We interviewed Alexander Jovanovic, CG artist from Belgrade, Serbia.

Hi, Alexander! First of all, please, tell us a few words about yourself.

First of all,I would like to thank you for the opportunity to give an interview.
My name is Alexander, I’m 28 years old CG artist from Belgrade, Serbia, and last two years I’m the concept, texture and environment artist in small independent studio for game development “Paprikari Enterprise”.
I came to the game industry from advertisement and film industry where I was involved in many interesting and challenging projects for a few years.

When did you start doing digital painting? What was your first and what do you remember about it?

I became interested in digital painting several years ago, during the production of animated feature that required a lot of matte paintings and texture paintings as well.
My job back then was completely different, I was an environment modeler, but since I as surrounded by so many talented artists I decided to give it a try.
I’ve had many years of traditional drawing experience, mostly with comic books, storyboards, concepts etc. so familiarizing myself with tablet and digital medium was much easier task, 3D background also helped a lot.

Alexander, what was the reason of choosing this occupation? Did you start it as hobby or your aim was to build up a career in this field? Did you have any Art related schooling?

Drawing has always been my occupation, it started as a hobby, but as time passed by it became my life and my career.
I draw a lot in high school, and later on animation studies, where I also fell in love with 3D.
A lot of practical information came from studies of art history, but I mostly learned from practical experience and different work projects.

Let’s talk about your works. Looking through your portfolio I noticed some cartoon characters. Where do you get the ideas for these amazing artworks?

Thank you for the comment, many of that cartoony characters are imagened for exercise, or for some specific projects, Some of those concepts were never used, but I still keep them.
I have plenty of them in my drawer, and whenever I have some spare time i scan, clean and colorize them.
Way back I used to read many french comics, and they were huge influence on my work, artists like Moebius,Franquin, William Vance still inspire me a lot.
One part of influence came from Japan, from authors like Katsuhito Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki etc., so it’s bit of a mix.

I think it will be interesting for our readers to learn about your work “Farewell”. Where do you get inspiration and ideas to create this artwork? Please tell us in detail about the process of its creation. What stage was the most difficult for you? How long did you work on it?

“Farewell” was just a concept for a while, I drew it couple of years ago, scanned it, and it was actually my first attempt to digitally paint some environment, I just bought my first tablet.
Unfortunatelly some other projects came around, and I did some other paintings instead.
Now when I think, I believe it was a good thing, because I practiced a lot, and I developed my skills to the point when I could achieve look and feel I was aiming for very quick, without any struggles.
Basic idea was to create fantasy environment, something you couldn’t see any day around, and that will catch a glimpse of childhood fantasies.
First of all, I block my image with colors, and try to set a tone for the scene, in this case, I tried to capture a feeling of a coming sunset.
As I’m working in 3D field, my everyday routine became to break apart every image I made on different passes, and I compose them later, I’m doing that like many other artists, for a purpose of better control.
Same principle I’m using in digital painting, after a layer of basic colors I’m making one layer of shadows, then one layer of contact, very soft shadows, layer of highlights etc.
At the very end I’m adding some practical layers for color correction, volume light, depth of field if necessary …
Most difficult task on this project was to create a grass in the front part of the image, I tried to avoid flat look and to color it just in green with few variations, so it took me some time, but never the less, I finished the painting for a four days, I used the whole weekend to accomplish it.

Do you have any works done just for yourself? When you are working on personal projects what type of work do you like to do? Do you have any favourite characters, themes?

“Farewell” is one of the projects i did just for myself, and I have plenty of them, some professional projects I still cannot show to the public yet.
Whenever I have some extra spare time, I’m working on animated short for myself, along with some other still frame images.
I’m mostly interested in fantasy, sci-fi themes and I really enjoy working on them.
Last year I was deeply in medieveal themes, and now I’m recreating some futuristic worlds.

Are you a perfectionist? How many renders does it take you to achieve that final perfect image you are happy with? Have you any tricks and your own “know-how” in painting, if t’s not secret tell us about them?

I’m trying to be as big perfectionist as possible, but I’m still learning to improve myself and my eye, and I probably will for a long time.
Every new project is a new challenge, and a new opportunity to break a previous bar.
Unfortunately I don’t have any special tricks in my sleeve that aren’t already known to the public.

What do you feel are your the most productive working hours? How do you manage to avoid procrastination and hit deadlines effectively?

It really depends from the project itself, sometimes I could work for 12 hours with maybe just an hour break, or even whole night, but lets say that I’m most productive for 8-10 hours, everything beyond that is my willing to accomplish something.
I learned during the last few years to work fast and to remain calm and professional till the last minute, it’s something that i learned.
I used to work with so many rush hour deadlines that it just became second nature.

How do you manage to combine your personal life and work? Do you have any hobbies? Is it easy for you to find the time for your family, friends?

I’m lucky at the moment that I have freedom to choose my working hours, so I have very good schedule, I manage to work, be with my family and even go to faculty and do some personal artworks.
It wasn’t always like that, I’ve had some periods in my life when I used to stay on work very late, sometimes the whole night and weekend, and it wasn’t so nice, but I didn’t have a choice back then.
Considering hobbies I’m big fan of photography, but I’m still learning, and struggling, but it’s a great playground.
As I’ve said previously I’m also drawing comic books, and I like to cook somethimes, it just relax me.

What can you say to inspire those artists who are just starting to work in CG?

This is a difficult one, I personally believe that if you give your best, you will receive all the best in the same manner.
Constantly improve your skills, and try different techniques.
You should never give up, pursue your dream as long as you can, pay attention what critics might say, and some day it will pay off.
I know from my own experience that critic should always be taken as a way to improve yourself and skills, you should not react with your heart like many artists does.

Visit Alexander’s web site

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