Hey Dashi! Thanks so much for the interview. Let's start with what got you into art.
I feel that it’s
necessary to start by thanking you for having me! I consider your interest in
my work an immense honor! My lifelong journey with art doesn't have an exact
starting point that I could remember, but rather, I’m one of those kids who
plopped onto this planet with a pen in hand—or at least that’s what my mom always
told me.
“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. Thousands maybe.”
- Neil Gaiman
I
relate to these words in the sense that I feel like I have a thousand worlds and
stories inside me, and have always had the urge to communicate them to the
outside world. My preferred way of doing that has always been drawing.
Who or what inspires your work?
Almost every piece
of art I produce outside of my paid work is based on a song, or sometimes even
several, and it has been that way for years. I find myself inspired by lyrics a
lot, both for drawing and for writing. So, I guess it’s no surprise that I get
my share of inspiration from books as well. My inspirational favorites for the
year 2014 are "#GIRLBOSS" from Sophia Amoruso and "These Broken Stars" by Amie
Kaufman & Meagan Spooner, just to name a few.
As far as
inspirational art goes, I’m an avid admirer of Barbara Canepa, Lauren Faust,
Sarah Stone, Rose Bech, Humberto Ramos, Simone Legno and my respected peer at
Rovio, Javier Burgos. I also feel that it’s necessary to mention fashion while discussing things that inspire me! As
Miuccia Prada geniusly said, “What
you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human
contacts go so fast. Fashion is instant language.” I love dressing myself and
my characters up in different fashions such as lolita and my current favorite,
pastel goth. I have gigabytes after gigabytes of fashion photography saved on
my hard drives for inspirational purposes.
Are you formally
trained? If so, where'd you go, what degree did you achieve, and what was the
experience like? If not, how did you work up your portfolio for professional
work?
I am not formally
trained in my chosen profession, but I do have a Bachelor's Degree in
Interactive Media Design from Tampere University of Applied Sciences. My schooling
covered a variety of things from movies to graphic design and web programming.
While I completed my degree eventually, I was hired by an indie game company
during my second year of University and stuck with learning at work. I’m the
kind of person who learns a lot quicker by doing things rather than talking
about doing them.
But what my
schooling did do for my professional work, was to give me valuable contacts in
the form of amazing friends and acquaintances. If anyone’s entertaining the
thought of attending a school in the field of media and/or art, I’d highly
recommend them to make friends. These people are their weight’s worth in gold—in many aspects of life.
What is your creative process like?
I’ve always been an
“in war and love” kind of a girl when it comes to creating art. My methods tend
to be quick and dirty, especially in the beginning of the process. This usually
means I start off with a very rough, messy sketch, and the clearer idea I have
of what I’m setting out to create, the messier and quicker my sketches are. I
usually just put a gist of an idea on paper, because I still prefer sketching
by hand, snapping a quick photo of it with my iPhone, and draw on the photo in
Photoshop.
What
programs and tools do you use in creating your work? Anything you're especially
fond of that you'd like to recommend
to readers?
At home, my current
weapons of choice are an A5 sized sketch pad, a mechanical pencil, an iPhone
4S, a Wacom Intuos Pro S and Adobe Photoshop CC 2014. At the office, I use the same
type of set up, with the addition of having Wacom Intuos Pro L and Adobe Flash.
While my tools certainly make my job easier, my piece of advice would be not to
stare into the specs of your utilities too much. No tool will ever draw your
pictures for you. You have to choose what you’re comfortable with and what
complements your skill set, which sometimes means disagreeing with trends and
convention.
For how long have
you worked professionally?
I've been working
professionally for four years next February [2015].
What's
your typical workday like?
My typical day in
the office consists of Photoshop and a lot of green tea. What I do in Photoshop
depends on what phase the project is in, but the recent trend has been asset
creation. This is essentially recreating the game designer’s ideas in visual
form, and having a constant dialogue with the design team.
Depending on the
phase of the project, as well as the team’s chosen method of working, there
might also be a meeting or two during the day. I've been part of teams where we
started our days by having a meeting where each member of the team described
what they had done for the project in the past 24 hours. I've discovered this
is especially popular amongst open offices, where several teams work in a
shared space. Teams can avoid distracting each other when they take their
business to the meeting rooms. Now that I’m in a team with their own room,
separate meetings are not as necessary; we have a near constant dialogue going
and the team members know what’s happening around the project.
Unsurprisingly, my
time off from my paid work also consists of Photoshop and a lot of green tea,
with the variable of my dog Fontti (his name translates as Type Face/Font)
added into the function. During my personal project days (Saturdays and
Sundays) I usually just sit my behind down in front of my computer and stare
into the vast void of Photoshop, with the occasional food and walking break.
Currently you work
for Rovio Entertainment (maker of fine video games such as Angry Birds). What
is your role within the company?
I’m currently
credited as the Lead Graphic Artist in Angry Birds Star Wars II. I also have
history with other titles that fall under the Angry Birds brand, such as Angry
Birds: Rio and Angry Birds: Space.
