Well met, adventurers!

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you have surely seen the beautiful artwork for our recent expansions including the gorgeous Strongholds wallpapers. We now had the chance to sit down for an interview with illustrator Vadim Marchenkov, creator of those awesome pieces of art. He gives an insight into his education, his ways to work and his affinity to Dungeons & Dragons. Enjoy the read and the trailer!

Q: Hi Vadim. Before we get into detail, please quickly introduce yourself to our community!

Hi everyone, my name is Vadim Marchenkov. I’m a Russian freelance illustrator and concept artist for the entertainment industry.

Q: At what age you start drawing and when did you know you’d want to become a professional illustrator?

Well, I started drawing rather late, I think I was 17 or so, and the funny thing is that I started drawing to enhance my 3d skills. I was always a big fan of video games and movies, so I became very excited when I found out that there are artists who are paid to do all this amazing 3d stuff for games and films, so I bought several books to study 3d software and did lots of crappy models and animations in 3d studio max 4 (I was 15 then). Soon enough I understood that there’s no way I can become a good 3d modeler if I don’t get some solid artistic education – so I got involved in drawing, and in 2005 I bought my very first Wacom tablet. At first I thought that I would get back to 3d once I became good enough with drawing... well, probably I’m still not good enough. xD   

Q: Who or what influenced you as an artist?

Hundreds of amazing artists that I discovered over the years (and that I keep discovering every now and then). Seriously, there are so many talented people around, who keep pushing the limits of what you once thought was impossible. So once you start perfecting your skills you will never stop. The artists who I look up to always change with time, because when your skill develops, you start to appreciate certain things that you didn’t really notice before.

Q: Did you develop a specific style? And how did it change since you started?

When it comes to style - it’s difficult for me to say for sure if I have one. I tend to experiment a lot, and I think that my style changes quite often, although some people say that they can see certain traits that my works share. It never bothered me though, if I have some style that stands out or not. For me the most important thing was always to tell a story or to convey an emotion, feeling or character in my work.

Q: What advice can you give people starting out/wanting to become a professional illustrator as well?

Don’t ever rely on talent (if such thing even exists)!  Discipline and hard work is what makes a professional illustrator (or any other professional). If you are disciplined and approach your studying thoughtfully, you will make it regardless of your talent. A talented person who draws once a month will hardly ever succeed, on the other hand someone with less talent (I think that there are no talentless people on this planet.) who is dedicated and motivated enough to put long hours into work on a daily basis with a good focus on foundations will inevitably succeed, and there will always be people saying that talent is the reason. And another little advice is: Don’t just draw the “trendy” stuff, stuff that “sells”, because if you don’t like what you are doing, it’s going to be way more difficult to do it at a decent level. It just ruins the whole point of being an illustrator, taking away the “fun & joy” element of it. Taking into consideration the fact that there are MUCH easier and HEALTHIER ways to make money than being an illustrator – the “fun & joy” factor of it is probably the only one to compensate the suffering and frustrations that you will face on the way. So don’t overlook it, dig inside yourself, find the stuff that you really like doing and have fun! Once you are really good at what you like, the opportunities will find you (worked for me).      

Q: What are the tools that you’re using the most?

The almighty Photoshop! I very rarely use some 3d at the beginning stages of my work, but I’m looking forward to introduce more 3d in my process soon.   

Q: What do you enjoy drawing the most and did that change over the years?

When I was only starting doing digital art, I fell into the same trap as most aspiring artists did – producing senseless images showcasing certain painting techniques or flashy effects, paying zero attention to the actual subject of painting, story, composition. Let’s say I saw some Sci-Fi picture today that I liked – I’ll go on and paint something that looks Sci-Fi’ish the other day – fantasy, and so on. The problem that I see now is that without doing any research, without making up a story, thinking through the design in a given setting you end up with a very stiff and lifeless painting, which only gives you an impression of an idea, but not conveying any actual idea. A good illustration in my opinion is the one that is capable of convincing you that the world you’re looking at in the picture exists behind the frame of the canvas. So nowadays I try to challenge myself to bringing more life to the characters and the story behind them, I don’t know, if I always manage to achieve this goal, but I’m constantly trying, so hopefully it will show one day.   

Q: Where do you get your inspiration from?

