Inspiration Spotlight #16: Sean Murray

On Wednesday, I briefly mentioned that I got to meet artist Sean Murray a few years ago. He came to speak to the illustration class at Syracuse University. During his visit we got a chance to hear about his successes as an illustrator, ask questions, and we even got to watch him do a digital painting demo to get a feel for how he works.

Sean Murray is currently the lead concept artist over at Big Huge Games and he was part of the team that's been working on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. He does some really ridiculous drawings. His characters and architecture are completely saturated with ornaments and detail. His sketchbooks are a real joy to look through.

At the time of his visit, I had never met a professional illustrator aside from my professors. When I saw the kind of work Sean was doing I immediately thought to myself "that's exactly what I want to do!" That was the day it finally clicked that working as an artist was absolutely possible, because here was a guy who was doing exactly what I've always wanted to do. Not only that, but we graduated from the same college so there's no reason I couldn't wind up doing the same right?

This is the mindset that I've been using to propel myself forward and it's what got me to start being serious about my work. The Kraken Wizard piece from Wednesday (the one in the middle) was the first piece I did (not for classwork either, only for myself) and it was the best piece I had ever done at the time. It was the spark that helped ignite the still-burning fiery passion I have to make it as an illustrator. Sean Murray continues to inspire me with his new work. You can see plenty more work on his website and you can stay up to date with his latest work on his blog.