WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR INTERVIEW #2 -James Kei of Massive Black Inc.

[Layil]

Round Two!!!

James Kei works at Massive Black as a Concept artist, where he sits in a corner and laughs at everyone from behind his wacom tablet.


CA- Can you tell me a little bit about your upbringing, your educational background?

JK- I was born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Japan and educated in San Francisco, where I’ve been living for 7 years now.


CA- Can you tell us a bit about how you ended up working at Massive Black?

JK- Before I attended the Conceptart workshop (SF), I, like many others, stayed up late every night to create a portfolio that would be noticed. The man who noticed it would be James Zhang. At that time he was the Art director over at the amazing studio Factor 5 in San Rafael. He had faith in my abilities and took me under his wing for 3 months where I worked as a junior concept artist. It wasn't long until he made the move over to Massive Black as Vice President. So a month later I joined him, and the rest is history.


CA- What was the most difficult part of concepting for you to learn? Design? Idea Generation? Technical skills?

JK- Luckily, I had training in the field of fine arts before I made the switch over to concept design, so I had a decent grasp on my technical skills early on. I would say that the design aspect of it was the most difficult, which is really the meat and potatoes of creating art for games. It doesn’t matter how well I can render form if the design is shit. It took me a while to figure that out. It’s like trying to polish a turd. It just doesn’t work.


CA- Give us your opinion of the influence the Internet has had on the concept industry.

JK- Enormous. I wouldn't be where I am now if the Internet didn’t exist, and that's the honest truth. The Internet is an amazing learning tool. It represents immediate access to the visual arts. Whether it’s high res images of master paintings, or the slick portfolio site of your favorite designer, it’s all just a click away from a daily dose of inspirational eye-candy. There are also online communities like conceptart.org, which are a great way to meet like-minded individuals that work together to hone their craft and inspire each other, not to mention the huge amount of worldwide exposure. That to me is worth more than 80 thousand dollars worth of tuition at an art school. The Internet also improves workflow. Search engines like Google are an infinite source of reference images for illustrators. I use it on a daily basis. The archaic way of creating reference back in the day was to save hundreds of magazine clippings in a file cabinet, categorized alphabetically. Man, am I glad those days are over.


CA- What do you think is the greatest single experience to have happened to you, that you draw on to create your work?

JK- Living in Russia for a month. Visiting the Russian National Museum on a daily basis changed my life forever. Staring into those Russian paintings for hours on end taught me humility, and inspired me to create great things. It really made an impact on me.


CA- How much do you really pay attention to other areas of art?

JK- I stay alert and try to absorb ideas from as many sources as possible., from nature to “The Antiques Road show”, you never know when a good design idea will hit you. It always seems to happen when you least expect it.


CA- How has working so closely with so many other talented artists at MB changed your artwork?

JK- Immense growth as an artist and as a human being, but not just me, the whole team is growing rapidly. We bounce new ideas of of each other, share techniques, and give each other honest critiques on a daily basis. The creative energy in here is nothing short of spectacular. I’m very lucky to be here, and it is a very exciting time to be involved in this industry.


CA- Describe a typical day at Massive Black.

JK- Total chaos. But in a good way. I’ve got Marko yelling at somebody to my left, and to my right Coro is taking off his pants or singing vulgarities at the top of his lungs. It's insane. And to be honest with you, I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.


CA- Are you satisfied with how far you've come?

JK- You mean with my art? No, and if that day comes, I'll call it quits. What I create today has to be better than what I created yesterday. That is the most realistic way for an artist to evolve.

CA- thanks a ton for the interview James, we're happy to have you with us.


And now for some art!

[Main Loop]

hehe polishing a turd.. looks like somebody remebers their class with craig nelson!

[rasdasa]

Another nice intro, thanks for the peek.

ras

[el coro]

dear james kei you are my hero. i want to be a conceptor just like u some day.
actually on a serious note, i am proud to share the air in here with you. mainly since it has been inside your body, and i jump at the chance to bring something into my body that has been inside yours.-c36

[Carnifex]

psst should an interview with coro come up,would you ask him from me how he came to the name coro and since when he's been using it?
thanx for the interviews so far,cool stuff.

[Main Loop]

i thought it was obvious its been his graffitti tag name for a long time.. or it might be ive been around for so long i think its all common knowledge

[el coro]

im not cool enough to be interviewed. so sadly the world will never know....-c36

[Victor B]

another great interview!

[rasdasa]

Originally Posted by el coro

im not cool enough to be interviewed. so sadly the world will never know....-c36

that's one trippy ass avatar. Took me about half a minute to catch what it fully says. It starts to beat faster too right? I didn't just imagine it speeding up...
hehehe <starts to sweat, shifty eyes>

p.s.
Goddamn that "beast" concept is rendered so nicely, feels like it's about too pounce as well.

ras

[Carnifex]

Originally Posted by el coro

im not cool enough to be interviewed. so sadly the world will never know....-c36

d'oh!

[Layil]

Originally Posted by el coro

im not cool enough to be interviewed. so sadly the world will never know....-c36

HAhahahah

thats what HE thinks...

muahhahah.......

[Kian]

James, youre a legend mate.