Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek (the art of Scott Starkey)
Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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I've wanted to get into the board gaming industry my whole life, dreaming of owning my own game company and producing my own games. (Heck, who doesn't?)
However I got my "little break" into the game industry by the back door, by becoming a game artist. I mentioned on a bulletin board a few years ago that I was a cartoonist, having worked at my college newspaper for a few years. One thing led to another, and now I'm a Board-Game-Art-Geek.
Most of my work nowadays is done by computer and mouse, drawn with a steady hand. I like doing work directly on the computer, because I can undo mistakes pretty easily, I love the layering features of modern drawing programs. It's also easier to draw directly in the computer rather than drawing with pen and paper, and then scanning that in.
Ironically, my game graphics business is supporting my game design business. I'm not complaining; any way to pay the bills, I guess. I'll use this list to tell something of my mindset as I drew the artwork for the games. Hopefully you could expect this list to grow as new games with my artwork become published.
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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(6 Images) Jim Doherty of Eight Foot Llama was the guy who gave me my break into the biz, for which I'm really grateful. (Make a point to stop by EFL's booth at a convention and meet him and buy his stuff. He's a really nice guy.)
Before this contract work, I mostly only drew cartoon people. Also, in order to draw, I need to "get into character" or adapt a mood or attitude, somewhat like an actor does. I distort my face to help get the emotion right in the picture. Therefore, doing monkey pictures was somewhat challenging -- although I think my family looked at me strangely when I was going around the house saying, "Oooh-ooh! Ah-ah-AH!"
I also remember for the Brown monkey tribe, humming the theme song to 2001 Space Odyssey, cracking myself up in the process.
The pictures were all lovingly drawn with the free software program, "The Gimp" in Linux. I then transfered everything over to CMYK using CorelDraw.
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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(28+ images) Still one of the few games in the BGG database with the word "Sticky" in the title, I did the art for my own game, naturally enough. Heck, why not. I didn't have the dough to pay anyone else to do it, and my own labor was cheap.
The "Dr. Riley Bonanza" image at the right (the card on the top of the deck) is my self-portrait, even though it doesn't look at all like me. The front cover image I drew at the very last minute, and took me several hours (over a couple of days) to draw it.
The pictures in the game were mostly second drafts. My prototype Drifter portraits were done in very low-rez B&W drawings in The Gimp. I redid them directly in CorelDraw, which seemed to work.
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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(24 Images) As my second game for EFL, I had a fun time doing the artwork for The Penguin Ultimatum, but again (with the subject not being people) I had a bit of homework to do.
Particularly challenging was making the four different kinds of animals (Bears, Seals, Kangaroos, and Sheep) perform the four different activities (Juggling, Dancing, Unicycling, or Music). I sent an email to Jim where I kidded him about his wanting me to draw seals dancing and riding a unicylce: "Jim... SEALS DON'T HAVE LEGS!! How am I supposed to draw a seal dancing or riding a unicycle if it DOESN'T HAVE LEGS??" But fortunately I became inspired and finished the seals.
I did quite a bit of the artwork during the end of May, 2003. I remember in particular Memorial Day weekend: My family had left to spend the night elsewhere leaving me in the house alone. I cranked out about half of the images that night, at a great risk to my mental well-being! At the end of the marathon of drawing animals in weird poses, I was talking to the sheep images in a bad Scottish brogue: "Ach, Flossie, I dinna know ya could do that!" I'm still slightly disturbed by my images of sheep dancing the tango.
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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(15 Images) Just now published in May of 2004 comes the second edition of What's It To Ya by Mike Petty and New World Games. They commissioned me to do the B&W artwork for "Up" and "Down" and I agreed earlier this year.
However, I seriously underestimated the difficulty of this project. Fifteen black and white images doesn't sound like that big of deal, but I was seriously out of practice doing just B&W art. Having done so many color projects in the past, it took me a while to find my "groove." Furthermore, all of the action had to be pushed out to the margins to leave space for the keyword.
Furthermore, the subject matter was possibly my strangest so far: anthropomorphic arrows. Yes, arrows with arms and legs and faces. Each of the ten main pictures shows the Up arrow and the Down arrow doing something, but I got carte blanche to pick out what they were doing. So, I thought about them in various classic genres: Romeo and Juliet, in a desert, hiking up the mountains, and even on the moon (perhaps with a wink towards "Monkeys on the Moon.")
One image that didn't make the batch was a "secret-agent man/Mission Impossible/Pink Panther" scene, with a spy Arrow lowering himself down a cable to make some sort of heist. Admittedly, I had problems with drawing a James Bond-esqe arrow, lowering himself down a cable amidst a laser-sensor-grid with a guard Arrow walking by. Perhaps it was just too busy, and Mike just didn't get it. I replaced it with a "film noir" scene that he seemed to like much better.
I was really pleased with the finished product of this game. It may sound like I was complaining about doing such a challenging project. Au contraire! Doing challenging projects like this -- things that a little niggling part of me thinks is "impossible" -- really stretches my abilities as an artist.
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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I came up with the idea for a quick game that could be printed out by friends to make real stocking stuffers out of. So, I came up with the artwork in the 11th hour for this one. Therefore the art is a bit on the quick and functional side.
My original picture for "Games" did not quite reflect "our games" well enough, according to one playtester. So I switched it to look a little more like Die Macher, BGG entry #1.
I made the artwork and cards printable under a Creative Commons license. Enjoy! (I suggest the "Pass the fruitcake!" variant.)
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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I worked on "The Nacho Incident" during Spring and Summer 2005. Once again, Jim Doherty floors me with the themes he comes up with, but I always love them. With me doing cowboys for Sticky Gulch, it was like I was born to draw the Mounties and Mexicans of this game.
I love the front cover art to this: A Mexican sneaking across the border to Canada. The Mountie is completely oblivious to the crime, however the clever horse sees it right away. (Perhaps a result of watching too many Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons as a child?)
I love the tension in the moment when the horse and Mexican first discover each other: Will the Mexican make a mad dash for it? Will the horse say something and give away the Mexican's position?
This had some very challenging artwork, with several different methods of getting Nachos across the border, and each one had to be unique.
I believe the sign is fairly accurate, measuring from USA's northern border to the southern.
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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Right before I did the artwork for The Nacho Incident, I was asked to do about 20 Bible scenes for this kids' trivia game. Pictured (center) is the best darned illustration of Nehemiah you will see in any game, I bet! [about 20 images?]
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Scott Starkey
United States
Dayton
Indiana
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I did one image for fellow Protospiel veteran Greg Lam in summer 2006. (Well, technically two if you count color and black/white versions, which were slightly different.) I took a "How to draw anime" seminar at GenCon which really helped. I like anime, now! The game is a real hoot, too.
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Posted Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:58 pm
Waterloo
Ontario
Best of luck with future games and artwork projects!
Waterloo
Ontario
got??? Should've said you've DONE a nice job there.Dayton
Indiana
Westford
Massachusetts
He has truly outdone himself on Nacho Incident -- both as a person to work with, and the quality and originality of what he produced.
Huzzah, sir!