Our 31st Artist Feature brings us into the realm of a digital painting master. Having worked on everything from video games, tutorial art sites, and authoring his own book series, Don has made quite a name for himself. But there are still some who haven’t heard of this well-accomplished artist. Prepare to be enlightened…..

STAMP: Introduce yourself. Where are you from and what is something you want the world to know about you?
Don: Okay, where am I from? Most the time I live in the state of confusion. But originally, I spent most of my early years in Colorado at the Air Force Academy. My dad was faculty there and it was a wonderful place to grow up. The Rocky Mountains were just to the west of the house I lived in and it only took minutes to get there. In fact if I was really motivated I could walk to the base of the mountains in 15 minutes.

I guess I must be a relatively boring person because I can’t think of anything interesting that I would want the world to know about me. I guess I can say that when I’m not painting or drawing or teaching, I love to be flyfishing. There is an artistic grace inherent in the motion used flyfishing that appeals to me. Couple that with the general beautiful surroundings that I fish within, and there’s no better place to spend free time.

STAMP: When did you become interested in art?
Don: I really can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t want to paint or draw. I do remember drawing the spelling bee posters for my fourth and fifth grade classes in elementary school. I remember getting into trouble because I would rather draw than do some of the other things that were expected of me. In fact, drawing is such a part of what I am that I really don’t pay much attention to it or remember anything special about being able to draw. I do remember in high school that drawing was is valuable as sports when it came to attracting girls. For some reason a lot of girls like the guy that can draw. In fact, I met my wife in high school. Probably not because of my drawing, because I’m not really sure that I impress her that much with it. Nowadays, she pretty much ignores me when I’m sitting on the couch drawing. Well actually, she doesn’t ignore me but she ignores the fact that I’m drawing.

STAMP: What is your medium of choice and why?
Don: I actually have two favorite mediums. When I’m doing traditional gallery work, I prefer oil paint. It is very easy medium to use and is very forgiving of mistakes. For some reason it is also viewed by many as the preeminent painting medium and often commands higher prices than do some of the other mediums. When I work on commercial projects, I work digitally on the computer. I do this mostly because the computer makes painting so fast. And maybe four times faster when I work on the computer than when I work using a traditional medium. Also, delivery is not an issue. If I need to deliver an illustration to somewhere in Europe or really anywhere in the world I can simply send it as an attachment in an e-mail or uploaded to somebody’s FTP address.

STAMP: Did you study at an art school? If so which one and how was that experience? If not, do you wish you did?
Don: I did not study at an art school but went to the regular University. I graduated from Brigham Young University.

I have mixed opinions about art schools and particularly for-profit art schools. This may not be the right forum to get on my soapbox and discuss my feelings about some of the schools. I do not feel that my education at a regular University hindered my ability to be an artist. I would’ve been an artist regardless of where I went to school. It’s just part of what I am and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

STAMP: How would you classify your style? And do you mind explaining where this came from?
Don: Possibly one of my weak points is style. I’m not sure that I have a real distinctive style. Part of this may because I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with different media and techniques. I painting style is probably classified as classical realism. I’m not sure what my digital style would be called. I do work with representational imagery. By this I mean when you look at one of my images, you understand what you’re looking at. Sometimes my images will be more realistic and sometimes they will lean some toward the abstract but you will always be able to see what is represented within them.

Where to style come from? I think that style is slow process of growing and maturing as you learn more and more about what you do artistically and what kind of person you are internally. I have many students that think they have a style. Most of the time they really don’t. They’re generally not old enough nor experienced enough to have style. Most are copying the style they find attractive but tend not to try to make it their own. I probably did the same thing when I was younger and so is not necessarily wrong, it’s just the way it is. As you get older your style just evolves. Possibly this is the reason I’m not really sure what my style is. Maybe it’s so much of me and just how I go about doing things that I don’t recognize it as style.

