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Name: Mike Corriero Location: Colonia, NJ USA Website: www.mikecorriero.com
Concept artist and Illustrator for the Video game and Film Industries. I produce assets as a Freelance artist for various
companies including everything from props, to characters, creatures, environments, structures, animals,
illustrations, icons, and isometric wall tile designs among other things. I have had my work shown in Ballistic
Publishing's Expose 4, Expose 5 and Painter books as well as 4 issues of ImagineFX Magazine, 4 issues of 2D Artist
Magazine, the Welcome Book within the program Corel Painter X and will soon be seen in Design 360
Magazine, and Fantasy Art Now, a book being published by Ilex Press.

Design Philosophy
When designing anything from an object to a creature or an entire environment scene I try to incorporate similar traits from one area to the next. The same goes for the color theory of an image or concept. If I'm designing a creature that I'd like to gear toward a rough spiked surface texture I'll make sure to try and place elements of this surface texture on portions of its limbs, head, wings, tail or face even if only minute in size. If the overall idea of a concept is to revolve around an ocean theme I'll try to include elements of shells, fish, seaweed, urchins, and flowing lines to mimic waves within the armour or even the surface texture and shapes of this creature or character. This can be applied to an entire environment and architecture design as well. It helps when a design flows together and all the elements that make up the concept tell a story or revolve around the same principles of where this thing or place came from and how it came to be. There should be more to the design or items within the image than just randomly placed shapes and objects, they should fit within an overall theme and be there for a reason with a story or description to back up why it was put there in the first place. That's the difference between a well thought out plausible concept that makes sense to its viewer, and a haphazardly slapped together mess that might look good on a flat surface but when brought into the real world would fall apart. It also helps for me to exaggerate the proportions of a design when I know the concept will be used in an isometric style game or a video game in general. Although video games have been advancing much quicker and allow for much more detail to be applied to the actual in game models, they still can't show the same type of detail or animation that takes place in a film. So when designing for a video game I like to remember that it's most likely better to exaggerate things and really push the size or shape of ideas to the furthest extent since they will not be capable of showing the same emotion or movements that a fully realized design for film would. Some times you're limited to a certain amount of pixels for a game design, this is why the silhouette of a video game creature or character is more important than the actual details existing within. I just try to keep in mind that every time I design something that it needs to make an impact whether it's through the color choices, the idea of movement, the silhouette, details or presence it gives off no matter how big or small it appears on screen.

1: You are a self-confessed movie freak and work for the entertainment industry. Presuming that cinema inspired you to opt for your career, please tell us what, or who, made you choose to be a professional illustrator and concept artist.
What are some of your inspirations in this area?

The film industry was the main reason I got into this field of art concerning creatures, imaginary worlds and characters. Films like Legend, Willow, Star Wars, Labyrinth and The Neverending Story are what really sparked my interest and got my brain working overtime. I have done my fair share of still life drawings, live model studies and fine art but for as long as I can remember since I was about 5 years old, I've been drawing fun and scary creatures and things that only exist in my mind. Directors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are the reason I have such a love for fantastic stories and epic worlds, they are two of my favorite story tellers and directors. I was already drawing what would be considered concept art before I really knew what it was called or where the term concept art applied.

2: You graduated in Illustration from Pratt Institute in 2003. Which courses would you say helped most in preparing you for your job?

I majored in Illustration during my 4 years at Pratt and although the experience and the surroundings were motivational I didn't feel like the majority of the courses I took prepared me for the field of art I'm in now. The one course that did help was a business course on freelancing as an artist. This course touched upon topics of promotion, contracts and protecting yourself and your work, dealing with clients and negotiating and setting up a business. I learned later after graduation that there were other schools that really focused on the field of concept art and design much more than Pratt. There weren't many courses at Pratt that revolved around designing creatures, characters, visually interpreting a story or description and communication of ideas. I did take some courses of introduction to digital painting, design and programs but I found that I already knew more than some of the teachers who were running the class. Pratt has some very dedicated and professional teachers who can definitely steer you in the right direction and are equally talented but I would classify it primarily as an Illustration and Graphic Design school not a school for concept art and entertainment design.

3: What was your first professional assignment about? Also tell us,
which has been your most challenging and creatively satisfying project to date and why.

My first professional job was providing Illustrations for an RPG card game as a freelance artist after college. I spent a good few months after college building up my portfolio to reflect the career I wanted. I was getting involved in online art communities posting my work and learning from others on art forums, this is where I came across the company looking for card art. The most challenging project I had was probably for liquid development which involved creating isometric environment designs. The reason I feel it was most challenging is that I had never really taken a course on perspective, I didn't really know what the term isometric meant at the time and I was frustrated trying to understand the restriction and limitations of designing wall tiles. The most rewarding job funny enough was the same project, just a different portion of the assets needed. I worked on the 4 boss designs and 13 creature designs for the same game and it was probably the most satisfying and fun project I've done to date because I was able to see my designs being modeled and then animated as well.

