Our third place Game Artist of the Year Prize goes to Nana, a student from Thailand specialising in anime illustrations.
Game Artist Showcase: Nana
Written by Alex Sinclair Lack at 03/13/2022, 07:05 AM
One of our highlights from last year was our inaugural Game Artist of the Year Competition. The entries were, quite frankly, breathtaking. As well as some amazing gaming loot, we offered each of our winners a Game Artist Showcase. We have so far showcased our grand winner Yuhang Weng and the incredible second-place winner, Betsy Weymouth. Now we're delighted to present our third-place winner: Nana (Thanawan Pakrangsisakul).
Nana is a student from Thailand, majoring in communication design, who dreams of becoming a professional artist post graduation. A keen gamer, Nana has a deep passion for creating anime and chibi style illustrations featuring both bright and pastel colours. Between commissioned works, social media art challenges, and lots of fanart, there is plenty to keep Nana busy.
One of the games that has taken Nana's interest in a major way is Genshin Impact, a game whose character design is a constant source of inspiration. The first illustration above is Wayo. Here's what Nana had to say on the design:
"I personally think that the Genshin Impact character design team are some of the most talented people in the world! Their character designs are always so unique and inspiring. That's why I wanted to create one for myself too! Her design was inspired by Thai traditional outfits but it was modified to make it fit the game's art style more appropriately. Wayo in Thai means wind and Anemo is her in-game element."
Nana's work can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter with commissions available on request.
The next image is the character reference sheet creation for Wayo showing off an alternative outfit - designed to clarify her design and provide a view from different angles.
The final image above is fan art of Jett from Valorant celebrating Christmas by decorating a Christmas tree with a Sage doll pendant. Nana redesigned her outfit for the special occasion while trying to keep all the classic elements the same, like the signature cropped top, fingerless gloves, and light-blue colours.
Interview with Nana
What games are you playing right now?
I used to play quite a lot of games like Diablo and Torchlight when I was a kid. The first online game I ever played was Overwatch. After that, gaming became a fixture of my life. It became a hobby, almost like a routine, where I need to find something to play every day. Even though lately I don't play much Overwatch anymore, I still play a lot of random games such as Valorant, Genshin Impact, and Hearthstone.
How do you decide on your designs?
The most important step is the sketch. It will define the outcome of your work, so usually, I like to experiment and go wild during this step. I need to make sure I'm satisfied with the pose, colors, and composition before I move on to the next steps.
What is your creative process?
Firstly, I need to find references for the drawing. I'll start taking elements I like from different sources and combine them into one drawing. The subsequent steps are line-art, base color, shading, and finalizing.
Which piece are you most proud of?
Out of every work that is shown here, my favorite one is probably the character reference sheet for Wayo. She's one of the very first character designs I ever did. Though there's still a lot I need to improve, I feel like it is a decent start and hopefully, I can design even more amazing characters in the future.
What's the next step for your art? Are you working on anything interesting?
For now, I'm only taking art commissions on Instagram (including Twitch commissions like panels and animated emotes for any readers who might be interested). In the future, after I graduate, I plan to expand my career by releasing monthly subscription-based content and I also want to open an Etsy shop to sell my handcrafts (like stickers or postcards) and possibly premade emotes. Thank you so much!
Following the festive theme (our game art competition was a Christmas one after all), this final piece is - The Last Christmas Gift By DVA From Overwatch. It's based on DVA's exclusive skin for this year's Christmas event (Winter Wonderland). The setting of this drawing is the dawn of the day after Christmas night and she's giving her last Christmas present to us before the night ends.
Stay tuned for more incredible game art in April's game artist showcase. Only at MMO Games.