Featured Interview: Lance Wilkinson

Were recently had the pleasure to interview digital sculptor and overall-incredible-artist Lance Wilkinson.

Lance also provides some awesome tutorials on his Cubebrush store so make sure to stop by after reading through the tips-filled interview below!

Q. To begin, how did you get into art and what motivated you to pursue it as a potential career?

I was working in retail management and was not getting the job satisfaction I wanted, at the time my brother was doing a Game Design course and having loads of fun and to be honest I was a little bit jealous. So I quit my job and enrolled on a University Games Art course, I've always been an avid gamer and my father instilled a love for art throughout my childhood, so something that combined the 2 seemed like a safe idea :)

The want to do Character Art came in the closing hours of my time at University. The course I was on was very 'open' educating in a lot of different art disciplines and rightly so, however once I got the opportunity to use ZBrush and get my self familiarized with it in my 2nd year I knew I wanted to be doing something that heavily relied on using the software.

Q. What was you biggest hurdle as an amateur artist and how did you overcome it?

Hmm I'd say handling critique.

It's natural to get attached to your art and when other people assess it objectively and give you some sharp critiques it's going to feel personal, getting out of that mindset and not being overly attached was a big hurdle. To overcome it I put as much work out there as possible posting it on sites such as Polycount.com, there was also a conscious effort on my part to accept the feedback the right way and decide whether or not to use it.

Another thing I have to mention is motivation and patience, it's something most struggle with and I've succumbed to it many a time. Surround yourself with inspiration and pinch yourself to do something. Always have a project on the go and try your utmost to keep current and up to date, falling behind can create big time-sinks in your career as you have to grind to get back up speed.

Q. Now as a successful professional artist, what's one tip you would give your younger self if you could travel back in time?

Be more open to relocation.

I was offered several jobs when I left University after an initial bout of interviews, I ended up picking the one which was most convenient (in this instance the one that was closest to home despite not paying the most). The truth is when you're an adult you have responsibilities and once you settle somewhere (in this case a location, not a specific studio) it can take a lot to make you want to relocate.

It's not so much of an issue anymore but for the first 18 months I was leashed to an area which didn't really have the opportunities I was gunning for.

Q. Ketchup or Mustard?

It's called Tomato Sauce over here :P I'm more of a mayonnaise person if I'm honest :D

Q. For aspiring artists, what's the most important thing they should think about when building their portfolio?

This is a really hard question, everyone has a different answer and much of it depends on where people want and can feasibly work. Being studio/style or content specific is a popular answer I tend to see a lot, for example If you want to work for TT games, then yeah it's good to have a dab of LEGO work in your portfolio, if you want to work on Gran Turismo then having cars would be a plus, all of that is pretty self explanatory.

What I would say is don't funnel yourself into 1 type of art discipline so early in your career as this will probably limit your appeal early on, for me it was to have a mixture of some realistic stuff as well as some stylized assets. Just be sure that everything you do is presented really well and easy to read and negotiate otherwise you're just going to frustrate the viewer, be relevant, quick and to the point.

Q. How did you get into making tutorials?

When I started working in the industry I made an effort to seek out and absorb as much information and techniques as possible. So in my first job I was cascading new techniques onto the more experienced artists who were used to older methods; this then extended to the next place I worked and then onto online streaming. After about a year of game development I was invited to do a few guest lectures at Universities which was extremely rewarding, it was the feedback from these that made me decide to start putting small tutorials out there for people to digest.

Q. Finally, what do you have in store for 2016?

2015 was a super busy year for me, I contributed to 6 projects and had little time to focus on personal work and do the type of art I really enjoy. I'm hoping and planning for a more consistent 2016, one which allows me time to augment my portfolio and play some awesome games :D I've got some idea's for future tutorials off the back of some requests which I might be able to weave into my upcoming projects.

I'm also aiming to settle down into a permanent position, I've done contract/freelance work for over a year now which has been extremely rewarding and I'm looking ahead for a studio to focus my career on. (So if anyone is after an experienced character artist hit me up :P)