Wuhu feature
Text | Moda
See him for the first time
He was drawn to his cyberpunk world
Neat lines
Rich but not cluttered content
Each character has a distinct personality in his pen
In the spirit of curiosity about the author to delve deeper
Discover that he also painted a poster for The Witcher 3!
The familiar sense of lines and the richness of detail are fascinating
Indeed, you can see the author's unique painting style
This is not at all guessable
The big guy has never received any professional training
But learn more about this author
You'll find that the game poster isn't his favorite
Want to really understand the person's thoughts
Must see the editorial illustrations he drew!
Parents tried their best to carry their young children to the finish line, but even the faces of the children who were held at the front were not happy. Ahead, the first prize is a glittering trophy placed on a high platform, while the second place can only get a sprouted potato on a red brick platform.
The name of this work is "Industrial Revolution". When the Industrial Revolution arrived, Santa Claus lost his job.
In the fire, a couple slept peacefully, and the surrounding firefighters reminded each other not to wake them, even if the edge of the bed was scorched black under the licking of the tongue of fire.
The illustration is called "Freedom." The men lay stiffly in their suits in their "workstations," their eyes wide open and their necks folded to look at the only exception—the man in a casual sweatshirt and playing guitar on his legs. Their faces did not know whether it was envy or anger.
The name of the illustration is "Against Child Slavery." A cute little blonde girl looked up at the monster man with a big belly in front of her, who was seducing her with a strange smile and the candy in her hand. Looking closely, behind him was a van, and the man's partner behind the car quietly opened the door, and in the crack of the door was a cage, chains, and the terrified face of another child.
The above three photos belong to the same series. Although the scenes are different, all three people face the same situation - they slip and fall because they shoot cockroaches, and they look like they are about to have an accident. The grave robber tripped over the table, and under him was the sharp tip of the gun in the hands of the cultural relic; many cats and the women of the cat ornaments in the family were tripped by the cat and pounced on the Western sword in the hands of the cat sculpture in front of him; the poacher was tripped by the net, and what awaited him was a hunting clip shining with cold light on the wall.
The artist turns his brush into a sword, pointing directly to the absurd reality of society. The sharp ideas in his works are more dazzling than the painting skills, which makes people very admirable.
And he is the protagonist of this issue: Michal Dziekan, let's listen to his story!
Michal Dean
Character design | Conceptual design | illustration
Growing up in a small town in southern Poland, Michal Dziekan had no one in his family who worked or had similar hobbies related to art, and he didn't love art so much as a child that he wanted to make a living in the future. Michal's reason for starting to paint was simple— he just thought it was funny, so he stuck with it.
When Michal was about fifteen or sixteen years old, the Internet era arrived, and he began to learn to find what interested him on the Internet, that is, since then digital painting and 3D art forums have attracted him. Soon after, Michal managed to buy his first tablet, and he tried to paint in PS. But when Michal later recalls that period, he laughs at himself for painting badly, because he never painted that way, nor did he deliberately exercise his painting skills, as I said, just because it was funny.
Later, after Michal graduated from high school, he had to start thinking about the future direction of life. In fact, Michal has always been very fond of mathematics, and he wants to work on it. But he couldn't give up his love of art, so he finally decided to choose a compromise path, that is, "architecture" that combines the beauty of mathematics and art. Michal then began to study architecture and taught himself digital painting in his free time. The painting course he took before an architecture exam was Michal's first training in painting, and according to him, he still benefits memmensely from what he learned today.
The Industrial Revolution – 2007
Three years later, Michal graduated from college and worked for an animation studio. In the early days of his career, two people had a great influence on him. The first is Scott Eaton, a famous British designer, photographer and sculptor who admired the natural beauty of the human body and created a website to document the beauty of the human body's power, from whom Michal learned the anatomy of art.
Screenshot of Scott Eaton's teaching course
Another spiritual mentor is Steven Silver, an artist who has worked as an animation director at Disney, Sony Feature, and Nickelodeon Animation, whose character design has been awarded the National Cartoonists Association Television Animation Award.
Steven Silver works on display
In addition, Michal has always been experimental and tries to develop his own style. Even though he made a lot of mistakes by testing the new method, he was satisfied with the progress.