4: What kind of research do you undertake before you start work on a project? Please explain with examples.

If a project touches upon a topic I'm unfamiliar with or a subject I am not quite comfortable in producing without reference I will take photos of myself, family or friends when necessary. I research any previously produced artwork if it's for a game or project that is already in the works or is a sequel to a title. If the project has an in depth back story or description, reading up on any information I can find online and studying the details of the brief comes with the job. One such project I worked on where I needed to work extremely fast and historically correct either based on real life or based on photos and in-game picture provided by the client was the War Chief's expansion for Age of Empires 3. I needed to produce 116 full color icons from sketch to revised design, rough color and final presentation within about 5 weeks. In order to do this I took photos of myself with a digital camera and the self timer for more than half of the paintings, wasting no time finding relevant poses and or models. Things like this aren't unheard of whether its on location or freelance, you watch these behind the scenes documentations of film making and you see the artist visit Zoos and Museums or mimic expressions in a mirror acting out the actions of an animation.

5: Your portfolio is an interesting mix of conceptualizing characters, creatures, weapons, card games, scenes, graphic novel illustrations, music album covers, magazine workshops, environments, and website illustrations as well as working on designs for film. Which of these media (games, film, print, web etc) do you enjoy working for the most and why?

When I first started out, the direction I wanted to head in was strictly film related work. Now it's a mix of games and film although I still want to steer in the direction of concepts for movies and see my work up on the big screen. Designing for games has limitations and restrictions concerning poly count depending on the type of game being produced, it also in some aspects has more freedom than film design. They do go hand in hand to an extent when you think of all the films that derived from successful video games to name a few; Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, and Doom. This being only due to the fact that games have been jumping up the quality of details, story lines and game play which makes it easy to accept as a live action film. So to answer the question, I would love creating concepts more for films, but I have a lot of fun designing concepts for video games which is where the majority of my experience lies at the moment. I also really enjoy Illustration because it's rewarding to see my work in print and it helps for promotion. Ultimately I see myself landing a job at a film company that utilizes my strengths and appreciates my work.

6: Which would be your favorite works (concepts, illustrations etc) from cinema and gaming? Also, is there a dream project you would want to execute some day? Please elaborate.

If you're referring to concept and illustration work done by other artist I would say the art of Peter Jackson's King Kong are among my favorite creature designs as of late. There are some truly inspiring pieces of work in the book called " The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island." I also find the art of Star Wars books for all the prequels very interesting and are some of my favorite mood paintings which look like little snap shots created for the film before it was actually put together. On my bookshelf behind me where I work I have a ton of books for "The Art of.." concerning various movies. A dream project to me would focus completely around the organic life forms, vegetation and geographic designs for a motion picture. To create every single living breathing creature and every plant, forest, structure and color scheme for an epic movie along the lines of something crossed between Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. I have a love for both alien creature designs and naturalistic designs. Lord of the Rings is pure fantasy but because it exists in a world similar to earth it's easier to accept the concept ideas and relate to them than most sci-fi films at least in my opinion. Practically any job where the majority of iconic characters or creatures play a big role in a movie would be the ideal
job.

7: What would you say are the prerequisites for becoming a successful illustrator/concept artist?

When speaking in terms of freelance work I'd say you would need to know the ins and outs of the business and the promotion ends of the industry to become successful. You need to get your work out there, make a name for yourself and network with some of the biggest names in the industry from the artist to the art directors and crew involved. Who knows where the dream job of your life will come from, it could be from posting your work on myspace or dropping your portfolio at your local Starbucks in Hollywood. You could be sitting on a subway train in New York City drawing in your sketchbook and perhaps an art manager from some well known corporation will ask to take a look. You never know when someone who can and is willing to give you a chance will come across your work so the best thing you can do is get published in books, post on art forums, post on networking communities like myspace and create promotional outlets like blogspot and a professional website. Get out in the real world at conventions and exhibits, museums and gallery shows. Promoting your art will get you seen and will bring work your way but then you need to understand how the business works. Educate yourself in the understanding of contracts and the details of copyright law and clauses. Talk to friends or acquaintance's and ask any questions you have about industry standards concerning payment, deadlines, contracts and contacts.

8: You use Photoshop and Painter apart from traditional pencil sketching.
How useful do you think designing software is in bringing alive an artists' visions?