From other artists, movies, life itself and from MUSIC. Music is a very big thing for me, I was a huge melomaniac ever since I was a kid. I always imagined things and worlds while listening to music, so the funny thing is that if it wasn’t for music in the first place, I probably wouldn’t even be an artist. I also play some instruments in my spare time, it helps me relax.  

Q: In general, how do you develop an illustration from start to finish?

Nowadays I try to visualize the picture in my head as meticulously as possible. It takes a lot of effort and focus to do, but you may evolve a certain vision much faster than just doodling around for hours while your brain is half asleep. When I made a decision about the main idea or motive that I want to reveal in the picture, I make several thumbnails (very small sketches) to approach these ideas from different angles and to build a solid composition. After that, I might start painting in colors right away, if I feel confident about the design and lighting. If not, I’ll paint the picture in black and white. When I’m happy with what I see (the lighting works, the composition is fine, the shapes and forms are readable) I proceed with color. I tend to flip my canvas A LOT to check for mistakes, and I paint zoomed out for as long as possible to establish the relationships and readability of bigger shapes before detailing. When the picture is close to being finished, I apply some correction filters to fix some values, do some color corrections and that’s pretty much it. This is a very generic description of how things work, but as I said earlier, I always try to introduce something new to my process – some photo textures, some new methods and techniques... anything that might help me capture the exact same feel and impression that I envisioned in my head. Although it’s a never-ending pursuit, and you almost never manage to end up with a picture that you’re 100% happy with, it’s good to make sure that you gave it everything you got (especially if it’s work for a client).      

Q: What is the most difficult part about your job?

Time management! When you freelance you have to create this borderline between work and your personal life. It’s very difficult to manage at first, because when you start you feel very excited and you might overwork. You’ll probably overwork A LOT trying to deliver the best result possible which is very natural. But your body as well as your mind have their limits, and it’s very easy to burnout. And that’s why discipline is once again the key.    

Q: Let’s talk about your work for Perfect World! You’ve created amazing artwork for Neverwinter. Did you know about Dungeons & Dragons before and are you into gaming at all?

Yes I knew that DnD is pretty much The Holy Grail of the RPG industry, so working with one of its IPs was a great honor! Although I wasn’t able to experience DnD myself since it wasn’t known or popular in Russia when I was a kid, I used to played Neverwinter Nights a lot back in the early 2000s, and although Neverwinter was not part of the series, I could relate to it and I was very excited to do some art for this project! 

Q: What challenges are you facing when creating artwork for a licensed brand like Dungeons & Dragons?

Making an artwork for a universe with such a complicated and established lore and a huge community of dedicated fans is both very exciting and intimidating. You really want to deliver the feel and esthetics of the universe that players know and love at highest quality level possible. But sometimes it’s difficult to do without having an insight in the games world. This is why I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work with the guys from Perfect World, who were always there to help me immerse into the game world to understand and feel the universe and characters that are inhabiting it.  

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your approach to designing a character or scene for Neverwinter? How is it different to other work that you’ve done before?

Well, the biggest difference in the approach was that I had to think of the illustrations I did not as some solid, standalone pieces of art, but rather as compilations of components. Some of the paintings were going be used for various marketing purposes, thus every character and background should have been painted on separate layers, so that characters could have been relocated and compositionally adjusted if necessary for later marketing use. That is why I had to think of how to make the characters’ poses expressive enough to be used separately and at the same time how to make them work together on a collaborative piece. On top of this, painting the background took more time than usual, because you have to paint behind the characters as well, for the environment to be functional. So yes, that was a bigger challenge than usual illustrations, but a valuable experience as well. 

Q: Out of the artwork that you’ve created for Neverwinter, do you have a favorite and why?

The one with Tiamat. I just really wanted to do something a little more epic in scale than most of my works, so that was a great opportunity. I also like the fact that there’s more story and action in this piece. And on top of this, just the idea of this giant creature’s butt sticking out of a portal in some other universe keeps haunting me. xD

Q: Do you have a website where we can enjoy all your works?

Yes sure! You’re all welcome to visit my portfolios here:

https://www.artstation.com/artist/greyhues

http://greyhues.deviantart.com/

or visit my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/vadim.marchenkov

Follows and likes are much appreciated! ^^

Q: Thank you very much for your time and insights! Do you have any last words for our community?

Be creative, stay positive, have fun, and experience emotions – this is what life is all about!