Interview with concept artist Simon Boxer
Roaming freelancer Simon Boxer works hard – wherever he is! In the past couple of years, he’s lived and worked as freelance concept artist and illustrator through many awesome cities, including San Francisco, Singapore, Melbourne and Perth.
Simon creates for a variety of industries including games, film, TV and advertising. At most hours of the day, his hand is bound to his Wacom or sketchbook. His preferred tools include Photoshop and Corel Painter, with some work also in Illustrator.
Simon likes to work fast when drawing, but also invests good time in the digital colour work of his artwork. He says that it’s here in the colour work that he can manipulate and exaggerate reality. Sometimes he uses a more tactile approach and paints with acrylics and sponges to create abstract textures that he might not necessarily discover digitally.
A few of Simon’s artworks were recently in the Game/Play exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.
It’s good to see in amongst his travels, studio and freelance work, that Simon’s sense of humour is not lost! Check out his interview below for many amusing anecdotes.
Visit Simon’s blog and website for many more awesome (and much larger) illustrations.
How have you got to where you are today? I’ve always been keen on art-making, and a little suburban primary school in Perth made me feel like a creative legend when in year 1 art class, I coloured a picture of a clown without straying outside the lines. I was even awarded a certificate for this momentous event. Thanks, Miss Manning!
Outside school I spent a lot of time studying the ways of Commander Keen and Donatello. And I’m not referring to the Renaissance artist, but the Donatello with green flesh and a bowstaff. I spent many hours comparing how I drew Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to other boys in our neighbourhood.
Enter videogames and there was plenty of visual inspiration for my creative mind. Combine an interest in art with a technological upbringing (my father and grandfather were both computer savvy) and I always kind of knew I wanted to design cool things for the entertainment industry, but didn’t know how to get there.
My parents suggested Graphic Design as a seemingly artistic way to build a career. One graphic design degree later, I discovered that I actually wanted to be a concept artist, and looked to the internet for the art knowledge I needed to fulfill this dream.
After a solid year of being an online art hermit I was the 13th employee of a new games studio in Perth, which grew to over 100 employees across 4 countries (and 4 continents) at its peak. Of course, like many mid tier Australian studios we suffered a dire fate, further accentuated by some unfortunately dodgy management.
Since then I’ve been exhibiting artwork and working as a freelance artist for a range of digital media including games, film, TV and advertising.
In a few words, describe yourself… Ambitious, proactive, air drumming, karaoke singing, twitch gaming, beta breaking, picture making, stuff designing, spam writing spacecat vagabond.
What are you spending your time on at the moment? Bulk backgrounds for the pilot episode of a new Australian animated IP and some small jobs like storyboards and a commissioned painting. In my spare time I’m also working on a few personal projects which can be followed on my tumblr and other social media.
I’m quietly designing and doing the art for an iOS game, too, but I don’t like to talk too much. I’d rather show. All will be revealed!
Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process? In my current living quarters it’s barely 7:30am when the sun has fully lit the bedroom. I roll over a few times and make my way from the bed to the desk within an hour or so. There a MacBook Pro and intuos 3 are perched, sometimes next to a few walnut or banana muffins.
After or amidst tending to my emails and eating muffins I open up Photoshop and recommence where I left off the previous day. My creative process has now commenced!
When I had the luxury of sleeping in it wouldn’t be uncommon to start a personal painting around 11pm and carry through til 1-2am. I don’t really have a ritual but I definitely have moods where I’m keen to paint something in particular.
What or who inspires you? Passionate people are a huge inspiration. I love working for/with/around passionate people; People that are keen to make things they can be proud of, and have the drive to influence change.
Passion is nothing if you’re not actually doing something with it. I try to allocate my time to things I think are worthwhile; it’s not all about earning money, but at the same time it’s important to be appropriately valued by your employer. The environment and experiences also inspire me, as well as a huge range of media.
What are you most proud of? One summer I tamed a bobtail lizard that lived in our garden. His name was Robert.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Initially I wanted to be a transformer. I soon realised this was physically impossible and turned my sights to the more achievable goal of being a Scientist. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew I’d need a lab coat and glasses.
