Hey guys! It’s Tim from the Epic Gamers group from dA to bring you another feature of an awesome artist in the Epic community. This week I interview Houston from deviantART, and he tells us a little bit about his amazing “Clayton Carmine” piece.

Arukun14: Tell me a little about yourself and when you started drawing.
Houston: My name is Houston Sharp, and I am nineteen years old. I have been drawing since I was in elementary school. My main hobby besides drawing/painting is playing video games, so I consider games to be one of my biggest inspirations in my art. I am out of high school, and am eager to start a career in art.

A: I noticed that most of your pieces are portraits. Tell us your process in some of them.
H: A lot of my pieces are portraits, but I want to get into other types of art as well (particularly environments and illustrations that tell stories); I suppose I am just most comfortable with portraits. The process I like to take when drawing or painting a portrait is to start off with the basic shapes and the gesture of the subject. This early stage will help dictate how much “life” will be present in the final image. Then comes placing the features, paying attention to expressiveness in said features, of course. Lighting and sculpting out the forms is next, whether you are painting from a subject/ reference, or from imagination. Then the fun details come last.

A: Have you played Gears of War at all?
H: I have packed many hours into all three Gears of War games. I enjoy the series, and even have some Gears merchandise (such as a life-size retro lancer replica, cog tags, etc.) as well.

A: I saw your “Clayton: Brothers to the End” piece. What inspired you to do such amazing work?
H: The Brothers to the End painting that I did was for the Gears of War 3 contest, held here on deviantART. I chose to paint the Carmine brothers rather than Marcus or Dom because I felt that Epic’s “Brothers to the End” tagline was more literally applicable to them. Plus, I – along with many other gamers – just love the Carmines. Even if they are rookies, they still manage to be bad ass, for lack of a better word. The toughest of the brothers still remaining to carry on the legacy of his fallen brothers was subject matter I thought a lot of Gears fans would enjoy, so I painted that.

A: Explain a little bit of your process in making the piece.
H: That Brothers to the End piece was completed using slightly different methods as my normal pieces. Normally, I start out a high-caliber painting with quick, messy, pen sketches which eventually go into Photoshop to be turned into high-quality line work. Then, I paint into those lines. With this particular piece, there was a fast-approaching deadline to be met, so I didn’t have enough time to make such line work. So I just skipped that step completely and started with blocking in the shapes and colors. I spent the rest of the work time on that piece rendering each aspect and polishing everything up. It’s a process that I wasn’t used to, but that I would like to experiment with more often.

A: Do you work mostly digitally, or traditionally? A mix of both perhaps?
H: I try to use a bit of both digital and traditional media into pieces that I am working on, but it is mainly digital now. I would say each piece I do now is about 15% traditional and 85% digital. Up until a few years ago, I only worked traditionally (as you can see with this pencil drawing of Marcus Fenix I drew when I was sixteen). But ever since I have become more comfortable with my tablet, I have been using it more and more. Nothing beats the authenticity of a traditional painting, but digital is just so much faster, cleaner, and convenient.

A: How about the “Clayton” sketch? How long did that take you?
H: The monochromatic Clayton sketch was painted in one sitting, in about 45 minutes (quite long for a sketch, but I got carried away!).

A: Any advice to your fellow artists in the Epic community?
H: If there was any advice to give to other artists, it would be try to constantly learn and improve. Learning is the most important tool for a creative mind, so don’t limit yourself. Learn from your own mistakes AND others’. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Make it an effort to better your artistic ability with every piece you create; if you don’t try to improve with each piece, you are only holding yourself back. Of course, keep drawing, painting, and studying!

Thanks for your time, Houston, and we hope to see more awesome work from you in the future!

Be sure to check out the Epic Gamers group on deviantART to see more awesome work!