Digital painting and design software is practically essential for concept artist these days. It's possible for an artist to still work traditionally of course because sketching in pencil and working on something that exist in reality such as a canvas or sketchbook have their advantages. Presenting a pencil sketch has it's own unique qualities that a digital sketch doesn't always produce. Using software like Photoshop and Painter is important for concept art because there is a constant changing and redesigning of one idea so much so that if you worked in paint or pencil it would take you days to produce what could take hours on the computer. If you screw up on a painting you need to take time to rework the error whereas in Photoshop you can just hit Edit-Undo. It's not just the quick undo option but it's also the fact that you can produce multiple variations of one character design with different elements of the concept just by saving the one idea, copying it and paste multiple versions of it next to the first concept without the need to redraw everything. This comes in handy precisely if you only wanted to redesign a small portion of the overall figure such as the head or one hand. Working digitally as a freelance artist is without question the best way to go about getting work done quickly and efficiently. I'm able to handle all promotion and negotiations online, I'm capable of showing a client a sketch within minutes or hours of getting the design brief and I can produce the final and send it by means of ftp server upload or e-mail. There is no waiting for the paint to dry, no packaging and snail mailing or wasted time in restarting a failed painting.

9: What aspects of your profession fascinate and excite you the most?

The final product of a project I've worked on is the most rewarding and exciting feeling. To see your designs and ideas come to life is fascinating when you yourself are not an animator or a computer graphics modeler. It's even more exciting to know that you could possibly see your work become a blockbuster movie or a popular triple AAA title game. It's just fun for me to work freelance with a bunch of different clients and a bunch of different projects from around the world.

10: It's been four years since you graduated and started working as a freelancer.
What have been some of the highs (milestones) and lows (setbacks, if any) of your career in this span?

Having my work published in books like Ballistic Publishing's Expose 4 and Expose 5 as well as the new and popular UK magazine ImagineFX was a great achievement for me. It seems like after I was featured as the Rising Star in ImagineFX a lot of people from around the world knew my name and my work, to me it's important for future jobs as well as keeping fans of my work up to date with what I'm doing. Providing video game assets to Liquid Development for a Flagship Studios isometric style fantasy game was definitely a milestone considering the amount of concepts I produced, providing them with the development and look to all of the environments, all of the boss characters and a lot of the creatures. The same goes for the huge amount of icon assets provided for an Ensemble Studios game. The biggest setback and low point for me is currently some health issues I've been having but I don't let that hold me back from getting my work done and keeping with a professional schedule. Working for a client who was extremely difficult, not knowing what they wanted and knowing what they didn't want was a set back. It was the worst job I had to date and I actually swore never to accept anything from the unnamed client again because although the money was decent the client was a pain. Other set backs come with the territory I guess but it involves clients not paying on time or dodging your e-mails and calls. When you feel the need to stress the agreement made just in order to get the money owed is something no artist wants to do. It's also something that no artist should need to do if they have a signed contract with a client.

11: At 25, you have worked across various media over diverse projects. What other milestones do you wish to conquer in the near future?

My main goal and the biggest milestone I'd like to conquer would be to produce freelance work for film companies practically anyone would know of such as ILM, Dreamworks, Pixar, Universal, Blur Studios, Bluesky Studios and others. It's something I feel a need to achieve because not many large companies would outsource work unless they are behind on deadlines and are extremely impressed with your work or have heard good things about you.

12: How do you unwind after a hard day's work? If not an illustrator, would you choose a career in any of these areas? Elaborate.

Coffee and a movie is my way of relaxing after staring into the computer for endless hours. I'm very interested in cultures especially places like Africa, Australia, Italy and Japan. Asian culture is some times evident in my work because it provides a lot of interesting designs and ideas which derive from traditional fashion, armour and ethnic architecture. Traveling is something that is more on my to do list, most of the time I'm stuck in a room drawing and painting on the computer although I foresee myself some day visiting every country listed and traveling for various on location projects. I couldn't really see myself doing anything other than art, whatever it might be it would most likely involve thinking, creation and design of some sort. I think unique architecture would be a possibility but then again that's a lot of pressure and much more technical than a fantasy artist such as myself would like to get.

13: Would you please tell us a little about your art background?

