Gaming Inspired Art: Ian Wildling on MyETVmedia

Gaming Inspired Art: Ian Wildling

Posted 10 years ago by myetvmedia

Ian Wilding is 22 year old year old artist residing in Newfoundland, Canada. Currently he is taking a break from his BFA in Design at Concordia University. Before that he was working on a B.Sc in Physics.

Ian’s art blends not only gaming and art but also borrows inspiration from movies and frequently takes the shape of a movie poster. Some of Ian’s best pieces have varying degrees of dark undertones and cleverly manipulated red and black contrasts. I wanted to know more about the man behind these artistic pieces and his inspirations. Ian agreed to answer a few questions

What are your thoughts on the next-generation? Are you team PS4, Xbox One or PC and why?

“Right now I’m Team glorious PC gaming master race, partly due to having a decent gaming computer and also because I’m hoping that PC ports will be much more common this generation. If that doesn’t happen then the PS4 is the next on my list, Xbox One is going to need a long list of amazing exclusives to get me to forget the recent past. I wanted to want a Wii U but they played it pretty safe this year and didn’t come out with the surprises I was hoping for.”

A lot of your art is inspired by classic video games such as Metroid and Super Mario but it also seems to be inspired by movies. What movies have been inspiration points for you?

“I often look to movies from my childhood for inspiration, like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, admittedly due to the nostalgia factor. But I also find myself in that post-movie rush after Marvel movies, TLotR trilogy, Edgar Wright movies, sci-fi movies, etc. where I need to sit down and make something.”

What are your thoughts on the gaming art community and where do you think it is headed?

“I think, or maybe I hope, that as self-publishing continues to get easier we will see more individuals collaborating with game developers, and less incidents like Nintendo taking down Let’s Play videos. It’s a community of passionate and creative people, and I hope that more companies use that to their advantage.”

How do you see your own future in gaming art, or what do you hope to achieve in the realm of gaming art?

“Right now I’ve really only worked with posters and t-shirts, in the future I would love to work with more handcrafted art, or 3D printing, or different forms of limited-run printing. I just hope to make people think “oh hey, that’s neat.”

How long does it take to turn out a piece of art, going from idea to final product?

“I like to get down to business as soon as I come up with an idea that I can accomplish. From messy sketch to digital within a few hours, after that I try to do a final draft within a few days to a week. Otherwise I tend to nit-pick and second-guess myself when I leave it longer than that. I have a huge backlog of half-finished pieces that are stuck in development hell because I worked on them in piecemeal, instead of making decisions on the spot and going for it.”

What is your favourite piece of artwork that you have done?

“At the moment, I really like how my ‘Turtles Forever’ shirt designs came out. It’s a set of four shirts, one for each ninja turtle, that I submitted to Threadless’ TMNT shirt content and although I didn’t win, I am still very pleased with how the idea turned out. “

Who are your favourite artists and why?

“In particular, they all do varying degrees of gaming art with really unique styles, and I think that’s what attracts me the most to their work. Olly Moss’s work is incredibly clever, Cory Shmitz has a really modern style, Zac Gorman deconstructs games and their stories. Alexandria Neonakis (Beavotron) has a brilliant illustration style (and is a fellow Atlantic Canadian!) And James White (Signalnoise) does fantastic posters plus really interesting weekly podcasts (also a fellow Atlantic Canadian!).”

What is your all time favourite moment in gaming?

“I don’t think I can pick any one particular moment as being my favourite, but my top memories often have to do with multiplayer games. Playing endless rounds of Goldeneye or Smash Bros with friends, taking down a 40-man raid boss for the first time in vanilla World of Warcraft, or awesome fluke rounds in Counterstrike or Team Fortress 2 with a regular crew. I think what I like about gaming art is being able to share my favourite moments in solo games, like Zelda or Metroid, with others.”