Title: Digital Painting - Final: Fantasy Portraits
Medium: Photoshop CS6
Scale: Each piece is originally 5" x 5"

Notes: We were given free reign over what our final project was to be.

I posted recently about some goals... A bit of this will be reiterating that.







When I first started doing art, I initially wanted to do environment art for no other reason than the fact that I didn't want to animate. As I continue on, I realize that I actually prefer to just design characters. For some reason I had it stuck in my head that environments would be simpler. The reasons are insignificant, because it's much more important to A) have a clear goal up front, and B) to never compromise because "It's easier." As the saying goes, nothing good comes easy. And I whole-heartedly agree, because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be worth the time. Like I said, pay attention to yourself early on. I was interested in the character designs from the get-go, and I didn't listen to myself. Fast forward a tiny bit (not much) and you get closer to what I really wanted to do: character art. Baldur's Gate was probably my first real experience into what makes good character art - specifically for the portraiture.

Title: Birthday Present for Mimi
Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board
Scale: Original is approx. 8" x 10"

Notes: Ashley came up to me not too long ago and was like... "You should do this painting for Mimi." She proceeded to describe what she thought would look good and I was like... TIME FOR REFERENCE. And so here is the result. 

I think from the very beginning of my gaming days... at least when I finally sat down and got serious about it, I think that I was drawn to being a video game artist. I can still remember sitting around with buddies playing old super nintendo games like Earthbound and Final Fantasy 3 / 6 and my (to this day still) second favorite game of all time: Chrono Trigger. I would think then that it's safe to say that I always wanted to do something in the video game industry.

My first real experience with video game art that I can honestly say drew me into the world of video game design was probably the cover art for Chrono Trigger:

And also the character portraits:

Initially I wanted to be an environment artist for the silly reasons that I didn't want to animate, that I thought environments would be simpler, there would be less competition for this type of work, etc. The reasons are insignificant, because it's much more important to A) have a clear goal up front, and B) to never compromise because "It's easier." As the saying goes, nothing good comes easy. And I whole-heartedly agree, because if it were easy, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be worth the time. This goes into a very different rant that I could go on and on about how a majority of the public looks down upon artists. But I'll save that rant for a different time.

Like I said, pay attention to yourself early on. I was interested in the character designs from the get-go, and I didn't listen to myself. Fast forward a tiny bit (not much) and you get closer to what I really wanted to do: character art. Baldur's Gate was probably my first real experience into what makes good character art.