MCAD 2024
The Art
of Ramona McKee Process, Sketches, IllustrationsMCAD 2024
Early Process Early Process Early Process
Gaming and everything entertainment has always been a focus during my entire college career. From working closely with esports organizations, to leading development at a start-up game studio, it has been my life’s passion. From a very early time in my life, it has been a cornerstone in my drive for art. Getting inspiration from professionals in the industry has always been step one.
I commonly use ArtStation and Pinterest for research (RIP Pinterest, you’re now an AI Hellhole). Emulation of professionals has been huge in my development. Game Art is commonly very specific in what they are looking for, and I don’t mind fitting a mold. Differencing my career and hobby art has been very important to sustaining my craft.
Doing character shape studies was also very important to continue on. I love to show my range in all the pieces I do and creating these really simple character silhouette pieces gets the idea engine burnin’.
Jane as a concept came along as an original character to belong as a side character to the 2021 game Disco Elysium, a game set in a post-war slum about solving crimes and finding yourself as a detective. Jane is the local librarian, staunch humanitarian, dedicated communist, and an immigrant from the isola of Samara (roughly based on real world China, Southeast Asia, Nepal). A lot of her development is in conjunction with a friend’s original character (depicted on the next page) who I was given gracious permission to use in this project.
Jane is a story on personal triumph and discovering yourself in an unfamiliar space. Her story is also a space to share a lot of details about my personal struggle with substance abuse and Borderline Personality Disorder. I find it as a practice of self-love to develop characters who share similar traits and backgrounds to me. I can find love and cherishing in their stories, and I can find that in my own.
In further developing my characters, creating “plates” or key art for them is something that helps me a lot to further my world building. Jane as an academic and bookworm at heart, so it is only natural to place her in a jewel toned, warm environment, reading her silly books and looking real smart about it.
I have slowly blended into a more graphical style of painting, as opposed to my realism style in previous years with multiple passes of blending. I enjoy the planar brush textures (and it takes less time lol). I have went from using 10+ texture brushes to ultimately using only the Hard Round Transparency brush thats default with Photoshop. I believe that this transition has helped me more in the concept art sector, where speed and having really flexible ideas is more important than polish.
Post MCAD, I’d like to refine this method more, but these pieces are alive and can always be returned to.
Depecting truthful representations of charcacters has been the baseline of developing my skills as an artist. I think technical skills are more important to me then conceptual (although, I should work on those skills more). This piece was good practice in both skills, especially in coming up with creative solutions to both of those issues.
While not my character, I wanted to exhibit the same amount of care and thought into this work for my friend’s character. The character is dedicated to researching a phenomenon known as “The Pale”. A featureless, colorless radioactive enigma that will become the end of all things in the world (I’m not an expert, read “Sacred and Terrible Air” by Robert Kurvitz.)
To depict something that is essentially like the air was difficult, but the world presents a lot of nautical themes, so I decided on a cloudy, beach theme for it. It was really fun to paint in a traditional sense :)
SKETCHES & SHENANIGANS SKETCHES & SHENANIGANS
Especially this year, I have regained a love for constantly sketching and doodling. I have released myself from only having a drive to create finished pieces and have found great therapy and meditation in not finishing everything I start. Some things are best left in their rawest form, and I have found beauty in the sketch. Please enjoy the dumb drawings crafted from inside jokes, practice, or just doodling.
(draw and write here)
GUESTBOOK
(draw and write here)
GUESTBOOK
Thank you so much for looking at my work :)
My time at MCAD has been memorable and exciting the whole way through. I look forward to experiencing my artistic career from here and I know I will create great things.
Thank you to Jaime, Alison, Jacob, Joshua, Michelle, Mark, Crystal, Serena, Ronan, Valentin, Amiya, Bill, Mom & Dad, and everyone else who shaped me.
“Something beautiful is going to happen”