Hi! I’m currently one of two concept artists working on the RuneScape team. I’m 30 years old, female and have wanted to work in the games industry since my dad bought our first Atari 520ST! I love art and drawing, so concept artist was my natural goal. I lived and worked in the North of England before moving to Cambridge to take my current job.

The role of the concept artist is to create the 2D pieces of art that the modellers and animators use to create the in-game assets. This might mean anything from rough mood paintings, to highly polished illustrations, to model turn arounds. It’s a very varied job, as you could be designing anything from furniture, to dragons, to people’s armour, to entire new towns.

It’s almost a year to the day that I started here, and I can honestly say I’ve loved every minute of it. I almost never wake up thinking I don’t want to go to work. Jagex is a really vibrant place to work, there’s always loads going on - I’ve never worked anywhere that has quite the buzz this place does. It’s exciting working within such a big team, and watching what you do work its way through the various stages of production, and being involved with the people who make it happen, and the people I work with are a great bunch, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Being in Cambridge is a big plus too, it’s a lovely place to live and work.

My favourite part has to be the variety in what I do. One day I might be drawing dragons, the next it’s coming up with a new bit of wall kit for a new environment, or designing the next quest reward. Each week brings its own challenges, and discovering ways to overcome them is hugely enjoyable for me. Least favourite is hard to decide on, since there genuinely aren’t many. I sometimes wish we had less limitations so I could really go all out with a concept, but then the product wouldn’t reach as big an audience, so it’s all about balance.

I work with one other dedicated RuneScape concept artist, and a team of modellers and animators who bring my 2d creations to life. Each project will get so much concept time, and a small pod of modellers and animators to see it through to completion, so I get to work with pretty much everyone on the team, as well as interacting with the content developers to make sure the history of the game and its inhabitants is taken into account when I’m designing. On average for a medium size quest project, say, there will be up to three or four individuals working on the graphical assets, including myself.

I think the biggest challenge is really getting to know the world of RuneScape. It’s got a very distinctive flavour that’s a little bit quirky and I’ve really tried to capture some of that in my own work, especially knowing how passionate the fans are about the world.

It’s a huge buzz, you just can’t get that kind of exposure anywhere else, and one of the reasons I do art is to see the kind of reaction it draws from people, be it good or bad. Not everyone will like everything you do, but if the majority are happy then I can’t really ask for more.

Fantasy art is something I’ve lived and breathed for years now. I immerse myself in it even when I’m not at work. I own loads of books by lots of different artists, and I post whenever I can on various art websites, spending a lot of time just browsing what else is out there, and being inspired by it. I continue to be overwhelmed by what my talented peers produce, and it pushes me to want to do work that is of the same quality for RuneScape. Apart from other artists’ work, I get very inspired by movies and music, and I read a lot of fantasy books, being a particular fan of Janny Wurts’ Wars of Light and Shadow series.

Oh, there might well be the odd hint here and there. Some might be proper hints, some might be red herrings. All part of keeping the fans on their toes!

At this time, I’m not sure, and I wouldn’t like to say one way or another. I’d certainly love to illustrate some more, if the opportunity arose.

MechScape has its own dedicated team of concept artists, modellers and animators, so I’ve not worked on any of the concepts. I do get to see them from time to time though, and I can say that they look pretty amazing, the concept team there has done a brilliant job of defining the MS universe.

I’m pretty much self taught. I went to school up to the age of 18, and art was actually my lowest graded subject, much as that surprises a lot of people. I got a D! But I was lucky enough to land a job painting traditional tiny paintings for an American company, and have been fortunate enough to land creative jobs since then, including a role as a lead designer for a graphics design agency. All the jobs I’ve done have helped me gain skills that are useful in my current job, but a lot of the technical art skill I’ve acquired has been gained under my own steam, in my own time.

I would say that if you’re thinking about being a concept artist, be very, very sure that you love art. You have to say that you’d be willing to draw even when you really don’t want to, and have to draw things that you might not enjoy, or find tediously boring. If you’d rather play video games or do other things than draw, then it’s probably not for you. If you draw for the love of it, then don’t rest on your laurels and presume the opportunity will find you. Look at what the best in the industry are doing and aim to make your art as good as theirs, try to figure out what it is that makes their work great, and do what you need to learn the skills you need to make your own visions as good. I spent a good year just studying anatomy in order to make sure my figure art was up to scratch, and I can’t stress how important the basics of anatomy, composition, light and form are. As far as portfolio advice goes, only put your best work in, especially on website portfolios. You’re only ever as good as your weakest piece, and I’ve noticed, having seen a fair few portfolios in my time, that there is a tendency to pad it out. Compare your stuff to people who are working in the industry and ask yourself honestly if you would stand much chance if you came up against them at interview. If you don’t think you would, then work on your weaknesses. Don’t be afraid of critique either. It can be tough being told where your work isn’t that great, but it’s something that happens on the job a lot, so if you’re not willing to accept and change it for the better, then you probably won’t get far in any paying artistic job.

I pretty much use Photoshop exclusively. I do use a little bit of illustrator every now and again, but Photoshop is my preferred program for sketching and painting. There’s also a neat little shape-creation program called Alchemy that’s often useful for sparking ideas.

Research is a really important part of what I do, and I do research what else there is in game, if I’m creating some new concepts. But more often than not I’ll look outside of RuneScape, to other games, to real life, to movies, anything that might spark that cool new idea, rather than recycling what’s already there. I don’t get to spend much time really playing the game at all, as my focus is on making sure my skills and visual vocabulary are up to scratch to create the best assets I can.

Crikey, this is a tough one. There’s a lot of work I’ve done that I’m proud of... a few concepts that are in the development pipeline that I’m really excited about, but of the things that are released to the players, I think the splash screen image of players fighting goblins in Lumbridge that I did recently is probably my proudest piece, I think it pushed the visual style of the game up another level.

PC or Mac? Mac! I own a G5, and love it to bits.

Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari? Firefox

PS3, 360, or Wii? 360

Funorb or Runescape? Runescape, naturally!

Favourite Runescape quest? Swept Away

Favourite game apart from Runescape? Halo Trilogy

Favourite world? Heheh that would be telling...

Favourite Runescape hangout? I'm really looking forward to being able to hang out in the Poison Arrow.

Ranged, Melee, or Magic? Mix of ranged and melee

Sara, Zammy, or Guthix? Zamarok!

Rock or Pop? Oh, tough one. Rock would just nudge it.

Dog or Cat? Cats!

Waffles or Pancakes? I can honestly say I've never had either. Does that make me some freak of nature?

(Admin edit: Not even on Pancake day?!)