Fireball Island: Cover Story #1
Just as in any artwork, an artist's most valuable tools are composition, scale, contrast, tone, color and pose. When dealing with large, detailed scenes with complete background and many characters it's very easy to become overloaded..
EDITORS NOTE: This interview is with talented artist George Doutsiopoulos, who joined me on the site last year (you can see that interview here). I’ve long wanted to take a closer look into how box art is created and George was kind enough to let me interview him about his work on Fireball Island and it’s expansions. I hope to do more of these cover story interviews next year so if you have any suggestions for games, let me know in the comments or on social media.
Hi George, great to have you back on the site! Since we last spoke you've been working on the wonderful remake of Fireball Island. Can you tell us how you got involved in that project and what was your role?
Hi Ross, I'm really happy to be back, thanks for having me for a second time! Back in October 2017 I was approached by Jason Taylor, the art director from Restoration Games, who was looking for artists for the new Fireball Island board game. There was lots of art that needed to be done: boxtop art, card art, etc and the styles of the participating artists had to look good together and not clash with each other, so that part took time. Jason was very considerate and let us propose what kind of art we would rather take on. I felt I was a better fit for the boxtop art and Jason assigned it to me.
Fireball Island box cover - Initial sketch concept art
When creating the cover art for the Fireball Island base game box, what kind of mood or style were you looking to create and how did you try to achieve it?
Thankfully, the brief I received was great, as was the communication with the art director: detailed, thorough, concrete and fun. There were very specific comments regarding the color palette and the elements of the illustration (for example the burning tree, collapsing bridge, cut off rushing rapids were there from the beginning). Regarding style, Restoration games wanted to go for something that was epic but with healthy doses of slapstick and fun. Something with toon sensibilities but not childish, and detailed enough to attract all ages. That was really amazing because this artistic style that is part realism and part cartoon comes very natural to me.
Fireball Island box cover - Second sketch concept art
We also wanted an illustration where the island itself is prominent (mainly, Vul-Kar the volcano) and wanted distinct levels (foreground, midground, background). At first, as you can see in the sketches, I focused too much on the epic and slapstick aspects and created a concept that was fun but very busy. With the valuable guidance of Jason, we finally came up with a composition that had fewer characters but was more powerful.
Fireball Island box cover - Final sketch concept art
You also worked on the box art for the expansions, 'Wreck of Crimson Cutlass', 'The Last Adventurer' and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees'. The artwork on the box for the last two made up a greater image when combined so how did you manage to make both boxes interesting, yet work together in this way?
That idea was entirely Jason's (Editor: Jason contacted me to state the idea originally came from designer Rob Daviau) and I loved it as soon as he mentioned it. I hadn't done something like this before but I welcomed the challenge. Of course, creating a composition that needed to work as a simple illustration AND as two standalone illustrations sounded difficult at first, but it turns out it was easier than I feared. I worked with a lot of quick drafts, first focusing on the separate boxes without minding myself with the larger composition yet, to make sure the separate compositions were interesting by themselves.
Fireball Island - The Last Adventurer Expansion box art
Fireball Island - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees Expansion box art
When sketching I kept the Fireball Island logo in place because it's a very prominent visual element of the box and I wanted to take it into account from the beginning. When I came up with drafts I was satisfied with I combined the ones that worked into the larger composition, made any revisions necessary and was ready to start sketching and painting. I painted the final artwork as a single illustration, mainly to make sure the separate boxes join perfectly when standing next to each other.
Fireball Island - The Last Adventurer and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees Expansions complete box art
The box covers are packed full of energy, so what are some ways an artist can inject that into their creations?
Just as in any artwork, an artist's most valuable tools are composition, scale, contrast, tone, color and pose. When dealing with large, detailed scenes with complete background and many characters it's very easy to become overloaded, so I keep my approach as simple as possible: start from the big and overall and end with the small and detailed. That means that during the sketching phase I was at first concerned with the overall volumes and shapes (very important for the impression of movement and speed), with focal points and compositional axes (to create an appealing composition that helps guide the viewer's eye), with scale (to create the illusion of depth and perspective) and with pose (to create dramatic poses and expressions that further help create the illusion of action and movement). Then I experimented with color drafts, before moving on to painting the actual illustration. For me, making all the colors work in very large compositions is probably the hardest part so I spend as much time as I need to figure my palettes out.
Fireball Island - Crimson Cutlass Expansion box art
Choosing the local colors is not enough, not by far. I need a chromatic theme for consistency and character (Fireball has a lot of warm colours, for obvious reasons) and I needed to separate areas of primary, secondary and tertiary interest using warm and cool colors, contrasting and complementary hues and tonal contrast. I'm still getting the hang of this and feel I have a lot of room for improvement!
Fireball Island - Final product shot
Before you leave us again, what are you working on next?
Right now I'm working on a few different projects, the most fun and interesting one being the work I am doing for Arkhane Asylum Publishing in France. They are a classic role-playing game publishing company and I am currently illustrating the characters for their upcoming game "Malefices", set in Paris of the 1900s. They reached out after seeing some vintage ink illustrations in my portfolio which they felt were right for their book. It's a style quite different from Fireball Island but one I also really love working in!
