Feet First Games - Concept Artist Commission

For my final work experience opportunity, I was approached by a friend who was working on a game project of his own, with others. Through a private conversation, I agreed to a commission project to be a concept artist for his independent game company - Feet First Games. The commision involved designing illustrated concepts for a game's logo, as part of its pre-development concept work.

The first thing I focused on when designing the logo was what it was for. I created concepts for the company's sci-fi game - Distant Traveller. An early sketch of the logo (and potential cover design) can be seen below. The premise of the logo was to be an anonymous traveller looking up at a sun in the centre, with a white streak going across it. I drew inspiration from games with similar design aestethics, such as No Man's Sky (1).

I added to this by making the streak actually pierce the star (which can be seen cracking at the points of impact). The traveller is dwarfed by the surrounding spires and rock formations, indicating geological patterns not native to an Earth-like planet. Early on, the first colour I experimented with for the design was a deep red of the sun, which would be instantly recognizable to someone as a star from a different place in the galaxy than our own.

Next, I cleaned up the sketched lines and produced a digital version of the logo. This version has the basic colour and indications of detail and shading. Some changes I made include making the sun bigger, and showing the fragments of the sun breaking off as if it were a solid entity. The landscape has been further structured and will show the light of the sun during the shading stage. I have also added a colour gradient for space and stars to show the presence of other suns in the galaxy.

A vast improvement can already be seen from the concept sketch, and it is possible to see what the final logo will look like from the above concept. Working with my friend who commissioned me, I present him these production concepts and continue with them if they are thought to convey his original idea. If any elements need changing, I can do so as it is easy to do so in a digital format.

Although this work experience commission is only for development of the logo, there is a possibility of me staying at the company for more pre-development work. This commission gave me a taste of development of ideas, working with a project partner, and being able to recieve and work around critical feedback for my concepts.


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(1) No Man's Sky promotional art - Hello Games. (2016). [image] Available at:  http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/275850/header.jpg?t=1457021504 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016].

Professional Practice Evaluation

The Professional Practice module is made up of two major parts. The first is the requirement for an assortment of work experience opportunities, both inside and outside of the University. I am pleased that I managed to meet these requirements, and with a range of different forms of work experience. From this part of the module, I learnt how to contact individuals/companies and ask for experience, as well as how and where to find similar opportunities in the future. On the other hand, I found it difficult to find practical work experience near me, with internet conversations seeming to be the most effective method of getting interview opportunities and direct communication. Another drawback of contacting people is waiting for responses, which usually made my email interviews several weeks (and sometimes months) long. Though I appreciate that this cannot be helped with the busyness of many artistic careers in the modern world.

The second part of the Professional Practice module involves producing and printing several editions of an independent newspaper publication. Over the weeks, I am disappointed that not much progress was made towards this part of the module. Many parts of the newpaper's production relied on co-operation with other members of a team, which did not happen as often as needed. Near the end of the module, I was found to be abandoned by these members and was required to produce an individual publication within a short period, which could not be achieved in the time. However, I did learn how to conduct independent research on a subject, as well as how to produce a publication through this method - which could assist in my artistic career.

Overall, I am happy with the range of work experience I managed to collect, though it was difficult to obtain through traditional methods. With the newspaper, I am disappointed that team and time-management complications could not produce the finished publication, while I did learn the process of how to create it for future projects.

Jeremy Fenske - Concept Artist Interview

After looking for games development work experience became a dead end for me, I decided to change course and contact some concept artists. Through searching on conceptartworld.com, I discovered a concept artist whose style I found intriguing, named Jeremy Fenske. Over the course of the next few weeks, I conducted another email interview with him that he had agreed to do, with the resulting conversation log below.

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