STAMP: Can you explain how you received your big break into the digital illustration industry?
Don: I guess my big break in the digital illustration industry came about as I worked as an art director for small videogame developer. The owner of the business convinced me one year to apply to speak at the annual Game Developers Conference. There couldn’t have been anything farther from my mind and wanting to speak in front of an audience about art. After harassing me long enough, I finally agreed to apply and curiously enough my topic was accepted. I don’t really even remember what I spoke about. I do remember that some kid in the audience got so angry at me that he came up, pointed a finger in my face, and told me that I was an ignorant Utah hillbilly who knew nothing about creating the art and he could draw circles around me. I was of course flabbergasted and had no response because I was so taken aback by his anger. Fortunately, there were a number of other people wanting to visit with me who kind of drowned him out. Well, I was never going to do that again! Funny thing was, I ended up speaking at the Game Developers Conference for about eight more years. The last few years I was doing full day workshops on various topics. It did get me over any fear about public speaking.

Most of my breaks in digital art were directly related to speaking at the conference. Things like being asked to write a book on digital painting character design, meeting a variety of artists, being aware of new technology, and many other smaller things had a direct impact on my visibility within the industry.

I guess the whole point in moral of the story would be to never overlook an opportunity no matter how badly it might sound at the beginning.

STAMP: I am noticing that alot of digital painters/illustrators venture off into the gaming industry? What made you jump into this industry? Was it an easy transition?
Don: I think a lot of digital painters and illustrators end up in the gaming industry because that’s where the demand is. There still is not a lot of acceptance nor demand for digital artwork in gallery type settings. The gaming industry has traditionally been one of the quickest growth industries in the last 20 years. Because of this growth there’s been an extraordinary amount of opportunity for artists to be involved in the projects. Sophistication of the games produced nowadays takes a lot of good art to make things work.

I didn’t originally get into the digital art because I wanted to be a game artist. You have to understand that when I was growing up the cutting-edge videogame was Pong. A year or two later, cutting-edge game platform was the Atari 2600. Really not all a lot of art in those games.

I got into the industry because, quite frankly, I needed to level out my income stream. I was working as a full-time gallery painter and making a good living but the money was seasonal. I needed to be able to have a more level stream of income as my first daughter was getting ready to go to college. I began working part-time in the evenings at a small multimedia company to earn a little extra. From there I eventually became the art director working full-time. It was a turn in the path I was heading down with my art that was quite unexpected though not unwelcome.

The transition from traditional art to digital art is really not difficult. If you can paint and draw with traditional media, you can paint draw on the computer. The computer’s just a tool. A big fast, expensive, but ultimately dumb tool. It does not make you an artist. It can help you be a better artist or it can accentuate your flaws so the problems in your art become more apparent.

I believe it is much more difficult to learn to paint on the computer without traditional painting experience. This has to do I think with the fact that there is virtually no consequence to your actions or decisions when painting on a computer. Ctrl – Z is both an evil and beautiful thing. It gives you the ability to create art without thinking which is a dangerous thing and generally will lead to substandard work. Working traditionally makes you think. If you don’t think you may ruin an expensive canvas or piece of paper. There is definite consequence for making the wrong choice.

STAMP: I really love using Corel Painter and the list of artists that have who create exceptional work with the software. How did you hook up with them?
Don: Not sure there is a real definitive answer about how you meet other artists working with the tools you use. I think with most specialties, the world is generally kind of a small place. Over time you just become aware of who’s out there and what they’re doing. If I need to actually track someone down, Facebook is actually a good source. A lot of connections can be made on these type sites. Also, the developers of software will often have groups of artists in contact with each other either beta testing or gathering their work to help promote the program.

