This term I was lucky to work together with an industry professional on a mentored project, where I would consult with my mentor like a creative director and receive feedback for my work.
I contacted Meng Wang, an amazing freelance artist that does a variety of things, ranging from character design, storyboarding, and self publishing. After exchanging emails and communicating what I would like to work on, we agreed on the following project:
“Create an illustrated character and supporting reference sheets for overseas production, specifically mobile games.“
This project felt right at home as it was something that I aspired to do in the future as an artist. A lot of my influences comes from Eastern media, so diving right into it and creating things for this type of genre got my mentor and I very excited.
The biggest challenge now would be managing time and executing the final product, as a lot of the work/standards in this type of industry involve beautifully detailed characters that standalone as a unique person. Some examples are listed here:
We also discussed how much work goes into creating a character, and what assets are usually listed for production. We analyzed some games from companies that we enjoyed, what they did well, and talked about what the production pipeline for different projects could potentially look like.
There wasn’t much trouble coming up with the project, as these were things that we were passionate about, and we pretty much understood what I wanted to work on, and what Meng would be able to help me out with.
Other than that, I’ve had a lot of fun chatting with Meng and funneling down my projects into one specific area. It was super rewarding to hear her perspective on art and what it meant to her, as well as the ups and downs she’s experienced in her career. I’m looking forward to trying my best and receiving lots of feedback, as well as improving my own work.