'Ello!

[Cthogua]

Hello Everybody,

About a year ago, maybe a little more I befriended Brent Hollowell on Facebook and noted his remarkable productivity. After a little while I also noticed he was improving significantly and I started to pay more attention to the Livestreams and things he shared. Eventually I found out about this little corner of the internet through some link he posted. I used to be moderately active on CA.org but got kinda burnt out on it and the community there and have been more or less forum-silent for a few years. I figure now's as good a time as any to leave my virtual hermit shack and step back into the stream.

About Moi: I just turned 34 (Feb 28th) and am currently working as an artist at Harmonix in Cambridge. Mostly I do environment stuff, but they're pretty fluid with titles/responsibilities around here so I get to do a bit of everything. (I'm doing some effects work right now! :P) Previously I worked at 38 Studios as a Principal Environment Artist which was the greatest place I've ever worked, and with some of the most insanely talented artists I've ever worked with.

Aaaaanyway, I've been feeling lately that it's been a while since I really felt or noticed any kind of improvement in my work. In fact things have been feeling pretty stale. After 38 Studios imploded I had a bit of depression and lost a lot of momentum as well as confidence in my work and it seemed to be the worst with my painting. I've managed to shake that and get back some of the confidence I had, but doing so has also made me aware that I hadn't been actively seeking improvement for a little while. Mostly because the people that I worked with were a constant source of inspiration of great critique. I even got to have some concepts I painted and levels I was principal on critiqued by Todd McFarlaine! So I'm looking to take hold of the reins again and drag myself up to whatever awaits. Looking forward to being involved with this community!

[Ros]

I've always thought that art allows us to be constantly improving, learning, but to do so sometimes you have to go back to basics from another point of view, or try a different medium, a new technique, all of that enriches your skills, in one way or another, and spices things up.

Anyway, nice to meet you. :)

[unlimitedbacon]

ooo Harmonix. Sounds like fun. Hopefully we can both learn stuff from each other.

[Cthogua]

Thanks for the welcomes guys. I signed up...then of course we do 3 weeks of crunch, I have a commission to finish, and I had to make a bunch of art leading up to PAX East for the indie project 2 of my former 38 Studios co-workers and I are working on (we're not at the Megabooth, but Paul Siegel, the programming wing of Dancing Sorcerer Games, is going to be on a panel about former 38 Studios folks that went on to found indie studios. If anyone is going to PAX East and is interested the info about the panel is here and Dancing Sorcerer's website is here I'm doing ALL the art, which has been a bit of a challenge as I've had to work on some stuff I haven't really spent much time in the past with (UI art, web stuff) It's been a great experience and even if Road of Kings (our current project) makes nothing back I hope to continue working with my fellow sorcerers to keep pushing at making the games we want to see made.

All that having been said, I hope to be more active here than I have been so far...the last couple of weeks there has not been a spare minute though. Hopefully with crunch ending, PAX over, and a commission out the door I can get back to really pushing my painting and hopefully being a semi-useful member of the community here :)