STAMP: Having your work published is a huge accomplishment for any artist who is truly passionate about what they do. What was your first thought when you first heard someone wanted to publish your work? Can you explain the experience?
Don: Having your work published is a wonderful thing. I think the first thing that went through my mind was” why me”? Most artists I know or at least most good artists I know are pretty humble about what they do. They often are quite aware of their own limitations and strengths and weaknesses. Quite often they’re also much harder on themselves than others are. I think this all leads up to wondering why anyone would want to publish your work. After the initial shock in your of course thankful. It expands your audience and potentially gives you a source of income. Both things are important and often artists are not the best people at either promoting themselves or making money. We have this bad habit of wanting to paint and draw at the expense of the other things going on around us like eating and paying the mortgage.

STAMP: Your are an author of your own books. I actually bought the “Digital Character Design & Painting”, great book. Did the fact of you being published spark your interest in being an author?
Don: Actually, I never really considered being an author. For the most part I have a hard time composing an intelligent e-mail let alone 400 pages of text. I decided to write a book mostly because I was asked by a publisher if I would write a book. It sounded like a good thing and time. I had no idea how much time and effort it would take an as result it was an intensive learning experience. I must say though, I am very glad I did it. I enjoy teaching and writing a book is one more avenue for doing that. My only complaint would be that most publishers want textbooks with pictures and I want picture books with a little bit of text. I think most artists would rather have lots of illustrations and demonstration images with just a bit of text describing what’s going on instead of lots of text trying to describe what you want to do with just a few sporting images. Of course maybe that’s just me.

STAMP: What are some of the biggest challenges you face being in the digital art & gaming industry?
Don: What are some of the biggest challenges being a digital artist? I would guess first and foremost the biggest challenge is not unique to the digital art or gaming industry. The biggest challenge is probably at the artistic level and about always trying to improve and do better tomorrow what you are able to do today. Specific to digital art would probably be the tools available. Programs continue to get more sophisticated and are able to do many different things. Not all of these things may be necessary to what an artist specifically does but having a knowledge of them does help. Specifically, I think 3-D is playing a much greater role in how 2-D artwork is created. It used to be that you would have to imagine and envision things in your work that had no real world counterpart. You would have to be able to use your artistic skill to paint or draw an object in a convincing enough fashion that the viewer would buy into the reality you are trying to depict. So for example, if you needed to draw a dragon or painted Dragon for an illustration you would go out and collect reference of various reptiles or whatever you may even sculpt little clay model of your creature. This you would use to help you set up your lighting, composition, and maybe even color of the final image. Nowadays, you can use 3-D programs actually create your vision so you have a model of a Dragon. Then you can pose that model so it fits specifically what your vision demands. Then you can light the model as needed. And you can even texture your Dragon so it looks real. Your reference is a 3-D representation of the object you created instead of simply drawing together from a lot of different sources and blending them into what you envision. I hope that makes sense.

STAMP: I always hear that concept artists are over worked, due to the tedious trial and errors of creating a final piece. About how many roughs do you create on an average for each project? Would you suggest it to upcoming artists?
Don: I don’t know that overworked is the correct description of the way concept artists feel. Well, maybe overworked and a bit frustrated describes the way concept artists feel some of the time. The problem of concept art is that unless you are doing it for yourself you are trying to create a representation of an idea or vision of another person. Sometimes, the person you’re trying to create for really doesn’t have a feel or know what they want. This can definitely lead to frustration and an awful lot of work that ends up going nowhere. Sometimes you’re lucky enough that the person you’re creating for has a clear vision of what they want and getting to that point requires much less work and frustration. Concept art though always requires a bit of guesswork, mind reading, insight, and a touch of good luck.

A lot of the frustration and aggravation that concept artists experience can be minimized at the beginning of a project if the artist is smart enough to ask the correct questions and get clarification on terms that may be a bit ambiguous. For example, if you are asked to do a large, hairy, and frightening looking creature for the next blockbuster movie, you really need to know what is meant by “large”, “hairy”, and “frightening”. Quite often your understanding of those terms may not be the same as meant by the person describing the project to you. The concept artists should always try their best to get on common ground with descriptions before they touch a pencil to the paper. It may take a little talking and some questions that appear simplistic but it can save the whole bunch of time when you actually begin doing the art.

