Creating art for games and films is something I have always been passionately aspiring to, ever since I realised it was something that someone can do. This was solidified by my participation in the Global Game Jam event a month ago. Before that I was basically just imagining what it would be to create games and films – now I feel like I know what it`s like and I love it. The Game Jam is held worlwide and its purpose is to gather people who enjoy creating games and make them cooperate. We had 48 hours to create a game from scratch and my job in the 3 man team was to do all the art of the project. I loved my job. I felt like I was simulating every part of the industry – like I was the concept artist, the menu designer, the illustrator for the marketing images and the art director all in one! I cannot skip the fact that our game won the award of the public and seeing appreciation for your work by all the people there made me realize just how much I want to work on things like that every day.
Although I would love working on any kind of project I feel like doing art for games is what I enjoy most; not necessarily computer games; I`m a big fan of card and board games and, just to give an example here, a dream come true for me would be to consistently make art for a game called Magic: The Gathering. Most of the artists I look up to have drawn for that game. Greg Staples, Raymond Swanland and Aleksi Briclot are my personal favourites, they`re simply amazing to me. Games like Mass Effect and Prince of Persia, films like Star Wars and Back to the Future, the books of Terry Pratchett and Tolkien, lots of music... and rainy days – these are the things that inspire me. I also adore animated shorts and movies – Katedra by Tomasz Bagiński and The Emperor`s New Groove are some of my favourite examples.
Although I would love working on any kind of project I feel like doing art for games is what I enjoy most; not necessarily computer games; I`m a big fan of card and board games and, just to give an example here, a dream come true for me would be to consistently make art for a game called Magic: The Gathering. Most of the artists I look up to have drawn for that game. Greg Staples, Raymond Swanland and Aleksi Briclot are my personal favourites, they`re simply amazing to me. Games like Mass Effect and Prince of Persia, films like Star Wars and Back to the Future, the books of Terry Pratchett and Tolkien, lots of music... and rainy days – these are the things that inspire me. I also adore animated shorts and movies – Katedra by Tomasz Bagiński and The Emperor`s New Groove are some of my favourite examples.
I`ve never attended a specialized drawing school but non the less I feel like I was lucky to meet a great drawing teacher in my highschool whose influence on me was how to live life even more so than how to draw well. Another notable lesson to me proved to be my 2 week stay in Italy in a family. I met some interesting people there and overall I think my stay abroad made me more confident and talkative.
I applied to the Animation Workshop last year and I`m reapplying this year because I believe it to be the best school for CG arts in Europe. I`m used to working and studying alone, that is why I consider freelancing as a good way to continue improving in my field of choice and also provide a way to finance my education; but a good teamwork on a larger project and cooperation between people who are all good in what they like to do – programmers, sound developers, artists – is always much more exciting and I`m looking forward to it.
What I mainly use is traditional media and photoshop and I feel like I have a solid knowledge of working with the program as I have used it for years on different projects.
I see my future self working on various things – from purely artistic assignments to 3D, animation, game projects and freelance jobs. Although I think I have found a favourite approach to drawing for myself there`s a lot to be seen and learned and I`m not planning to sit and wait for it to come.
