We illustrated from scratch in Photoshop and Illustrator. Often switching back and forth. This helped create clean outline to make the art icon clean but the photoshop textures were done in a way that tied the art to the next piece. The original game looks better in our minds eye than in real life. The original art for the game looked clunky and badly printed or painted due to the art evolving over time from maker to maker.

We created our background first and the art was developed to be on their own layer but mix well to look unified in texture and tone.

Make sure you can give yourself some wiggle room if something needs to be tweaked and you don’t want to affect the color on the main object or piece. The more you can control consistency the better the results when printing.

Visualize everything so no one is surprised on what’s involved or coming next. Ask a lot of questions and cover all your bases. In the end the client will have their last say and it’s your job to deliver. It’s not your product. You’re invested in it with your creativity but there are things out of your hands and you need to just do your best and deliver quality work whether it goes to the end or dies on the product development table.

All your creativity is valid even for projects not realized. Make comps for portfolio, present your work. You’re still a creative who can deliver and people need to see your approach in order to know if you’d be a good fit for a project. show your work, show your method. It all matters.