Kalen Chock is a concept artist and illustrator working in the video game and entertainment industry.
Check out his Portfolio
Head on over to http://www.robotpencil.net/ to learn about Kalen’s mentorship opportunities
Visit http://gumroad.com/k04sk for Kalen’s affordable art tutorials
Kalen Chock’s current portfolio examples:
WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE(S) OF ADVICE YOU CAN OFFER STUDENTS THAT YOU WISH THEY HAD TOLD YOU IN ART SCHOOL?
WORK YOUR ASS OFF…THEN WORK HARDER!!! This business is competitive and hard. If you’re in art school getting the education can also be expensive.
I wish my school would’ve shown me how serious and hard this career path is— but also how rewarding it is too. That is something I try to convey to my students all the time.
ARE YOU AS SUCCESSFUL AS YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE AT THIS STAGE IN YOUR LIFE? ASSUMING THAT THERE ARE NO SPACE-TIME PARADOX’S INVOLVED… IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME 10 YEARS (KNOWING WHAT YOU KNOW NOW), WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR YOUNGER SELF TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN YOUR CAREER AS AN ARTIST?
Personally I think I haven’t peaked yet, so I always feel like I can be way more successful, but I also think most artists feel this way. If I could give 19 year old Kalen some advice it would probably be: Don’t be too hard on yourself, don’t compare yourself to others (too much), to take care of your body by being more active, and to just enjoy the journey…it’s gonna be a long one.
AS AN ARTIST, WHAT DOES “SUCCESS” MEAN TO YOU?
Success to me is happiness and being able to do what you love. Not everyone wants to work on AAA games and not everyone wants to be the next big name artist, some may be happy working on small cell phone games and that’s totally ok. I think it’s important to not get caught up in the hype of things. Luckily there are so many paths an artist can take in their career and no one path is better than the other.
The three things I can do to achieve happiness in my career would require me to be nice to others, keep learning, and keep creating 🙂