Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art

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page 56 MASTERS of SCIENCE FICTION and FANTASY ART

COMBINED TRADITIONAL and DIGITAL TOOLS page 57

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KEN WONG

“There are many budding artists who have all the enthusiasm

and imagination to make it big, but they are getting wrapped

up in ne details, and color, and Photoshop brushes without

having put enough work into studying drawing, anatomy,

and storytelling.”

Ken Wong is an artist, an illustrator, and a designer

whose work is frequently haunted by paradoxical aquatic

and undersea symbolism and references. Fish oat in

midair, tortoises bear unusual passengers, and even

an occasional octopus gets into the act. He combines

lo- and hi-tech tools freely, depending upon his

artistic goals.

Wong works as an art director at Spicy Horse Games

in Shanghai, China. Born and raised in Adelaide,

South Australia, he studied multimedia at the University

of South Australia. During this time he says that he began

teaching himself digital art, “largely by hanging out

at a seedy digital art forum called Eatpoo.” At the same

time he also started freelancing for a range of clients

over the Internet.

Wong was art director on the games Bad Day LA

and Grimm. Currently, he’s art-directing American

McGee’s Alice 2, based on the Lewis Carroll classic,

Alice in Wonderland.

Mistaken Identity. Photoshop.

Adelaide, Australia/Shanghai, China

Fly by Night. Photoshop.

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Apart from serving as concept artist and art director

on computer games, his work pops up on book covers

and in magazines. He has been a featured speaker at the

Animex Festival of Animation and Computer Games

in the United Kingdom and the Red Stick Animation

Festival in Baton Rouge. His work has appeared in the

Spectrum and Exposé art annuals.

Whimsy and mystery attract Wong in equal measure.

“I love the art of Gustav Klimt, Mike Mignola, Shaun

Tan, Moebius, Zdzislaw Beksinski, and James Jean,” he

says. But the inuences don’t stop at his eyes. “I listen

to the Smashing Pumpkins (which has a huge inuence

on my work), Sparklehorse, and various movie scores.

Films I like include The Life Aquatic, The Thin Red Line,

Blade Runner, Children of Men, Leon, Porco Rosso, Lost

in Translation, and the original Star Wars trilogy.

“I also like retro game culture—playing video games on

vintage computers or vintage game consoles—as well as

traveling, urban decay, pasta, and avoiding my inbox.”

Despite his computer-savvy art skills, Wong admits that

he loathes checking his email. He employs a combination

of traditional and digital techniques, but at the end of the

day, he utilizes digital to nish his work. “ Photoshop was

designed for photoediting, but can be used for graphic

design and painting, too. It really becomes interesting

when you take advantage of all these techniques and put

them together to make something unique.”

Wong relies heavily on the layer mask tools in Photoshop.

“They are very powerful for applying an effect, a color,

or a modication to only part of an image. For example,

I might create a mask for only the light part of an image,

then blur it. Using this technique I can experiment,

nding lots of variations as I’m working,” he notes.

Dabbling in digital art, as it turned out, led to a career

path. “While I was studying multimedia at university

I did some fan art for a computer game and the game

designer saw it on the Web. He emailed me and asked

if I’d like to do some paid work. I’ve been working

with him ever since.”

Mistaken Identity. Photoshop.

The Mock Turtle’s Story. Photoshop.

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