Five Tips For Becoming A Better Artist, From An Aspiring Video Game Designer

This post is presented in partnership with Adobe.

Pictured above: An illustration of a Griffon, for a mythology-based charity artbook. Created on Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CC by Stephanie Lee.

Making video games for a living is one of those jobs most people just entertain as a daydream, like ice-cream taste tester or professional puppy snuggler.

That’s not keeping 21-year-old Curtin University graduate Stephanie Lee from giving it the old sporting try.

Armed with a Digital Design degree and motivated by Pokémon (she calls it the “main inspiration for everything”), Stephanie is keen to work for a “triple A” video game company in the near future.

“I really like the idea of helping create something that will be viewed or played by a million people,” she told Student Edge.

“That idea excites me. I really want to put my work in that kind of product.”

The passion began, as mentioned, with Pokémon Sapphire, but evolved as she discovered even more artful games, like Heavy Rain and recently, Life is Strange.

However, realising how competitive the video game industry is, Stephanie has taken steps to bolster her portfolio and show off her skills in other industries, including the realm of comic books.

Stephanie applied for Adobe’s Make It With Creative Cloud campaign, in which, ahem, a fantastic foursome of students from around the world would get the opportunity to work with a certain marvelous comic book company.

“I thought I’d give it a shot and see where it leads me.”

Though Stephanie didn’t make the top four, she was interviewed for the opportunity to help illustrate an issue that was bound for Comic-Con 2015.

Ready to use that experience to her benefit, Stephanie shared some tips to help any aspiring artists hone their craft (and get a professional advantage).

Pictured: Illustration of a Bakeneko named Senri, from Japanese folklore, for an artbook project. Created on Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CC by Stephanie Lee.

1. Practise, doy.

“I know that’s a typical answer,” she said apologetically, but we say it deserves repeating. Right now even: "Practise." With the dual loves of manga and mythology, Stephanie’s frequent doodling of character designs are precisely what got her that Adobe interview. “One [of my submissions was] an illustration of a Hydra from the Greek myth. Another one was based on a Japanese legend named Bakeneko, which is like a cat-shaped ghost.” Sounds like something worth sketching over and over again anyway, tbh.

2. Don’t procrastinate.

“Every second you spend playing video games or watching a film, there’s someone out there studying and they could surpass you in terms of your skills,” Stephanie insisted, terrifyingly. “Because this is a pretty competitive industry, it’s best to not let anyone take your spot from you.” Organising your time is key. That said, if you can’t tear yourself away from your gaming console…

3. Don’t waste your procrastination.

… find inspiration from it. When Stephanie needs some creative rebooting, she turns to her collection of art books, admiring other people’s art and photography. “Sometimes I also like to do film shot studies; I just take a screenshot of something that I like and practise on how they set up the lighting and the costuming and everything.”

Pictured: Illustration of a Hydra for an exhibition in Mexico. Created on Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CC by Stephanie Lee.

4. Learning by hand is great, but digital design can be more cost-effective (and safer).

Stephanie started drawing at the age of four, eventually investing in Faber-Castells and professional materials at 13. A year later, she’d started working with Adobe’s digital suite. The benefits were immediately apparent.

“It’s not messy, that’s for sure. Everything is kept in the computer so you don’t lose your materials either,” she said.

“I feel like the digital programs, like Photoshop, provide a lot more methods as opposed to you having to buy another set of paints or a different set of materials for artwork.”

It also helps to avoid disaster.

“One time I was handing in my school assignment and the canvas was pretty big and I couldn’t fit it in the car and I accidentally ripped it.”

At least you can't really do that with a laptop.

5. Freelance!

Just as Kendrick Lamar once advised The Lonely Island on “Yolo”, Stephanie recommends freelancing as a decent way to sustain yourself and build up your portfolio (at least until that dream job opportunity arrives).

“I want to make more good examples of my character designs and hopefully environment designs as well. I’ll just send those portfolios out to companies or clients.”

It’s not a bad way to spend time until the long-fabled Pokémon Z is finally released.

All pictures supplied by Stephanie Lee.

Students can get 15% off the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan – including Photoshop – with Student Edge. Find out more.