During his artistic career, Michal was very touched by the support of his family. His parents and wife were always strongly supportive of Michal's career decisions, which kept him from too much pressure. This support gave Michal great comfort and confidence when he decided to quit his well-paid digital artist job in architecture and become a freelancer. Michal later recalled that it was a difficult choice for himself, but he was glad that his decision had actually started his artistic career.
After becoming a freelancer, what did Michal do mainly? A: Editorial illustrations.
Editorial illustrations have a long history of political satire, especially in political cartoons, and Michal accurately satirizes the absurd details of society and everyday life through grotesque, humorous illustrations. There is a strong desire to talk in his works, so that you can't ignore it, and you can only fall into a long meditation after reading it.
Ancient civilizations
swimming pool
Family values
abandon
Happy Harry
Human Cave Series
Play cards
2021 is already the tenth year of Michal's freelancing, and Michal's favorite work in this decade has been an editorial illustration for the Polish magazine DużyFormat. In the process of creating many collaborations, he enjoys almost 100% freedom, which is very satisfying.
For three years, Michal painted more than forty illustrations for DużyForma, the longest collaboration DF has had with a single illustrator to date.
“Ughhh...”
"Hunting drunk drivers"
"The King of Loans"
"Sell it all!"
"Great outdoors in Poland"
"Student"
"Please hire me"
Editorial illustration may have been more than just a job for Michal, as he also painted many individual works of the same style in his spare time. Making hobbies a job sounds like a lot of fun.
In addition to editorial illustrations, Michal became the lead illustrator for the largest advertising campaign of the Polish National Bank PKO Bank Polski in 2010. Between 2011 and 2016, Michal created more than 300 illustrations for the event.
Michal's work is always full of details, and every painting must be magnified to look carefully, and every movement of the eye can feel a different kind of fun. Everyone is doing their own thing, and everything seems chaotic and orderly, full of the breath of life.
This makes people wonder how Michal would feel when he was creating. He may have quietly planted several Easter eggs in his work, imagining that someone would find them unhappy and then secretly laughing?
But to discover all the Easter eggs that Michal buried in his work requires not only a good eye, but also a lot of knowledge.
It is better to choose a day than to hit the sun, or to challenge yourself now?
Michal hides 127 games in the image above, how many can you see?
Let's zoom in
Of course, Michal's illustrations are not just this style, but either style reflects his preference for lines and super control.
Sometimes, Michal will also turn out the past works and re-draw them, and the reset version of the work is obviously a little more exclusive to Michal.
(On the left is the 2012 work, on the right is the 2020 repaint version)
Draft work
This sense of line is also reflected in his characters. As mentioned above, Michal was very fond of mathematics and later chose to work in digital art in architecture, so in his works, you can see a lot of unique and harmonious shapes, and the beauty of geometry is revealed.
Even though Michal is now widely acclaimed among his peers in the industry and has won many heavyweight awards, he has never been proud of these reputations. On the contrary, he felt that he was not very satisfied with all his work, and he still had a lot to learn.
Character design for the game Seven: The Days Long Gone
Perhaps because of this mindset, Michal accepted the poster work for Cyberpunk 2077.
Although this is his first contact with cyberpunk, you may not see this trace in his work, and those who are not familiar with him think that this is some big guy who loves cyberpunk!
Unconsciously, a decade has passed since his life as a freelancer, and Michal once lamented that freelancer is really a good fit for him. More flexible working hours and work content allow him to spend time on his own design and do it best.
Michal enjoys this life of resting at any time and without having to explain it to anyone, in fact he himself is a very organized person, and the freedom to control time will not prevent him from completing his work on time, but will give him the opportunity to enjoy life.
However, Michal was also very honest in an interview: Sometimes I do miss the time I used to work at the company, because I didn't have to contact clients myself and spend a lot of time writing emails and attending meetings, and the company took care of everything, including health insurance, paid vacations, and all kinds of paperwork, and I just had to bury my head in the painting. But as a freelancer, you have to do everything yourself.