STAMP: Who has been your favorite company to work for? And why?
Don: The best job I ever had as a concept artist/illustrator was for Wizards of the Coast. I worked on a videogame for them without a lot of initial instruction. Once I turned in some of the original sketches as well as some of the color roughs I was essentially told that I should just go ahead and press on doing the work. It’s not to say that I didn’t have to make corrections or changes to any of the pieces I did but they were at a minimum and for the most part the art director went ahead and let me do what I do best. The job is very satisfying, I did a lot of good work in a relatively short amount of time, and I think to this day we have a good relationship should another project come along. Unfortunately, the game was never produced and I still cannot show the art publicly.

STAMP: Can you tell any interesting stories about specific pieces, artists, or projects that you’ve worked on?
Don: There probably stories that I can tell about almost any piece that I worked on. Some of the stories would be more pleasant than others of course, some of the stories would have happy endings while others would not, and of course some would be stories about jobs that were more rewarding than others. Frankly though I cannot think of anything specific that stands out as either particularly good or bad. Maybe it’s a function of doing enough jobs over the years that they somewhat tend to blur together or maybe as I get older my mind is just slipping a bit quicker. I think probably the hardest projects I’ve worked on have been my own. Specifically, writing some of the books about digital painting have been extremely difficult. The writing part has not been the difficult part though you would expect it would’ve been seen as how I don’t consider myself a writer. The hardest part of the books is deciding on what illustrations/designs to use and then knowing when to stop working on the piece because it has fulfilled the needs of the written word. It is so easy to know that you should do or could do more to make an image better or maybe you should’ve picked an entirely different image to start with. At a certain point though, you simply need to accept what you’ve done is adequate and move onto the next project. That is very hard because I can always see room for improvement.

STAMP: Do you do commission work? If so, what factors, enter into your decision to take on the project (besides money)?
Don: I do actually do commission work. In fact really I consider almost everything I do that I don’t instigate the job myself as commission work. I have done commission work for individuals but a much lesser scale. Probably the main reason is that individuals generally don’t have as much money as business entities do and they can be a bit more difficult to work with. Difficult mostly in the sense that they have a specific idea they want developed and again as an artist I’m put in a position of trying to figure out exactly what they want. Some are easy to work with and some can drag the process on until it is painful. So I guess the answer to the general question is yes, I do commission work.

Aside from money what factors come into play? Probably the most important factor is how interesting the project appears to be. I’m more likely to take on something that interests me and something that I’m just going to do to fill time or earn a buck. Generally, if I’m more interested I will do a better job also. Not that I try not to do my best always but if the interest is high it’s easier to put in a lot of effort. Another factor that I have to consider is the time involved in what deadlines to have to meet. If I have an interesting project with an easy deadline I’m more likely to take the project even if it pays a bit less than if I have an interesting project with a tight deadline. I would much rather work at a reasonable pace and not have to spend late nights painting to hit tight deadlines. In fact, I’ve been known to do work very inexpensively because I have a lot of time and I personally find the project to be very interesting.

I guess it’s the old triangle model. There are three sides to every project: money, time, and quality. Most clients would like to have projects where they pay just a little money, get all your time, and receive your very best quality work. Most artists realize they can get the client to of the three but not all three. So for example if the client wants project done quickly and top quality (where there may be a lot of corrections in our correction involved or maybe not) then they’re going to need to spend a lot of money to receive that. On the other hand, if a client commissions a piece that I can mostly are correct myself (in other words very few changes and I pretty much have a free hand that what I want to do) and they have are very loose deadline or timeframe where they need the project, they may get me to do the work quite inexpensively. Every project is different.