I grew up in New Jersey and started drawing at a very early age, most of the stuff I was interested in drawing back then is the same kind of subject matter I draw now, the only difference is I'm getting paid to do it. When I was a kid my Mom would sign me up for some art classes or try to get me involved in local competitions. I never really enjoyed the private art classes that much because it seemed like the teacher was more interested in making your work look good to impress your parents than actually teaching you how to improve on your own. The best experiences and most helpful were when I would just sit in my room and pour over art books, magazines, comics, cards and photos I had gathered over the years. I worked hard trying to study how other artist created such images, practicing with different mediums from pen and ink, colored pencil, markers, watercolor and pencil to acrylics and oils. This was back before I discovered the Digital Art medium which came very late in my career and is now the dominant medium in which I produce finished work. Programs like Photoshop CS2 and Painter X give you everything that the traditional mediums can provide you with, without the messy clean up, large amount of supplies, expensive paints, brushes and inability to erase or undo what you messed up on. I found out about Digital Painting both during College and shortly after when I happened across some online art forums. I realized then how many people were using these sort of programs and that most of the professionals at that time had been using them for years. It was a bit of a rocky start but once my parents bought me a Wacom Tablet for a Christmas gift it came much more naturally and easier to produce a finished image from start to finish in a complete digital format. I had gone to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NYC where I received my Bachelors in Illustration, shortly after having moved on to producing concept and illustration work as an Independent Freelance Artist for Games and Films.

14: In what way do the people you interact with influence you? Which artists or illustrators influenced you the most?

I try not to let another artists styles influence me too much because after all you don't want to copy or follow down the path of what someone else is doing or has already done. I do look at other artist for inspiration and motivation of ideas, techniques and admiration. As far as style and career go in the digital realm some artist who have inspired my own work are Ryan Church, Erik Tiemens, Jon Foster, Aleksi Briclot, Thierry Doizon, Justin Sweet, and Craig Mullins. Concerning my youth are traditional artist like Keith Parkinson, Michael Whelan, Tony Diterlizzi, Jeff Easley, Brom, Alan Lee, John Howe, Donato Giancola, and Fred Fields. A lot of those traditional painters influenced my work as a kid early on and continue to do so. Some of them influenced me more recently in my career concerning digital painting since you need to understand traditional mediums and the foundations of drawing in a technical understanding in order to successfully produce work in digital programs these days.

15: Is there any one strong theme in your personal work? What is the primary principle of your design?

As an Illustrator and a Concept Artist I tend to take the naturalist approach to design. This meaning that most of my work derives from a plausible structure of anatomy usually based off of existing animals for my creature designs. I take into account how the conceptual creature will live, eat, breath, move, reproduce, and the habitat they are surrounded in. A lot of my work revolves around organics, nature and horror related themes. The primary principle of my design is to give the viewer a sense of security, relation and feeling comfortable with what I am visually describing to them. You'll notice that not a lot of my work revolves around themes of hard angles, industrial city scape's, straight edges and metal structures but it's mostly organic creatures, forest, sand, earth and natural elements. There are the odd and occasional science fiction image mostly due to paid jobs. This is my personal choice and taste in what I myself enjoy creating and viewing. I like the old age medieval times where structures consisted of stone, wood and hay. I like stories that involve elements of nature, animals, forest and a kind of high fantasy modern based theme. The majority of my portfolio consist of pencil sketches and creature designs because to me it is the most enjoyable subject matter, it's relaxing and easy for me to draw what I know best and what is the most forgiving type of design. We don't get to see real creatures in life so who's to say what is possible or not, what looks right or wrong? I do study up on the behavior of animals and the varying body structures and social habits of an animal within its eco system. I also try to bend the rules a bit to create the unimaginable and most interesting ideas which tend to be very far fetched though still trying to make them look cool and believable.

16: What Software do you usually use?

I am currently running both Photoshop CS2 and Painter X on my machine with a Wacom Intuos2 9x12 inch tablet. Primarily when working on a job I'll use Photoshop because I'm quicker and more comfortable with it at the moment and I'm just learning the new tech Painter has added to its latest version. I do jump back and forth some times creating an image using both programs. All my work is done using a Dell Dimension 4600 PC and a Microtek Scanmaker i320 for scanning my pencil sketches. I use Mechanical drawing pencils and waterproof fine point/pigment liner drawing pens. I plan on furthering my use of programs like Illustrator for some design work and perhaps mediums like sculpy and clay playing around in the 3d realm of things.

17: When did you start to illustrate?

Probably around the same time I learned to pick up a crayon. If you mean in terms of a professional illustration career then I've been freelancing for about 4 years now, but I have been drawing every since I was around 4 or 5 years old and haven't stopped. This is really how I learned what I know..not from schools and teachers although I do have a degree.

18: What do the creatures and characters in your work represent?

