Griseus is one of the designers responsible for bringing the Solarbots world to life on our screens. The self-taught artist explained to imimoqui how to make artwork stand out by going beyond the obvious when designing visuals.
 
Can you tell us a little bit about your background – how did you get your start as an artist?
 
Hmm. I can't tell you exactly how it all started. It wasn't that I saw the Mona Lisa and it shocked me into starting to draw. It all just came by itself. When I was a kid, I liked to draw and I was never a very talkative person. So I just observed a lot, and I think the practice of observing gives me an eye for details. If, for example, I had to draw a bunny for homework, I didn't draw an 8-shape with pointy ears – I tried to draw an actual bunny. I don’t know if that was any good – my drawing was the most accurate, but the 8-bunnies were definitely cuter. (laughs) After the bunny phase, I started drawing cars, that was my passion for years (Who knew that Chip Foose from Overhaulin’ would have such an impact! Man, that's really weird that this show got me here.) I did that until highschool, when I started watching Anime frequently and began to draw anime characters. And the rest just snowballed from there. In general, it was all just taking simple and slow steps across the years. My parents didn’t really want me to become an illustrator or artist so they never actively pushed that part of me, so that’s why I'm self taught. It’s not always the best way of learning but it was my only option to do what I like. 
 
And then how and when did you join the Solarbots team? 
 
When I do commissions, I always do sort of a “market analysis” first. I look at what people bought, what people want. Which kinds of things have the biggest demand and the smallest supply. That's why I learned pixel art years ago, for example. I didn’t usually like using Twitter in the past, so I used to get commissions in forums and stuff like that, but NFT was popping off on Twitter and there were many contests. So I decided to join twitter and compete in contests in order to get more followers. The idea was to the start posting my drawings to promote myself. The first contest I entered was a contest held by x912. I realised that there were no pixel art entries (after doing the “analysis” previously explained). So I figured that that would be a good way to make my work stand out, plus I put animations on it so that it could catch even more attention. My hope was that even if I didn't win the contest, I might still get a commission. Which is kind of what happened, x912 and I began to talk, he recommended me to the big bois on the Solarbots team, and that was the beginning of everything. So yeah, big thanks to x912, love u man, also big thanks to Miso and Voidling for giving me a chance and trusting me with the work.
 
What are you working on this week? Can you explain some of the details/challenges that you’re facing? 
 
I'm working on a new menu background image. It is not charged with deep visual messages like the previous one, but it's a bigger piece so it's hard to make because I'm such a perfectionist. For this one I want to render more textures, so that's the challenge: Perfecting a bunch of details that no one will notice and no one will care, and achieve a clear rendering with no misplaced pixels. And all of this on such a big canvas, especially for pixel art, and mostly using just a single pixel brush. 
 
What are some of the differences in working for Solarbots and other projects you’ve worked on in the past? 
 
I don't work for Solarbots, that's the difference! This is something we are making together as a team! Of course there is a little bit of a hierarchy, but Miso and Void don’t enforce strict rules or act all bossy. So it doesn't feel like work when you are just a part of the project amongst equals and you’re being treated as such instead of like a wage-slave.
 
Can you explain to someone who has absolutely no artistic knowledge: How do you go about designing for a completely new game? What are some of the first steps or decisions you have to make? 
 
When you are designing something, you have to think further than just the figurative image. For example: If you have to design something about love, you might think in figurative images, like a heart on a canvas. But those are the basic and most repeated kinds of ideas, they can be unoriginal. So if you want your artwork to be remarkable, you should try to push yourself further than that. Or reduce, which is just a different way of pushing. Maybe you would experiment with using a black canvas and putting one red pixel in the center: An abstract way of representing love in a sea of bad emotions. Of course you can’t forget to include hints of the main idea in the designs so people can understand it with no extra explanation, though. And that’s basically a miniature version of what’s happening when you design a game: You can tell stories through just a background image, but only if you can look further than the scene itself, and that's the hardest part of it. But for doing that you absolutely have to have a clear image of the main ideas of the game, so loremasters are extremely important. Luckily, we have some of the greatest.
 
Do you have favorite game aesthetics? Which ones and why? 
 
I don't know if I could pick just one. I really love Portal aesthetics in general – that game looks good in any aspect. Obviously Cuphead is a newer nice looking game, no need to explain. Minecraft is great, especially with shaders or RTX. Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, … there are so many good looking games, it would be a crime to just pick one. I'm not a big gamer so I'm probably missing some good games!
 
What is the biggest mistake people make when designing for games? 
 
That's pretty hard to answer because every game has its own different artistic approaches and ideas. But I think one might say that the biggest mistake is when there is miscommunication between parts that are involved. For example when the gameplay or the story don’t fit the visuals – it all just looks like a collage of random things, heavily glued together.
 
What’s important for designing characters in particular? 
 
Make them legible and easily recognizable. Avoid excess stuff if you can, like horns, extra eyes, wings, and other things like that. Usually, there is no need for it. Learn color theory and make good use of your colors, this is very important for creating and pushing the visual image of the character.
 
Lacrean Empire, Illskagaard or Arboria? Why? 
 
Lacrean Empire. Why? Because it's the Lacrean Empire, that's it, that's the answer.