STAMP: Are there any clients you wish to work with, that you haven’t already?
Don: There really are not any clients at this point that I’m dying to work with. Most of my time is pretty well taken by what I already do and I find as in getting a bit older than I like to fill in my free time with some of my own projects. There probably clients that I would not turn down work from. There are also clients that I would not work for.

STAMP: What are your challenges as an artist?
Don: I would imagine that my challenges as an artist are probably the same ones most artists have. I find that the more work I do the less I realize I know. I don’t draw nearly as well as I would like to. I’m not nearly as creative as I would like to be. I don’t know nearly enough about color and how to use it effectively. I used to think that I knew about these things pretty well but I don’t. So I constantly am trying to learn to get better at these things that I don’t think I do very well. I draw all the time and almost everywhere whenever there’s a moment or two to sit still. I’m constantly trying with my drawing to be a little bit more creative in approach subject matter differently under slightly different manner than I might’ve done in the past. When I paint I much more where of the color schemes I’m using an experiment more now.

Being an artist can be an all-consuming addiction. When I’m in the zone painting and drawing there’s really nothing better in the world. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to live in your own small and isolated world for very long and still be healthy person. I guess maybe it’s more fortunately that you can’t do that. Aside from being an artist, I love being a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, fly fisherman, motorcycle rider, and really many of the other activities that make us complete and whole. So I guess finding a balance between losing myself in my art and being a real person is probably the biggest challenge I face. Again as I get older, various aspects of my life become more important and must be balanced better. Hopefully I can maintain a healthy balance clean all the important parts of my life.

STAMP: What role do you feel the internet has on art? Positive or negative?
Don: I think the Internet has had a major impact on art. Never in the past has so much information been available to us. We can connect with other artists worldwide instead of just locally. We can see art from around the world that we would never of had the possibility of encountering had there not been the World Wide Web. In this regard I think the Internet has been very positive.

On the negative side the Internet has made it much easier for someone to “borrow” a piece of art and claim it as their own. This happens to me quite frequently. Some pieces are borrowed more frequently than others but it’s never pleasant to find something of yours being claimed as someone else’s. Most of the time, I’m not the one that finds the piece being used improperly. I will get an e-mail, often from someone I don’t even know, asking if I knew one of my paintings or designs was being used somewhere. I’m actually really grateful for those people that do take the time to drop me a note.

Overall, we are better artists or can be better artist because of the Internet than if we did not have it.

STAMP: Do u feel like your work is evolving.
Don: I hope that my work is evolving. I dread the day when I step back and realize that is good as I can be at that point is as good as I will ever be. Hopefully the work evolves both technically and conceptually continually. It is however a constant effort to make that happen. I’m quite sure that if I ever get satisfied with what I’m doing I will have quit progressing. As of this point though, I probably feel I have more progress to make that I have ever felt before.

STAMP: What advice would you give a young artist just starting or trying to get started?
Don: While this advice will sound rather can’t and trite, the most important thing the young artist can do is learn to draw. Draw, draw, draw! Draw all the time! Draw a bit of everything, it really doesn’t matter what you draw. Don’t copy the style. Copying a style of art for short isn’t a bad thing until you start thinking that style is your style. Drawing is fundamental to expressing ideas and fundamental most creative endeavors. If you can draw, you can sell an idea. If you can sell an idea, someone will buy it and higher you to do what you really want to do which is more drawing.

STAMP: What can we expect in the future from you?
Don: I have several projects in the works right now. A couple of book ideas are solidifying and starting to be worked on. I get asked frequently if there’ll ever be a book of my sketches available. The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes and hopefully soon.

STAMP: Do you agree with the overall objective of STAMP Magazine? Why or Why Not?
Don: I must say that I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of STAMP magazine. I love the focus of bringing new art and artists to a new and expanding audience. I hope that my support can be a valuable asset in the future. Thank you again for the interview an interest in my art .

Here are few ways to contact Don: email: don@seegmillerart.com ; web: http://www.seegmillerart.com/ or http://www.seegmillerart.blogspot.com/