Well there are designs for video games and contract work which are for clients and their projects, and then there are designs for my own personal use and portfolio. Most of the personal work in my portfolio are just representations of pure interest, whatever interest me at that moment in time. I find that birds are a great influence and interest to me when designing creatures probably because I've always been fond of winged monsters such as Dragons. Most of my designs represent what I relate to in life which derive from various animals, having lived in NYC for 4 years during school I've visited the Museum of Natural History and the Bronx Zoo quite a few times and it's always such an inspiration to see the evolution and interaction of animals. The same could be said for Characters as well, watching people on the streets, on the subway train, or friends and family. I try to observe every part of life around me and incorporate a little of that in my designs in one way or another so I guess you could say my concepts represent the life I live and everything I interact with be it books, movies, games, people, animals or attractions. I can't forget Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel haha, where would I be without the croc hunter Steve Irwin or the specials like planet earth.

19: Would you please give some suggestions and advice to the novice artist for illustration?

The first and most important thing as an artist is to understand the technical aspects of design and illustration. Learn the basics of composition and perspective, what it is that makes for a good layout in the design of elements on a canvas. In order to help understand this better learn what the term means to artist, "the act of combining parts or elements to form a whole", "the manner of being composed; structure: A painting which has an orderly composition". You want to lead the viewer's eyes around the page and in to the main focus of the image while still effectively placing all the necessary elements in your image to communicate an idea or story to them. Study the human body and obtain the necessary knowledge of both animal and human anatomy, this is most effective if you attend life drawing classes and practice sketching the nude form. Remember that a good concept design can work from all angles, from top to bottom and in 360 degrees, so don't forget that if a design looks good from the front you need to think of the concept in terms of a 3-dimensional object and realize how it will work from the side and from the back. This also applies to plausibility in design, making sure the concept is capable of functioning whether in a realistic environment or even an imaginary one it should still abide by the basic rules of life. If you better understand these basics in art, the easier it will be for you when you're designing more complex illustrations and more imaginative concepts. It's easier to distort and mangle the human body or animal into a creature design when you have an understanding of how the bone and muscles structures work than working strictly off of random shapes and ideas without the knowledge of how the design will work in a video game or film. In illustration its more about the values, form and interesting shapes than plausibility or functionality of design but you still need to understand perspective, lighting, color and composition. I always feel it's best to work out the preliminary sketches at a thumbnail size, which allows for much quicker variations and experimentation before committing yourself to the details and time it takes to work out the actual information in what might turn out to be a badly composed or balanced image.

20: How long have you been drawing and how did you become a Professional Illustrator?

I've been drawing since childhood, it's something that never really stopped and has always been with me. This is something that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It's not something I just decided to do in my teens or something that peaked my interest later in life. I enjoy it very much though and all the challenges that come with improving and competing in the professional world as well as sharing my work with others and learning from those who inspire me. I've been interested in illustration for my entire life, but I guess I became a professional when I finally buckled down and made sure that my work was of a consistent quality, clean, and presentable. It helps to obtain a style that flows well together but also allows you to keep yourself and your work open to new fields of design and different subject matter As an artist you don't really want to get yourself stuck in a situation where you're only known for creating cartoonish characterizations in one particular style. As my portfolio grew and some of my work was published in exhibition books like Ballistic Publishing and Magazines my work was getting noticed a lot more. That helped to bring more attention from better clients and larger companies. I also post on art forums which is where most of my clients find my work.

21: Do you have an agent?

No, I never used an agent mainly because I haven't been stuck in such a rut that I ever felt the need of sharing a percentage of my work with someone, not when I'm capable of finding my own work. It might be something some artist enjoy, having an agent promote their work, setting up schedules, finding jobs, dealing with negotiations, but I like the hands on experience and gaining the business experience and knowledge for myself.

22:You appear to have a large number of creatures in your portfolio.
Are they a particular favorite among the subject matter you choose to illustrate?

Creatures are definitely a favorite subject matter of mine. As a kid my first love of art was always about the concept of creature design, the main attraction came from movies like Labyrinth, Jurassic Park, The Neverending Story, Legend, Willow, Star Wars and a handful of other sci-fi and fantasy films. I felt like, if I could grow up and get paid to create creatures for a living that was what I would do.

23: Could you provide some useful tips on self-promotion, do you self promote?

I promote entirely through the internet which in my mind is not necessarily the best way but it's the cheapest and works well enough for me. I submit my work to forums in both their finished art sections as well as in their artist looking for work sections and I post my website wherever it is allowed. I'll typically search for forums that deal with the type of work I produce and also make sure there is a heavy traffic flow on the forum to get as much exposure as possible. I would recommend places like www.conceptart.org and www.cgtalk.com for internet promotion. I've also lately been submitting work to digital magazines and printed books for published materials such as www.ballisticpublishing.com and www.imaginefx.com . I would recommend submitting to these type of publishing companies because they get a lot of exposure, their free to submit to and it's an honor to have your work accepted and published as well as having your name, e-mail and website information promoted.

