Worlds Challenge Winner- Pavel Goloviy
3rd Place Winner of the Worlds Challenge, Pavel Goloviy, gave us this great interview where we learn fun facts about him and his process as an artist.
Goloviy has been working in computer graphics since 2005. His experience is primarily in figurative illustration and concept art but his other skills include confident drawing and painting from nature or imagination, human plastic anatomy knowledge and human figure and portrait drawing experience.
Inspiration:
The world around me. Art and nature in particular. When I need an inspiration for certain mood, lighting or colors, I first look through my collection of paintings of various artist. Or, which is even better, get something from my own experience, recalling studies I did from nature or some moment from my life.
Average Number of Layers When You Paint:
5 -10. I’m trying to keep it at minimum necessary for a given task.
Coffee or Tea:
A cup of espresso in the morning, tea during the rest of the day. :)
Good Habits:
Plan ahead, keep track of all expenses - both time and money.
Favorite Movies:
Samsara, Baraka, Blade Runner (both), Andrey Rublev, Once upon a time in America, At Home Among Strangers, Deadman.
Favorite Games:
Civilization, Heavy Rain, Read Dead Redemption, Blade Runner(old quest), Machinarium, Journey, Rise of Flight.
Music While Doing Art:
Mostly ambient electronic and neoclassic: Michael Brook, Michael Stearns, Biosphere, Ludovico Einaudi, Nest, Steve Roach etc.
How to Bounce Back from a Bad Day:
Here are some options. Swim a kilometer non-stop. Have a walk in a forest, watch the nature. Be with people I feel very comfortable with. Go to the barbershop. :)
What is a Good Day:
When I do things that I love to do and when I am with people that I like to be with.
Favorite Quote:
Life has much more imagination than we carry in our dreams.
Future Goals:
Speaking globally, learn and evolve to become a better artist. Break into the big industry. :) In the short term I plan to hone my composition skills, create a comprehensive tutorial for Cubebrush store about working on character concept from a freelancer perspective.
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Pavel. I work as freelance illustrator and concept artist for game industry. I was born and currently based in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. The city gives plenty of opportunities to study art (museums and high schools are in abundance) and live in a bohemian way if you want. The drawback is that the big companies of the game and film industry are not here. Nonetheless the ability to work remotely helps. I love snowy winter, old beautiful city center, diving trips to coral reefs, walking in a wild forest and watching nature.
What got you into 2D art, when did it all start?
Very simple. My father is a painter. My mother is interior designer. My brother is a graphic designer. There was not a mere chance to avoid that influence.
How did you get to the level you are at today? Did you study in any particular way you would recommend?
I studied as a classic painter in the academy of arts, and, to be honest, I had pretty good conditions to evolve as an artist. Yet there was a considerable transition period between traditional education and digital art for game industry. Not that it was hard to learn the software, but rather having to accept a lot of compromises regarding of what you are doing and what you are paid for. Now things are considerably better then when I started but still the process of finding my personal professional niche is underway. Regarding recommendations for study I can only say that it doesn’t really matter weather you are using pencil or Photoshop. Strive for fundamental skills and bring up your artistic vision. On my opinion it is more important to attend live drawing classes or get out for plein air study rather than learn another wonderful software, at least until there is an obvious need of the latter.
How did you begin the process of creating “Great Flood”? What was your inspiration?
Since the topic of the contest was very open ended I let my mind flow and put together many visual associations that were coming to me after reading the brief. From the very beginning I decided to take fantasy side as I have been working on a long lasting sci-fi project recently and wanted to try something new. Sometimes artist inspiration comes from desire to depict certain things that are not strictly related to the subject. I think Turner depicting Hannibal crossing the Alps seemed to be more engaged in showing magnificent and dominating nature in its extreme form rather than Hannibal’s army. The flood theme attracted me with a chance to paint a bit of water world and play with submerged motifs that can be seen almost on every sketch I did. I have a sweet spot for water worlds. :) The old world architecture, heavy and blended into rocky environment gave me the opportunity to play with texture contrasts and subtle colors. I also wanted to transfer a positive, life assuring attitude and even some coziness in the illustration. I think there are too many artworks with dystopian, depressive worlds being created nowadays.
What was your biggest hurdle during the process? What did you do to overcome it?
Finding the most precious and scarce resource - time. :) That means trying to complete running commissions at a lesser time, setting up priorities carefully, being flexible and diplomatic with family members.
If you had to do it over would you do it differently? Why?
I would try to be more creative about the story. I would think of it in more detail and revealed it in more depth. In other words I would shift my focus on concept in general rather than illustration of the key view. Some artists participating the contest did that pretty well.
Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring artists out there who might be looking to get to your level one day? What's your recipe for success?
Honestly I don’t feel myself in a position to give recipes for success and I may probably need advice myself. I hope my success is yet to be achieved. :) It is very hard to avoid common phrases and cliche when talking about advice for an artist. There is very little to say but so much to do in that endeavor. Obviously you should love what you are doing as it requires so much energy to be an artist. We all like to do what we do well. At the same time to do something well you have to learn and invest effort in it. And this is where an artist need a strong will to push himself forward and overcome disappointment and frustration that is inevitable at start of any learning process. This is true for experienced artist as well.
Any of my works that I feel somewhat proud of was preceded by a good number of pieces I never dared to display. Also there is a widespread belief that quantity turns into quality. I think that does not happen automatically and works only when you analyze your work and ask yourself what should you do to become better next time. This should be a consciously controlled process.
What got you into environment art in particular?
First of all environments give full scope to artist imagination, especially when it comes to imaginary worlds. I think environments are one of the most complex subjects for concept artist. It requires a lot of thinking and creative work on composition, lighting, color and even scenario. I like that type of work. In game development and in films environments define a huge part of visual information the viewer receives. For me it is a pleasure to watch how the scene is being build after my sketches and then see it in final product (though not always they look as I expected :)). On a side note I don’t think of myself as environment artist only. I like to be able to switch between characters, environments and key frame art. The latter one I like especially.
What do you think the Worlds Challenge experience taught you, and would you participate again next year if you could?
As I have already mentioned above, it underlined the difference between concept art and illustration once again. Not an eye-opener but definitely something I need to focus my attention on. It was very interesting to watch how various artist where approaching the same problem. As a result I start to think that I should reanimate my 3d skills and improve it to an up to date quality and appliance for concept art. When I was asked by Cubebrush to tell about my process of creating artwork for the challenge I have discovered a nice side effect of making tutorials. It forced me to arrange and structure my own thoughts and realize that I do not always follow my own theories. :)
I will definitely try to take part in the next challenge on Cubebrush. There maybe some circumstances to prevent me from participating but if the duration is roughly the same as was in this challenge chances are pretty high I will be able to enter.
Any final thoughts?
Many thanks to Cubebrush for making this challenge happen and I do encourage to hold more challenges in the foreseeable future. Also I very much appreciate the time and effort that judges spent on us. 12 artist that came to the common opinion 3 times in a row deserve their own reward. Thank you to those who participated the challenge and made it challenging and to those members of the community who gave me support, that means a lot to me.
Thank you!
Pavel Goloviy