Do you enjoy
working with a team of artist and designers? Or is your preference for solo
work to bring a project to completion?
I am most
definitely a team player. Working solo is not a problem for me, and it was my
preferred method of working for a long time, but for me, there’s no progress
without a team. I’ve discovered I perform better and faster with the right
people in the same room with me. Having the access to constant feedback from
your team is a privilege I’m very happy to exercise.
What's the workload like for artists in mobile games? When
designers create assets for a video game, is there a lot of content that's
never used?
The amount of
excess art is usually up to how clearly the game designers, as well as the
decision makers of the project, communicate their needs and ideas to the
artists. If there’s no clear idea of what the team is trying to achieve, which
is often in the beginning of a project, there is almost always piles and piles
of art that goes unused. That’s why I feel it’s important that the idea of
polished concept art is shaken and shed for good.
When designing an environment
for Angry Birds Star Wars II, for example, I often start with compiling a huge
moodboard and a pile of quick ‘n' dirty thumbnails, rather than start to do
something intricate. In a fast and swiftly changing work environment (which
the game industry essentially is), there will absolutely be times when you have
to go back to the beginning, even when you thought you were working on the
final design. However, a good conception phase can help to prevent this to a
certain extent. When applying for this line of work, the ability to “kill your
darlings” is always a good thing to list on your resume.
Projects like mobile games seem absolutely massive when it comes to the art
content. How many people are typically on the team for a game?
The size of the
team in mobile game development depends on the product the team is set out to
make, as well as the company culture. In the beginning of my professional
career I helped produce updates for King of Opera in a team of just three
developers: an artist, a programmer and a producer. However, when the
production values go up, so does the team headcount.
The biggest team I've been
a part of was around 15 people, including 4 artists. These days, the beauty of
mobile game creation is that you can pretty much go as big or as small as you
want, so there’s no set team size. However, during my 4 years in the industry,
the core development team has typically been around 3-10 people at a time,
including 1-3 artists with different responsibilities.
I admire your
Koneko-Chan artwork (character and merchandise). Tell us about the character and what
you're doing with that line of designs.
Koneko-Chan is one
of my absolute favorite things to talk about! Thank you for asking! She started
out as a webcomic character back in my last year in Upper Secondary (the
Finnish equivalent of High School). She was a side character in a story about a
demon hunter hotel, but after I dropped the comic, Koneko-Chan refused to be
dropped. I kept on drawing her in different outfits and discovered that people
enjoyed looking at her as much as I enjoyed drawing her.
To give a quick
summary, Koneko-Chan is a self-proclaimed princess, who loves cutesy stuff with
a side of creepy! She is striving to be the "Barbie" of creepy and
cute, and enjoys sporting all sorts of different fashions and professions. She
adamantly believes you can make your shortcomings into your strong points, and
become anything you aspire to be, so became a princess! She is also a firm
believer in the power of pink and likes to wear all sorts of things, including
(but not limited to) dresses and lingerie to show her fellow monsters that
there’s a lot of power in things that are traditionally considered feminine.
As her creator, I’m an avid believer in her
message and would like to spread it further. So, my long term hope and goal
would be to turn Koneko-Chan into a Tokidoki/Hello Kitty type lifestyle brand
with jewelry, clothing and everyday products.
You
did your first convention with the Koneko-Chan line in September. What was the
experience like? When creating merchandise from Koneko-Chan designs, do you
produce hand-made designs or send off pieces to printers and companies for
manufacture?
My first experience
in bringing Koneko-Chan to a convention was amazing, to put it mildly. I was
practically overwhelmed with the warm welcome the character/brand experienced.
While the brand is not profitable yet, I enjoy doing the conventions and
drawings because of the people who come up to me and tell me they like Koneko
or have been inspired by her.
As far as the
merchandise goes, some of it is printed by companies, and some of it I make by
hand.
Do you have time
for freelance work?
I don’t do
freelance for other companies since I’ve signed a non-competitive agreement,
but I have done non-profit volunteering for Tracon, the biggest anime/RPG
convention in Finland (with 6K unique visitors annually) for many years. I love
attending conventions and creating graphics for them, and I am still looking to
do this in the future. For Tracon, I’ve done mascot design and illustration
work since 2010.
What words of
advice do you have for aspiring illustrators/designers?
I always consider
myself a student rather than a teacher, and still have so much I want to learn, both in my professional and private art life. So I don’t usually give out
too much advice, because I’d rather ask for it.
Many thanks to Dashi for taking the time to answer my long list of questions and share her work and experience with us. As life-long students ourselves, here at Tuts+, the mentality of always striving to improve is shared tenfold and it's fantastic to see professional artists carry such ideas into their every day work.
For more of Dashiana's work, both personal and professional, check out the links below:
http://www.dashiana.net
http://dashiana.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/Dashiana
http://www.princesskoneko.com
http://www.facebook.com/princesskonekochan