Rebecca Sorge - Artist Interview

Ken Wong

www.kenart.net

Ken Wong is an Australian concept artist and illustrator, who has also worked as an art director and game designer. While still studying at university, he landed his first job as a concept artist through personal work. In his words, “I drew some fanart, and the game designer [for] American McGee’s Alice came across it on a fansite. He emailed me and asked if I’d like to do some freelance work on his upcoming game.” From that first freelance job, he built a relationship which eventually led to his first job as an Art Director.

           

           When questioned about his recommendations for freelance illustrators, he advised that “doing great art is only part of the job. Promoting yourself and making contacts is hugely critical to getting work.” He warned against relying solely on one off jobs. Clients who order large batches of work or return frequently are wonderful, and should be treated well.  He insisted that learning how to act professionally was essential, as was having an up-to-date, easy to browse online portfolio. His online portfolio “has been critical to [his] success.” He also keeps himself busy with personal projects, like developing games and apps for iphones and selling prints of original work. Being diversified seems to help illustrators stay afloat between big projects and he treats them as opportunities to learn new skills and gain perspective.

            For students just finishing school and looking for word, he recommended that they “impress. That's my number one piece of advice. It sounds really obvious, but I think a lot of students are unknowingly shooting for mediocrity and status-quo. Commercial art is about being surprising, inspiring and daring. I treat art like martial arts. I condition and train my creative self like a martial artist hones their skills and mind. Anything less, and you will end up second-rate.”

            Since Ken has had experience as an art director, I asked about what perspective he’s gained from doing that and what he looked for and encouraged in the concept artists he hired for his projects. He said that “when hiring concept artists, it's important that they have a design mentality rather than an illustrator mentality. Being able to do lots of rough sketches creatively exploring briefs and communicating them clearly and rapidly is more important than detailed rendering or 'glamour' shots. At the same time, I look for communication skills, the ability to take feedback, and a robust sense of design and aesthetics. I've always worked on teams where we might shift genre and art style from project to project, and the concept artists need to be flexible enough to dive into a whole new world each time.”