Some Other Game Art

Image from nakatomiinc.com

Welcome to my first actual blog post at Some Other Castle beyond my introduction. It has been over a month since I introduced myself. This is sad and pathetic and I apologize. I had some good excuses such as working on deadlines for other projects and this funny little thing called getting married. It was a very low stress type, we got married in Vegas with 21 guests and everything taken care of but even small weddings can become overwhelming with organizing relatives and travel plans. I also manage to put stress into everything, including things that shouldn’t have very much. Hey, but it’s over now and that’s a story for another time!

So, do you like the new Some Other Castle logo? I made it using Photoshop and my fancy Intuos4 pen tablet which I won at Emerald City Comic Con. Technically, my husband won it but it was I who made him enter it with me to increase my chances. Now it’s MINE ALL MINE. I had a very very very very old tablet prior. This new gadget makes the old one look like I was mashing a rock onto another flatter rock to make marks.

Photoshop has some neat manipulation tools but believe me, I use it almost exclusively for digital painting so don’t be tricked into thinking that there’s no real artistic skill involved. I paint in every stroke and draw in every line by hand. It sure is a lot easier to change bits than traditional formats but you still have to understand fundamentals. But, I’m sure since you are here reading this, you already know the difference between photo manipulation and real hardcore digital painting. It’s a skill that the average folk take for granted. An elderly gentleman once told me ‘but the computer does all the work’ after I told him I work mostly digitally. Trying my best not to burst out in a fit of insulted rage, I explained how it is not simply the computer doing all the work, it is another form of medium just as paint or pencil or sculpted stone.

It’s taken me a long time to accept calling myself an artist and I still don’t like it very much. There are a lot of reasons for my difficulty. The first glaring difficulty is that in our American culture, people assume that because you specialize in something art related, that you are no good at anything else. This is simply, utterly, and revoltingly NOT TRUE. There are a lot of dumb shit artists out there with nothing but air between their ears and there are also plenty of other folks who are good at only one thing.

However, it’s also true that there are many intelligent, well balanced artists or specialists. I don’t like people who assume all I can do is draw a pretty picture; you are quick to get on my KOS list if you make that assumption without getting to know me first.

Sometimes visual work is the only way to express something. I am a visual learner, I live in the visual world and I am a visual artist. I could go on and on about what ‘art’ is or what it means to be an ‘artist’. Mostly because there is no finite answer but before I get too flowery let me dive into the meat of this post. This is primarily a game blog and here I am babbling on about art and life.

Yes, I am an artist but I’m also cynical and sarcastic. This isn’t always interpreted kindly, not that I was trying to be kind. Being a ‘gamer’ and in an industry with so many men, I also have quite a thick skin and I tend to expect others to be the same. I think people should have the right to express themselves, especially when it comes to art and video games are art. There we go, that’s what I was trying to get to this whole time. No arguing, no debate, games are art. They are a medium like any other, digital, traditional, interpretive dance, etc. There will always be people trying to keep the artist down, no matter what the medium may be.

As much as I enjoy hearing about new technology to make games greater and more amazing, the one thing developers should never take for granted is the artistic mind. Programmers (who are artists in their own right) and visual artists need to work together and when they do so harmoniously, amazing things happen. I read an article stating the need for artists in games will disappear as devs get better at translating photographs into digital work and making the environments look more real without the need for art development. Realism isn’t always a good thing. It works here and there but people give it way too much credit. I already LIVE in a realistic world, WHY on earth would I want my games to be realistic too?! The industry will always need art eyes and minds, always.

I’d like to keep this an introduction and get into more specifics, exploring individual games, styles and movements in later posts. Art is important and I hope to explore it as much as I can in the medium of the video game. This is also perspective and opinion so I don’t expect anyone to agree with me. However, I also hope I can get people thinking. That’s all you really can hope for when creating art: make people think.