EDITOR: You can find George’s portfolio here and see more about Fireball Island on Restoration Games website here.
(All illustrations copyright of George Doutsiopoulos, product shot by Restoration Games)
George Doutsiopoulos: Art in Board Games #23
The timing was perfect and so was the theme of the game. Some of my favorite things in the world are science, character illustration and board games, and STEM perfectly combined all three. What is more, I absolutely love vintage themes...
This week we have George Doutsiopoulos an artist who has recently worked on board game STEM: Epic Heroes and with publishers such as Hologrin and Desyllas Games.
Hello George, thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi Ross! You are very welcome and thank you for the kind invitation. I am a full-time freelance illustrator living in Thessaloniki, Greece. I work with publishing houses and companies, painting for storybooks, book covers, games, and advertising.
Now we know a little more about you, I have to ask, as a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
An artist! There were, of course, the occasional dreams about becoming an astronaut, an archaeologist or an astrophysicist, but I have been passionate about sketching and drawing ever since I could hold a pencil.
So how did you first get involved in making board games?
Well, to begin with, I absolutely love board games! Things like the fun memories of being a kid playing Hero Quest have stayed with me and inspire me both as an adult gamer and as an artist. Looking back, it is very clear to me that I have always wanted to be a board game illustrator, although I took it more seriously rather recently. A couple of years ago I did a few boxtop illustrations for Desyllas Games, a big board game company in Greece. I remember thinking “hey, I really like doing this”! The next step was to enrich my portfolio with some personal work that I felt would attract the kind of board game jobs I would prefer the most.
When you are working on the art of a board game can you give us a quick overview of your creative or thought process and has this changed at all since you first started?
It’s really not very different from the process of creating any other illustration project. The first thing is to make sure I have a very detailed and thorough brief. The preferred art style, palettes, target group, theme, dimensions, etc. are things I need to know beforehand. When I have everything I need I just stare at the brief for a few minutes (or tens of minutes!) and try to visualize the finished game – what it looks like, what playing it feels like, how my friends and I would react to it and what kind of art would make it as fun and memorable as possible. The next step is research and finding a reference from online sources. I love doing research for the visual elements of my illustrations (faces, clothing, buildings, etc) because it also serves as a form of brainstorming, although it can become time-consuming. The rest is pretty straightforward. I draw my sketches as close to what I envisioned as possible and try to figure out the final palette. When all is approved I move on to the finished artwork.
You were involved in the creation of STEM: Epic Heroes so could you tell us a little bit about what that involved and what were the biggest challenges you faced?
STEM is a card game that centers around prominent figures from the realm of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and their inventions/discoveries. My job was to paint character cards. In order to create rich and accurate illustrations, I needed to do extensive research for every character and find a reference for their face, body type, clothing, inventions and so on. A good facial likeness was important to me but sometimes finding appropriate reference was difficult, especially if the character lived before the 20th century. Another important challenge was keeping balances. I needed to find a good equilibrium between realism and cartoonism, historicity and superheroism, seriousness and colorfulness, all while making sure that the likeness of the characters and emotional impact of the cards were as good as possible.
What was the inspiration or core idea that drove your work on STEM: Epic Heroes?
First of all, STEM was an absolute godsend. It came at a time when I had become very tired of working mostly on children’s books and had been longing to work on something more realistic and adult. The timing was perfect and so was the theme of the game. Some of my favorite things in the world are science, character illustration and board games, and STEM perfectly combined all three. What is more, I absolutely love vintage themes. Aaron Hanna, a great art director and person to work with, noticed this and assigned to me characters mostly from the late 19th and early 20th century. So, this perfect mix of science and progress, character illustration, past eras, and gaming was more than I could wish for inspiration!
What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
Oh, all kinds of things. I’m halfway through “The Shortest History of Europe” by John Hirst, finishing Jeff Smith’s “RASL” and about to begin Phillip Pullman’s “The Book of Dust”. Which are very indicative of my favorite genres: history and science, graphic novels and fantasy literature.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to work in the board game industry?
First of all, I’d say make sure that you love (or at least, like) board games. Liking the object of your work makes things so much easier and more pleasant. Also, take the time to play lots of different board games, whenever possible. It’s the best way to become familiar with great board game artwork, different game mechanics and get lots of inspiration (and fun)!
Secondly – and very importantly, make sure that you’ve put some thought into what kind of games your artistic style would look better in. As soon as you have the answer, hone your skills and build a portfolio with appropriate art.
Do you have any current projects underway, or coming up that you’d like (or are able) to tell us about?
I’m always working on books, but I’ve also begun working on a very fascinating board game for Restoration Games! I am not sure I can share details at this point but please stay tuned!
Finally, if we’d like to see more of you and your work, where can we find you?
My primary gallery is in Behance but I also hang around in Artstation and Facebook.
(All images provided by George Doutsiopoulos, 2017).