Art Tips & Interview with Kalen Chock

This week's first featured interview is with environment concept artist, mentor & teacher Kalen Chock. Find out what he's been up to below, have a look at some gorgeous art and get some sweet art tips at the same time!

Also, don't miss checking out his affordable tutorials on his Cubebrush store!

Q. Let's start with your journey as a professional artist, how did it begin?

Like most fairy-tale stories I had a portfolio show and producer of a company saw my stuff and gave me his card. Couple months later it landed me first gig of working on Diner Dash games for casual gamers ( mostly moms ). Not exactly the most glamorous job, but I was just excited to be working. From there just kept trying to improve, take classes and work work work. The rest is history :)

Q. Did you have any push-backs from friends or family - what advice do you have for those who do?

Luckily I do not have that problem at the moment, all of the family and friends I surround myself with are very supportive and that's the way it should be. I have had that problem in the past but it is kind of expected when you are first starting out. My advice is that people can only judge you from what they see at that exact moment. So of course you'll have friends and family who may try to steer you away from your goals/career or be concerned at your chances of success. More times than not they are just concerned for your well being and want to help you not make possible mistakes. However, only YOU can know your potential, so though people may judge you at what they see at that very moment, they can't know what you'll become. If you feel that your "best " version of your self is good enough to be a successful artist than I say go for it. Usually when your friends and family see how serious and dedicated you are they usually ease up : )

Q. What is the number one thing in your mind that makes a successful artist?

Been teaching for almost 8 years now and I am usually pretty spot on at spotting students who will make it and those that will not. The #1 thing that makes a successful artist is mentality. No one starts this art career being amazing ( at least no one that I know ). For the most part we all suck pretty badly when we first begin our art journey. But! How we get better is being masters of our craft. People that eat sleep and breath this stuff are the ones that 99% of the time succeed. When a company hires you its an investment, they hope when they hire you that not only you will do a bad-ass job, but that you will improve over time. Think of it like a NBA team, when they draft a player, they draft him because they think he can make an immediate impact on their team, but also hoping they can develop him into a much better player compared when he was first drafted. If you have a strong mentality to work hard and always improve, usually at that point its just a matter of time until you become successful.

Q. A lot of artists have questions about portfolio, what is one recurring problem you often see?

I would say lack of focus. A good question artists can ask themselves is "what kind of company I want to work for " or " what kind of work I would like to do for a living " Once you can answer that, start putting that in your portfolio. Think of it like a food menu ( I know that sounds weird ) If the company only likes Chinese food, you wouldn't want to put Mexican Food on the menu. Same thing goes for art. If Blizzard is looking for fantasy orcs and forests, than putting in realistic post apocalyptic pieces when you apply for them wouldn't be the best idea. Its usually good to only put in work that applies to the company that you would like to work for. But that doesn't mean you can't have multiple portfolios that tailor to different places.

Q. Favorite food?

Anything from a KOGI TRUCK , but nowadays I reside in the Bay Area. Luckily my Fiance is an amazing cook so anything she makes its usually pretty awesome.

Q. You mentor a lot of artists, what inspires you to teach?

A lot of this stuff I had to figure out on my own and with friends, unfortunately I didn't have the "best" experience when it came to art education. So for me I want to help improve things so that others don't have to go through that I did. Also giving back to the community that helped me is always a plus too.

Q. What about your big plans for 2016, anything you want to share?

Trying to finish our tactical RPG game Liege. Its pretty cool cause its only a 2 man team. You can check it out at www.codagames.com. Other than that ROBOTPENCIL has some great things down the pipeline in the next couple months so definitely stay tuned over at www.robotpencil.net