The Troubles are not the only thing. Russian artist who had a hand in Hearthstone and Baldur's Gate 3

Konstantin Porubov is a Russian artist who can be called our man in their game industry. And he worked not with some primitive clickers, but with projects from the big leagues, to get into which many modern artists consider it a blessing. We will talk about how Porubov managed to do it and about his contribution to the world gamemade in this article.

Eternal. Work done for KuzinskiyArtContest3

According to the artist, he has always loved to draw, but at first he never even dreamed of working for the company that created his favorite games. When he was studying at the institute, in addition to studying artistic forging and casting, he thought about how he could get a job in the gaming industry. He thoroughly studied Photoshop, worked a lot with a graphics tablet, and at the same time in his free time “tormented his old computer with games”. For his graduation project he invented a board game, which, in his youthful naivety, he wanted to sell to a publisher. But no one was interested in the creation of yesterday's student, and Porubov started working as a sales consultant.

Spying Imp

However, he did not give up his attempts to break into the game industry: he sent his CV to all the major game companies. And then he encountered the usual paradox of an aspiring specialist: to get a job, you need experience, and where can you get it from if you don't get hired anywhere.

But one day his work was still of interest and he was offered to draw a couple of concept-arts. They liked them and Porubov was offered a few more projects. According to the artist, working as a freelancer is a constant need to meet the expectations of the customer. If you slip up in something, you won't be scolded, but you won't get an order, and your reputation will be tarnished.

Gutmorn, Pactbound Servant

So every art is a new challenge, but it's good that there are CTRL+Z keys that allow you to undo some unfortunate decisions. By the way, Porubov works exclusively in digital, which he has mastered at a very high level. He treats traditional painting with reverence, but his customers do not want his oil paintings, but digital art.

Total war sketches.

He usually prefers projects in the fantasy genre, which has become his favorite. He is very fond of fantasy games and books, citing Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Skyrim, Diablo, and The Witcher as his main sources of inspiration. Perhaps all this is a bit frivolous and too close to mass culture, but Porubov adequately assesses the level of his talent and does not try to create something that can eclipse the works of Picasso or Leonardo da Vinci. He is just a capable freelance craftsman who does his job honestly, but that's what modern mass culture is based on.

Diablo 4 fanart

According to Porubov, if for an ordinary artist who draws some cartoons or graphic art, his own style and originality are more important, then in game design it is a well-honed technique and the ability to fulfill the required task in a precise and timely manner. Uniqueness is important if the artist is invited to set the overall style of the project, but such proposals serious customers make very rarely.

Concepts for Serpent's lair

For each artwork you have to collect a lot of information, down to how the small buckles and rivets on the armor looked like. The art must be in line with the general style and lore of the game, but otherwise the artists' imagination is not too limited. For Porubov, authenticity is important, so he “excessively buries himself in details”, but he doesn't want to give it up, because otherwise the artwork turns out “without soul”, some unnatural and far-fetched. He has to study the game world through a careful analysis of form, functionality and color combinations, but without this, you can't create high-quality art.

Gith for Baldur's Gate 3

Games are much more serious than they seem at first glance, and behind the frivolous entertainment there is a lot of hard work of many talented people.

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