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I've always been passionate about art and knew that I wanted to work in the creative industry someday. I completed my BA degree in Drama Theatre Studies where design was one of my core subjects. My passion to create developed further and I ended up completing my Higher Certificate in Animation where I discovered concept art and knew that this was what I wanted to do full time. I enrolled at ADA where I just completed my second year in Concept art.
3rd year of highschool is where I discovered a talent for traditional arts, mainly graphite before discovering watercolour painting. I wanted to then take this skill into digital art. I studied a year of animation before realizing I enjoyed designing characters and creatures way more, which then led me to Concept Design where I am now.
I first realized when I was doing a writing project for school and had written a short story with some illustrations and my teacher told me I should become a writer and and artist. I had been drawing a lot of portraits and anime before just for fun but as I grew I became better and that I was made to create.
When I found the Little Nightmares franchise; in it you can find concept art snippets throughout the game and made me realize that this (concept art) is something I want to do at a professional level. Also in The Last of Us games, the environmental storytelling really inspired me to push myself from just drawing pretty characters to drawing gritty environments, telling assets and non conforming character designs.
I've always been drawn to drawing, with a special fascination for fantasy worlds like those in 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'. A pivotal moment was receiving 'The Hobbit' art & design book for Christmas. The behind-the-scenes documentaries revealed the magic of concept art and initially sparked my interest in set design. Although my current style diverges towards children's book illustrations and cute, animal drawings, this exposure was crucial in shaping my artistic journey.
I have always had a keen interest in the Creative Arts. From a very young age I was dubbed, "the creative/artistic one" among my peers. Not really being good at anything else in school, art was the one thing where I could really apply my mind creatively. Traditionally, my interest lied in ceramic sculpture and watercolors with ink. After learning about the digital medium, the possibilities in what I could accomplish with my art expanded tenfold. After this, I haven't looked back.
The Lord of The Rings held my brain in a death-grip from the very first time I was introduced to the films. I absolutely inhaled all content related to Tolkien and watching the behind-the-scenes of the films was the final straw. I knew that Concept Art was where it was at for me. Some day Christopher Tolkien will give someone the right to The Silmarillion, and I want to be there, making sure that Melkor's design is as beautiful as I imagined it while reading the book.
Since I was a child, I have been creative. While I was initially interested in going into science fields, which has given me a thorough foundation for my design work in both graphic design and concept art, I realised in my senior year of high school that it was a field that I was interested in participating in professionally.
After leaving highschool I was unsure as to what direction I wanted to go down. After starting an online university course (which i quickly discoveredd was not what I wanted) I had to reconsider my choices. What came next was 3 years of studying at ADA, being developed into the artist I envisioned for myself. Since then it has been a gradual formation of understanding who I am as an artist and why/how I wish to function within the industry.
I had always enjoyed art but I wasn't sure what I wanted to study and make a career after high school. I started studying concept art with a friend so I could do something interesting while I figured out what I wanted to do. I loved my time studying concept art and started to feel that this was what I wanted to do, and with some effort, was something I could do.
Just as I've told my friends, I always found myself drawing and sketching, and investing more times into my doodles in my work books than my actual work. I have never not focused more on the nonsensical made up worlds in my head than I did in xylophones in music class. Once I matriculated, I already knew what the next step was.
I really realized that I wanted to work in the industry when discovered the world of independent online animation and spent a good chunk of my teenage years trying to pursue animation as a career goal. Seeing people realize their creative visions was immensely exciting to me. Then when I was searching for opportunities in tertiary education I discovered the world of concept art and immediately fell in love.