“Curse of the concept artist!” laughs ian McQue. “Without wishing to sound mysterious, i can’t really talk about what i’m working on at the moment, but i’m just finishing up on two movies and there’s some ongoing creative consultancy work on a game. oh, and i’m just kicking off a big personal project which i hope to announce soon.”
Well, there goes our scoop, but optimism is exuding from one of the UK’s leading concept artists as he updates us on his work. Having started his career at DMA Design ltd, which later became rockstar North, ian is known in the world of computer gaming for his concept art work on a slew of Grand theft Auto titles, going back to the very first one in 1997. Back then the game was a top-down gangland driving game, which ian helped evolve into the cinematic franchise we know today through titles like GtA: san Andreas (2004), where he was lead character artist, and GtA: the Ballad of Gay tony (2009), on which he served as concept artist.
Cultural Impact
“Working on the GtA franchise as a whole was obviously a significant part of my career, but it was with GtA iV: the lost and the Damned that i felt we’d created something that had a cultural impact outside of the games world,” says ian. “Being a big deal in the global media environment brought added pressure on subsequent releases, but feeling part of something so popular was pretty cool, and also rare!”
While working on the Grand theft Auto franchise has had a hugely significant impact on ian’s career, since leaving rockstar in 2014 a whole world of opportunities has opened up to the sunderland-born, Edinburghbased artist.
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Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av ImagineFX.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world
