With his wild and sparking textures and characters that ooze of personality Brazilian artist Weberson Santiago creates board game art like no one else. His artistic skills and wide portfolio range of commissioned work shines through in his work on games like Bloody Inn published by Pearl Games. And also artist on the newly funded deluxe Coup Brazilian edition. We are honored to present this interview the an artist we admire greatly – Mr. Santiago, from Brazil.
It seems like you are a classic illustrator working on all kinds of projects. How did you become the artist you are today –
I started coloring pornographic comic. I did some work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. In 2010 I illustrated a collection of opera books. After that I received many invitations to illustrate the classics of world literature. Shakespeare, Julles Verne and others authors.
Intersting – we here at GHG also did porn comics a long time ago 🙂 Your painting style looks very traditional. Do you paint more digital or non-digital?
Like both traditional and digital. The two complement each other. But I must confess I lean to the traditional painting, watercolor and acrylic the most.
What hardware and software do you use and what is in your opinion the best quality/assets of that software?
I have one iMac, one tablet Bamboo Wacom and I like to use Photoshop as software. I love paints, pencils and paper. The energy work is different, more fluid – which I like more.
How did you end up doing the art on Bloody Inn? and have you done art for other board games?
In 2013 I did a post graduation where I met an old friend who is called Luis Francisco, one of the owners of Funbox, a Brazilian game company. Luis told me that it would launch Coup in Brazil and invited me to illustrate the new cards. I accepted with great excitement. After the pictures were published in various forums and were well known around the world . I was very happy. I began to receive invitations to illustrate other games. Bloody’Inn and Art of War .
Would you consider the art in games equally artistic as a painting or sculpture ?
Of course. Whole process of construction of the images and the involvement of the players as well.
Could you roughly describe your workflow on the game illustrations. From start to the final image.
I do many sketches and try to see everything on the subject . In Bloody Inn I tried to see everything about the story possible, movies, read a lot and then afterwards get to the drawing. With good research – it is easy to illustrate .
Have you changed the way you make your illustrations from Bloody Inn to the special edition of Coup currently on Kickstarter?.
Ah yes. Every game , every story has a different way of illustrating . I try to involve the maximum immersion in history and then automatically the illustrations are different and customized .
When you paint digital do you mimic traditional mediums by for example, keeping all on one layer without erasing but painting over or do you use many layers or use the tools available as screen and multiply effects (seems like you experimented a lot with the Romeo & Julia poster)?
That’s something I like a lot . Even in the digital, do an illustration with traditional features .
What art piece in Bloody Inn is your personal favorite?
I like so much “the Cultivator”. The look and the clothes!
Can you name a few of your own favourite artists out there?
I like very much the Ralph Steadman, an English illustrator. Like a lot of Egon Schiele and Lucian Freud paintings. As for a Brazilian, I really like the Illustrator Ziraldo and the painter Candido Portinari .
A I had Steadmans “Animal Farm” on the shelf since I was young! I sense some sparks of him in your work. Finally – is there any place of inspiration, creative tutorials, or other resources you can advocate to aspiring artists? or personal projects you want to advertise.
I recommend a magazine called Illustrate Magazine. http://www.ilustrarmagazine.com/
I am preparing a large art book with my work over almost 20 years of work. I imagine it will be ready by the end of the year. Thanks for the opportunity.
Thank you Weberson. We are sure more art will come from you and that many game artists will be inspired by the – not so polished look – you give to the art of games.