In addition, Michal also mentioned that his former colleagues gave him great help:
"I started out working in an animation studio where I was mainly responsible for concept design. But I'm eager to learn new things like motion design, animation, composition, etc. When I started learning from scratch, being surrounded by other artists who specialized in these areas was very helpful to me. When I'm stuck, I can always grab someone and ask him for advice. Without them, I might have taken longer. And the style of my work is experimental, and there are their suggestions. So if you also don't have a professional education or training, it's important to find someone who can provide you with good feedback. ”
Michal's work for nearly a year
Michal's composition and character design are very distinctive, where did he get his inspiration? Answer: Books, movies, music, any story you hear or see, nature, people, the world, everything is great design if you look closely. The first film Michal ever saw was Batman directed by Tim Burton, and the other one that impressed him as a child was Python and the Holy Grail. It wasn't long before video games came out. Michal's cousin recommended Magic to him, and Michal fell in love with it at once. This love is not limited to the game itself, but also to the beautiful patterns on the cards.
In addition, the influence of animation cannot be ignored. Michal said that when he was in elementary school, the first thing he did when he came home from school was to watch cartoons, and at that time, animations such as "Cosmic Legend Ulysses 31", "Cosmic Giant Heyman", "Detective Gajet", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series", "Dexter's Lab", "Jack Samurai" and other animations deeply attracted him.
Later, the Internet brought a new inspiration, which also helped Michal find his favorite style and theme. Michal is always keen to identify problems by participating in the creation of socially relevant themes, sharing his views on the world around him, explaining the current situation of the problem for the "imperfect" world, and pointing out conflicts to the point.
But imitation and liking are not enough, Michal believes that the great influence on the formation of personal style is the accumulation of daily materials and daily exercise. Here's what Michal shared with care.
Here's an example of a dog.
First, Michal looks for photos of different breeds of dogs and goes to some video references to understand the dog's behavior. Then he would write down some keywords with a spider web diagram to remember that knowledge.
The second step is to quickly draw some graffiti with a pencil, the lines do not need to be very compact, and it is enough to keep them loose. But it's important not to "copy" the photo, but to try to capture the common traits of adult and puppies. If needed, you can also do some untangling research, which helps creators to "pull" a dog from memory anytime, anywhere.
Let's take a look at Michal's creative process.
The name of the painting is "The Last Job."
For Michal, the most important part of the creative process is the idea, sometimes it's the easiest, sometimes it's the hardest. In this picture, the idea is very simple – the thief is forced to complete the final task. When the idea is simple, Michal will focus on storytelling, mood and composition. Creation starts with sketches, and Michal usually draws a lot of rough sketches with a pencil and then selects characters and poses from them.
In Michal's vision, the story takes place somewhere in New York, such as Chinesetown. Old cars were parked in the back alleys, and pawnshops could be seen on the side of the street. Because he wanted to show the dynamics of the character, the car naturally had a curvature, and the camera was set lower, as if someone was hiding there because of a gunfight. Michal will then start working on lines, paying attention to the thickness of the outline, and drawing thicker lines for things that are closer.
Haven't seen enough?
Then look at another set of painting processes
In addition to small suggestions on painting, Michal does not hesitate to share his life and work experience with others:
1. Balance your life. I try to strike a balance between family, work and personal work and play. I also try to stay healthy and eat healthy food. This balance allows me to maintain a good mental state, so so far I have never complained about my lack of imagination.
2. Go with the flow and do what you love. As long as you have a good time, don't try too hard. Life is not a game, there is no one in the world that is absolutely right, you don't have to stick to the decisions you have made before, if you are not satisfied, just change the way.
3. Try new things. There are more than seven billion people on the whole earth, don't force everyone to become a person, you should find your own voice, there is always one that is best for you. When I was young, I really worked hard, and every day I was hard and tired and stressful, which really made me learn a lot, but I just couldn't draw what really belonged to me. But when I go out and start trying new things, I feel like everything is easy.
Some people say that artists should have a sense of mission, and the famous artist Van Gogh has always carried out his belief that art should care about real problems and explore how to awaken conscience and transform the world.
Don't know if Michal's stories and tips inspired you?
I wish everyone could find something they enjoyed doing!
This issue ends here
We'll see you in the next issue
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