24: For aspiring illustrators, such as myself, who are just getting started, do you have any advise to offer?

Take criticism with a grain of salt, what I mean by that is try as hard as possible not to get insulted. People can sometimes be rude or very straight forward but take the time to listen and consider if what their saying will help you improve. Continue to draw as much as possible in all areas of design, be it full environments and action scenes or figure drawing, continue to work at the areas where you feel your art lacks the most. I would recommend registering to art forums, spending a lot of time searching for work that inspires you, tutorials, posting your work and getting helpful feedback and advice from people who have been where you are and are now leading professionals in the field you want to head into.

25: Can you send me your brush or texture list?

Sorry I do not send out my brushes or textures on request but I may make them available on the website shortly along with a few tutorials

26: How could you describe your artwork if someone was to ask you?

It's funny because I've had friends or relatives ask me what it is I do exactly. I try to describe it in terms of a visual guide for the previsualization to a film or game. My work itself is centered around imaginary worlds, creatures and characters within the Fantasy, Sci-fi and Horror realms. I like to focus on images that are fun, crazy, horrific, unusual, and full of mood and atmosphere within the surrounding environment. My personal artwork is largely made up of creatures and naturalistic designs or environments consisting of trees, colorful skies and other elements found in nature but they are tweaked.

27: Do you think your work is mostly influenced by your professional environment and the game industry?

It is in nature that I find the inspiration for most of my concepts and it's only natural that my work reflect the world around me. Concerning work I do for clients, companies and professional projects within the game industry, I rarely get the chance to produce designs that I find interesting. It is the decision of the client to approve in which direction the concept heads. Depending on the amount of details given in the brief provided by the company or client, I do have the ability to try and sell my ideas during the preliminary phase of design. I think the only way in which my personal art is influenced by my professional work is in the manner of boosting my portfolio to reflect what clients may want to see. This is determined by what I feel my portfolio is lacking in, in order to obtain the type of jobs I'm interested in working on for future gigs.

28: When I look at your artwork, the first thing I see is your unique way to use vibrant colors. Do you agree with the fact that it's one of the areas you pay a lot of attention to? How do you manage color in your illustrations?

I'd agree that the majority of my work consist of a very strong use of color and an intentionally controlled amount of vibrant and powerful tones. I feel that an image should capture the attention of its viewer and what better way to do that than shock their eyes with a strong use of color. I like my work to make an impact both in the concept of elements, color scheme and vibrant lighting effects when it comes to illustration. My work is usually geared toward the Analogous color scheme which usually consist of one primary color to define the overall mood and adjacent colors to help enrich the primary color. This is also evident in the way I work and lay my color in as well. I'll usually start an illustration off with a mid toned base color that sets the basis for the final outcome. I continually boost up the levels and contrast in order to get the most out of the impact the image gives off toward whoever is viewing it.

29: Do you've an idea of the colors you will use when you start a sketch?

Some times yes and some times no. I won't truly know where it's going to end up until I'm well on my way to wrapping up the under painting. There have been times that I've changed the color of a piece when it was in fact completely finished. This is usually due to color correcting, boosting the levels and adjusting the contrast which helps bring out the forms and details. When I do have an image in mind and I can visualize the final color scheme in my head it makes things much easier, but it's always worth while to play around with the color adjustments in Photoshop. Experimenting can some times bring out some of the most interesting color schemes you wouldn't have otherwise thought to try and it takes but only a second.

30: If you had the choice to, for what company or in what field would you like to work? why?

Ideally my dream job would be to produce creature and environment designs for the film industry. I couldn't say one specific company I'd be interested in working for because I admire the work done by so many. Though if I had to cut it down to just a few I'd probably say Dreamworks, ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) and Pixar studios. The reason for wanting to be a concept artist who solely focuses on environments and creature designs is that these areas of art are what I feel I excel in the most. It's the area of concept design I enjoy and have fun creating in the most without much effort, although I do enjoy improving my skills and broadening the subject matter in my visual vocabulary. The company Dreamworks and the company ILM have produced some of the most interesting films, memorable characters, creatures and visual storytelling. They are also run and owned by two of my favorite Directors and Producers. Pixar is also a favorite film company of mine and I think it would be a blast to work on some of the projects they produce such as A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars. I like companies that seem to provide a fun filled and motivational environment for their employees, making them feel like a big family who knows how to have fun while producing professional top quality work.

31: Why do you like digital art?

