Artist Spotlight & An Interview With Faraz Shanyar
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From Tehran, Iran, to the world, Faraz Shanyar is a very influential figure in character design and concept art. His work has afforded him opportunities to work for leading companies like Volta, Moving Picture company, and he is now the senior concept artist for “MachineGames” in Uppsala, Sweden. His industry knowledge ranges from animation, illustration, digital illustration, drawing, art direction, traditional animation, storyboarding, and video games.
Shanyar’s work in character design and concept art shows how incredibly gifted he is. This talent has earned him the respect and admiration of other big names of illustration like João Garcia. He can produce game art on everything ranging from medieval to fantasy to cyberpunk. This versatility has also allowed him to work on movies like Disney’s Aladdin, The Lion King, and the upcoming Dune (Wow!). In addition to working with MachineGames, he has also worked on projects with Rockstar games—the makers of GTA 5. If you love matte painting, then you should check out his work as well.
Apart from concept art, illustration, and character design, his other interests include music, movies, video games, and painting. He prefers to game on Xbox, and his favorite games are Manhunt, Gears of War, call of duty, Kill Zone, Red Redemption—you catch the drift. Shanyar also loves to read, and his most recent favorite writer is Hedayat Khayyam.
If you would love to know more about Shanyar, check out his complete portfolio and follow him on his social handles.
ARTIST INTERVIEW:
What City, State & Country do you currently live in?: uppsala-Sweden
What is your primary art application?: Photoshop
What are some of the other mediums, or applications you use?: Procreate.
I also use pencil, ink, water color and other traditional mediums
What are some of your favorite reference materials?: Iranian culture and Persian mythology has a huge impact on my work beside that many great movies and books from all over the world inspired me through my career , Movies like children of men, city of god , paprika, stalker, the seventh seal. The seventh continent, my dinner with Andre, I Daniel Blake, full metal jacket and novels like master and margarita, 100 years of solitude, Blindness and many more.
Recently I am reading a book from joe Sacco that I really like also Adam Curtis documentaries are really inspiring specially the last one “can’t get you out of my head” and his music playlist is awesome.
Do you have any artistic weaknesses that you're actively working on to improve?: I have lots of weaknesses but I can’t prioritize them , recently I start to learn 3D sculpting it helping me to understand lighting and anatomy in a different way
What made you want to become an artist?: My father
What are some of your favorite things to draw and paint?: Characters and historical scenes
What artistic accomplishments do you see yourself achieving in the next five to 10 years?: Making my own short animation or graphic novel
Who are some of your favorite concept artists, or illustrators that you draw inspiration from?: I have many favorite artists I just name some of them that Coming to my mind at the moment, for example:
Sergio toppi, moebius, katsuhiro otomo, euan uglow, Ilya repin, robert valley , Neil Ross .rael lyra. Andrey surnov. Hasan tabrizi, Arash radkia,
Did you have any professional training? If so, what schools, or classes did you attend? If not, what process did you use to achieve your level of artistic talent?: I went to art school and art university in Iran, during the university I start working for magazine and animation studios
What is an interesting bit of personal info about yourself you could share with our readers?: I started my career with 2D animation I wanted to become 2D animator.
What is one bit of advice you would give to an aspiring artist like yourself? Something you've learned from experience along your journey?: Trust your own taste and study from whatever you like. don’t limit yourself with trends.
Artistic achievements? This could include jobs, projects, awards, accolades, etc... Anything you consider significant in your art career.: These are some of the projects that I worked on:
Cover art for Witcher books (polish version)
Character design for outlast 2(video game)
Worked on movies like : lion king aladin and upcoming dune.
Worked as illustrator on the control(video game)
And now working as senior concept artist at Machinegames
ARTIST PORTFOLIO:
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