Abdelrahman Kubisi (Interview)

Originally published on CG Hubs on September 14, 2014.

Welcome to CGButterfly: Interviews. This week’s artist is Abdelrahman Kubisi.

What brought you to CGButterfly?

Well, after I posted some of my speed sculpts on Facebook, some guys from your website approached me and told me they like my artwork, and they have this new art community and I can join if I want, and I liked the idea and joined.

Do you design as part of your employment, or is it a hobby?

No, it’s my job to work as a concept artist and, hopefully soon, as a character artist, but that doesn’t mean that I do art only as work or a chore, I enjoy every frickin’ minute of it.

Do you have any special preference, such as texturing, painting, lighting, modelling, etc?

Currently, I love modelling or sculpting to be exact… but still I’m a digital painter to start with… so I love to texture also my 3D models and sculpts. I don’t know, that means I love all of it  >

Do you have a favourite piece of art?

Actually, I don’t… I have this habit of hating every piece I do after I finish it, don’t know why, but I find it useful cause it makes me hungry and looking forward to doing the next piece of art.

Do you have screenshots of your progress? Sketches, mock-ups, drawings, etc?

I’m going to share some with you 

What is your workflow from the idea to the finished design?

Well, when I do 2D paintings or concept art, I have to start with the idea… because that’s what matters in the end… if it’s personal work, I try to work on something I find interesting, so I have fun while working on it… if it’s a client work, then I have the idea already laid out for me, and that’s when step two begins… looking for references, I try to take my time and collect more reference than I even need to finish the artwork, I just can’t say how much important collecting reference is before starting your work.

After collecting refs, I start with a quick sketch or sometimes a bunch of small thumbnails… then I choose which sketch or thumbnail is working better (client would choose which one he likes, if it was client work) and start working more on it. After a period of time it’s ready for rendering and small details… this process takes most of the time and less energy from me… it’s like working on an autopilot… that’s why I find the idea-sketching part is the most challenging in the whole process.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Oh, from a lot of places and sources, mostly movies and other great artists out there… also a lot from game art and cinematics… especially Blur and Digic pictures.

What is your current project? What are you working on right now?

Actually, I’m currently working on a character I’m doing for BLIZZARDFEST contest.
http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/threads/63434-BlizzardFest-2014-3D-Kops-Nomad-Monk

Is there anything you want to share with our community?

Yeah, sure, I hope you would thrive more in the future and get to be a kick-ass art community