Digital art allows me to screw up a dozen times and still be able to fix any mistakes with the ease of pressing a button. It also allows me to work in any order I wish or to imitate any medium without the mess and expense of traditional materials. That's a huge plus for me when it comes to keeping a neat and tidy work space. It's easy and quick to save and store hundreds of piece of art and you can rework an image as many times as needed painting on top of a sketch or underneath one. Digital medium also allows for so many different options you can apply such as changing the entire color scheme of an image using the color adjustments, hue variations, levels, selective color, and saturation to mention a few. On top of that you can create any brush stroke or effect you want along with an endless amount of textures which make things much faster and it's all consolidated within the screen in front of you.

32: Has digital art brought you something special in the way you're conceiving your art? Why? In what sense?

Yes it has, digital art provides something that working traditional can't. The ability to work on an 8 x 11 inch canvas while at the same time being capable of zooming in to paint smaller and finer details at the actual pixel scale. This makes it easier for the artist to produce tight minute details on what is actually a small canvas size in terms of the print resolution compared to the dpi. resolution. What that means is the if you have your dpi. set to 300, it's setting the 100% scale to 300 dots per inch. Digital art also makes it much easier to create a full spectrum of color overlaid on top of one another without actually mixing the paint creating a muddy mess. You can paint on top of what appears as oils or charcoal, you can adjust the opacity of an entire layer or delete a huge selection without removing the most important part.

33: What are some of the current projects you're working on presently?

I'm not allowed to discuss any current on going projects due to the discretion of a Non Disclosure Agreement. I have contributed work for Age of Empires 3 the War Chiefs Expansion, in which I created something like 116 in-game icons. I also contributed work for a game by Flagship Studios called Mythos which is in the stages of beta testing. I produced 13 creature designs, 4 Boss designs and 10 environment designs. I worked for Liquid Development which is an outsourcing company who headed up the direction for both of those projects. I only work freelance for Liquid and since their an outsourcing company it's fun because I get to contribute to various titles for various studios instead of just providing designs for one company. I have also produced some film related works and work for Radical Entertainment.

34: If you had to reproduce a classic piece of artwork what would you choose? why?

I admire the classic painters but I don't really look to them for inspiration concerning the type of work I create, however I do have a few favorites. If I had to choose I'd probably want to try and reproduce a painting by Bouguereau. Probably because his mastery at painting the human figure, cherubs and angels would be quite an accomplishment and a real challenge.

35: You are a well documented and publicized artist, having been featured in a plethora of magazines and websites. How much has this kind of promotion helped you as a CG artist (getting jobs with press versus traditional portfolios)?

That's a great question, something that I'm sure will be insightful to artist who are unaware of how important promotion is and how to go about obtaining such interest from the press outlet. Promotion is key to becoming a success in the freelance industry of any field whether it's concept art or illustration, computer graphics or music composer. I owe a lot to ImagineFX because their relatively new magazine helped in more ways than I could have thought possible. All I hear now when I check my e-mail is how people from Australia, United Kingdom and all throughout the United States came across my website and my work through this magazine. I've had my work shown in a couple books by Ballistic Publishing and am proud to announce that I will have 1 creature design shown in the soon to be released Expose 5. This type of promotion helps in two ways, one being exhibited and introduced to a huge crowd of professional and amateur artist alike. The second being introduced to my professionally targeted audience which are potential clients, art directors and companies in the film and game industry as well as writers looking for book covers or illustrations and bands looking for album covers. I'll just say that without these promotional opportunities I'd probably be kept busy, only working twice as hard to find jobs instead of them coming to me and I most likely wouldn't be as well known.

36: Personal freelancing versus a production team member, what is more satisfying to you?

Working in close contact with the Liquid Development team on a couple projects was a lot of fun and very rewarding. It can sometimes be a little daunting working alone in your room aka. studio, when you know there are companies out there containing rooms filled with talented collaborative artist. I'm sure some day whether it's sooner or later I'll end up being part of a team of artist most likely in the film or game companies because I'd really love the motivation that sort of environment could provide, it would be quite a learning experience.

37: I checked out your blog, and noticed you have some nice ambient music selections. I heard some great composers like James Newton Howard, John Powell, Thomas Newman and even Joe Hisaishi in your playlist. What are some of your favorite cinematic composers? Do you listen to instrumental or lyric driven music while you are creating art? Which style inspires the dark and eerie stuff you have created?

