality of the work posted, it makes me strive for higher quality in my own images as well.”
Prize: choice of XSI | Essentials, Luxology Modo or ZBrush 3.1 plus a 2 book Ballistic Bundle |  |
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