The Artist
Just before I started my studies in New York, I had begun playing MMORPGs. One MMO in particular I had been watching for years before its release, and what had drawn me to it at first were the conceptual sketches. I found them fascinating and a lot of fun. I also thought my own approach to art was a lot like being a concept artist, especially as whenever I had gone about an illustration, I always did dozens of little sketches for costumes or weaponry to figure out how the costumes would function, and what they would look like before I put them into an illustration. My room was always a mess of papers, sketches, bottles of ink, fancy design markers and paint. Luckily now I’ve been able to condense it all down onto a hard drive and a Wacom tablet.
It wasn’t until I actually got to school that I realized I wanted to do concept art professionally. Whenever I wasn’t in class, or playing MMOs, I was designing around ideas for characters, or costumes or what I thought might look cool in the MMO I happened to be playing at the time. I’d even get bored with some of the assignments in class and twist the assignment around so I could do an illustration that was more about concept art, or whatever MMO I was playing. Other times, I would get so fed up with a lack of choice in an MMO that I would design a set of armor that I thought would fit the world and wouldn’t care if the company used my idea if only they would just implement it and give players other choices.
Where most artists have art book collections of great masters of times gone by, or modern art, I have an ever expanding library of concept art books and comics from which to draw inspiration and aspire. Whenever a new and interesting MMO comes out, I make sure to get my hands on a copy of the concept art behind the game.
During my time as a gamer, I’ve meet many interesting and creative individuals. One particular community I am a part of has taken it upon themselves to create their own story within a particular universe of choice. Not only has a brand new story arc been developed, but members of the community have taken it upon themselves to mod existing game clients and even create new art and 3D models specific to the community. I feel privileged to participate heavily in these projects, not only as an artist, doing concept art and illustrations for the website, wiki and 3D art, but also contributing to the story and helping to develop new ideas, both for the story, and for the concepts that will later be turned into 3D assets. Whilst this is no way a professional undertaking, I feel that the experience is relevant to how stories are told and art is created for multiple media sources such as film and gaming.