I listen to both instrumental and lyric composed music while I work. Some of my favorite cinematic composers are on the list you just described among others such as Clint Mansell, Randy Edelman, Javier Navarrete, Harry Gregson-Williams, Bruno Coulais, James Newton Howard, Ennio Morricone, Howard Shore, Joe Hisaishi, Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Philip Glass and Mark Isham. I also love to listen to a very eclectic mix of music containing lyrics which I usually become familiar with by the films they are used in or created for. Some of the lyric driven music I've been listening to lately while creating has been a selection of songs by Cirque de Soleil, songs from Chrono Cross, Loreena McKennitt, Annie Lennox, and Moby. It doesn't necessarily have to be horror themed or dark in nature but a piece of music that perhaps invokes a certain emotion or feeling helps produce the surrounding state of mind to achieve such works of art. It usually helps if the music is instrumental because words and lyrics will cause distraction of how I might interpret the emotion visually.

38: Congratulations for being chosen to appear in Expose 5, from Ballistic Publishing. Another excellent honor for your beautiful visions. What are your thoughts on Ballistic and CGSociety's contributions to the CG world for both novices and advanced artists?

Thank you, I was extremely happy to be selected for inclusion in the 5th year of the Exposé book series. I think that Ballistic Publishing is a great resource for inspiration as well as promotion and also serves as a kind of yellow pages to art directors. Ballistic also puts out some great titles containing step by step tutorials from professionals in various outlets in the film and game industries. CGSociety provides insight into top companies in the entertainment industry, including everything from in depth interviews to online workshops focusing on specific skills by experienced professionals.

39: I also saw that you were invited to be apart of Painter X, which is yet another great honor, from an excellent software company. It's always nice to receive free creative software for deserving work. You seem quite the humble artist. What are your thoughts on Photoshop versus Painter X, or do they compliment each other in your works?

Having been invited by Corel to submit work to be included in their latest version of Painter was definitely a shock. I was more than overwhelmed and grateful for the opportunity seeing as how the program is used by thousands of artist and companies around the world. What this meant to me was worldwide exposure for years to come and I couldn't ask for a better chance to exhibit my work, it was priceless. To think then that they even sent me a free copy of the program which doesn't come cheap was more than anyone could ask for. Photoshop and Painter both have equal advantages and I often go back and forth from one to the other. I'm much more familiar with Photoshop CS2 but I'd have to say that Painters ability to mimic practically any traditional medium within approximately 35 categories of brushes each containing various settings and sub groups. It's RealBristle Painting System is unmatched in comparison to Photoshop. I can produce a painterly feel using Photoshop CS2 but it takes some work and experience using the custom brush application, whereas Painter doesn't make you work for the effect it provides it and works for you just as a real brush and real paint would. I find that the two programs compliment one another in every aspect an artist could want.

40: Your work and creatures are varied, and seem to be apart of different universes. Do you have any dreams of creating a world of your own and turning it into an IP for a feature film, or do you like the challenge of working on a variety of projects, or both?

I love jumping from one idea to the next and I'm sometimes impatient and will want to drop what I'm doing to work on something completely different. My mind never stops, it hardly lets me sleep as I cycle through stories, worlds, ideas and designs while laying in bed waiting to pass out. I've tried in the past to put together a large body of work revolving around a story I cam up with and a world that existed entirely in my mind. The issue is the need to produce paid work and finding the time to focus on my personal work. I've been in talks with some friends about a continued idea to collaborate on projects whether for fun or something to be published in book format. Creating my own world to be translated into a feature film would be ideal.

41: You live on the east coast in the US and are still able to work for video game companies in California and elsewhere. How do you turn in drafts, when being contracted as a freelancer (pdf, zip, e-mail, forum, irc, etc.) and do you prefer working in your own studio? Have you worked in a artist/cubicle/creative/team environment? What are the pros and cons of each?

I've never worked on location or in a creative team environment, so I can't really say what the pros and cons of each would be compared to one another. I can say that I'm quite certain being surrounded by a group of skilled talented professionals would drastically help motivate and inspire me to come up with ideas I wouldn't otherwise think of on my own. It would also help in a similar way to that of a college classroom except each artist would be working toward a collective goal. The advantages of working freelance is that you have complete freedom regarding your schedule and time off, you work out of the comfort of your own home and you can work on a number of different projects at once. I think the major reason artist might head off into a freelance career especially once they have established themselves is the freedom and ability to state their own rules and their own rates. I've worked for companies in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and the United States. The most ideal advantage to working digital as a freelance artist is you can work for any company in the world. I produce rough sketches and submit them by form of a .jpg file through e-mail, which are then approved and critiqued by the client or art director. Once the sketch is complete and I get the ok to move forward I submit the final product by either uploading it to the clients ftp server or sending them a zipped file from my server. All negotiations are handled online, all preliminary work and changes are made through e-mails and instant messengers and payment is handled in the form of EFT or Check.