Student blog: My top five games artists for inspiration

Emma Chilicuisa, Year 2 BA (Hons) Games Art and Design, has rounded up her top five games artists which never fail to provide her with a daily dose of inspiration.

1. Iain McCaig

Iain McCaig is what you’d call a true veteran. While his works and the projects he is affiliated with are undeniably impressive- most notably working on four Star Wars titles- it’s his attitude that leaves a mark on most people who come across any of his interviews.

The positivity that radiates off his approach to the creative process seeps through to this art and gives his work a certain air of life, which is why his designs and ideas are so sought after.

2. Jen Zee

Jen Zee, currently working as an art director at SuperGiant Games, is a model example of an artist who has combined illustration skills with concept art and game design. Jen is an exceptional artist who utilises elements and motifs from past art movements such as Art Nouveau, placing a modern take on concept art and illustration.

Her humble beginnings on DeviantArt are very similar to any artist growing up in this vast, slightly terrifying digital era and it reminds me that behind all those striking works, there is an artist who is also human.

3. Ahmed Aldoori

Ahmed Aldoori is a concept artist known to many of us through his eponymous YouTube. He solidifies his importance in the art community not only through his incredibly helpful tutorials, but through long discussions where he tackles personal thoughts on mental health, and how it affects one’s creative process.

By exposing his trials of balancing ego, insecurities, and perfectionism he gives his audience the reassurance that any creative needs to hear at one point or another.

4. Cedric Peyravernay

Cedric Peyravernay is a freelance concept artist, known for combining visuals usually linked with early 20th-century society and gritty mechanical motifs creating a steampunk-like world. With rough brush strokes, he displays a brilliant use of fine art skills with limitless creativity.

His concepts had a huge impact on the final look of the Dishonoured games, and looking through his portfolio anyone could see how using the mystifying look of an old oil painting brings fresh ideas to the table.

5. Alberto Mieglo

As his focus lies on cinema and traditional painting, Alberto Mieglo, a director, animator and gallery artist, can be seen as something of an anomaly on this list. However, taking inspiration from someone like Mieglo who sees the world through a completely different lens, makes me rethink approaches to creating.

His breakthrough position was working as the director and lead artist on the Netflix anthology series Love, Death and Robots, and later on as art director on the brilliant Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. His concepts bring a certain air of excitement and delirium to the screen which is what makes any project he touches so enticing.

Mielgo is an artist who has tightly held onto his creative voice and has been rightly praised for it; with that, I hope it illustrates to the rest of us that our strongest tool is the personal touch we add to our ideas.

Explore Games Art and Design