Who
am I and how did I get here? As most artists, I always knew a profession in the
arts was in my future. I grew up on superhero comic books and was very
attracted to the testosterone driven, melodramatic stories and high-impact line
art found in those newsprint pages. At around the age of 10 I decided a comic
book artist would be the profession for me. Many years later after graduating
college while trying to find my way to that destination I was working in a
comic book shop to supplement my freelancing income. An art director from a
local game studio came in to the store doing some research for a game that was
in pre-production. After I helped him gather all the material we had to on
site, he asked me if I knew of any concept artists that understood the
material as well as I did. Man, did I ever! I always kept my portfolio within
reach and had it in front of him in a nanosecond. A week later I was a concept
artist for my first game gig, LOBO.
Flash forward 18 + years and I have helped
create a wide variety of products on a variety of platforms during my journey
as a professional artist. I have years of expertise in many
aspects of game development from animation to concept to environment
design, level layout and effects. I also have a variety of connections with
artists and art directors within games, comics and movies and have
standing relationships with a number of artists and outsource studios that
could create a tight team to get a product done on time with the high visual
standard that any studio demands. I have also had the opportunity to work on
sensitive licensed material including Toy Story (Buzz Lightyear
Astroblasters), Water World, MissionImpossible, Middle Earth Online (Tolkien),
Star Trek Bridge Commander, Lobo, and others. I have first hand experience with
the challenges working with licensed i.p. and those charged with maintaining
the integrity of their licenses.
My
philosophy on artistic vision and art direction is there are many ways,
visually, to take any project. If a direction fails visually it is usually
because the resources were not allocated to fully develop and realize that
vision or it doesn't visually resonate with the targetaudience. I have been
asked many times by people, "How would youmake this piece of art
better?" If the basic construction and quality of the piece is up to
par then my answer is pretty much, "It depends on what you want the piece
to say?". Bring the relevant elements that visually communicate the idea
forward in the visual hierarchy and the piece will succeed.
I
am a collaborative person by nature and I like to attempt to build a consensus
of ideas and style to get buy-in from individuals so that they feel a certain
sense of ownership in the end result. I do my best to bring in the best
talent available and give them guidelines and let them do what it is they do
best. I'm not egocentric in that I don't need to be the one to come up with all
of the ideas. It's not possible for me to know everything. I see my job as a
facilitator, creating an environment for artists to achieve their best
work, with in the context and parameters of the product. I also can give those
who need it a little nudge to keep them on track.
