The Art of Kiwetin : The interview of Natalie Dombois
about 7 years ago
– Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 12:53:27 AM
We spend a lot of time conceiving the background of Kiwetin. Hours of work, just giving this world some background and personnality. But there is one person who gave Kiwetin its fantastic aspect. This person is Natalie Dombois, an extrmely talented artist from Germany. She gave Kiwetin a touch of feminity and sensitivity with a very accurate eye on what had in mind.
This is an interview of Natalie, speaking about the game and her creative vision
What is your general creative process ?
Every creative piece of art starts indeed in my head. For me it's really important to create works with (hidden) content. That's why it's not unusual for me to start by doing some classical research. Fortunately, with 'Kiwetin' it was a piece of cake. Right from the beginning I had a clear vision of what feeling I wanted to create with my illustrations. Gary and Thomas elucidated really well what's important for them. But I think the three of us had a very similiar image in our minds from the beginning. I own a Cintiq and even work out my compositional sketches on it. As soon as the sketches are approved I create different colour conception sketches until I have the feeling: That's it! Sometimes this works at the first go. Sometimes I have to work out 5 different colour conception sketches. The one that I choose is the basis of the final coloration. From this point on, it's simply just finalization.
How did Kiwetin inspired you creatively?
I really liked the whole 'Kiwetin' project. Besides, it was the first board game I ever worked on. Particularly, I liked that the game play is yet so simple then again so unpredictable. Definitely, I will grapple with nordic aesthetics some more and I hope to work on more games in the future.
What tools do you use to create ?
Most of the time I work with my Wacom Cintiq 24 HD and Adobe Photoshop.
How a feminine touch can influence the gaming industry ?
It's always an advantage to get a new perspective. Many women are as passionate concerning games as men. No matter if it's about playing games or the creation of games. In my opinion it's great to have someone with you who loves your project as much but looks at it from a different angle. This is how you can create totally new ideas you would have never thought of yourself. Like a Breath of Fresh Air, new aesthetics, a new way to tell your story and extraordinary game play possibilities broaden the range.
Would you like to extand the Kiwetin universe ?
With Kiwetin we created a world full of secrets that still lies in the dark. The Spirits "Ki", "We" and "Tin" experience their adventure in the tree tops. Maybe it would be interesting to see what goes on beneath. Who or what else lives in these woods? What kind of world is this and what is happening there? Maybe something even bigger is going on? Who knows…
You can view her wonderful work on : http://nataliedombois.de/
On an another hand, we want to support a very great project lead by Tom Lintern.
It's a graphic novel called Girrion. His creative vision is amazing and viusually stunning.
We encourage you to support his project which ends in a couple of days :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1405228741/girrion-book-1-the-chrysalis-and-the-stone-issue-6/
Many thanks !
More to come :)
The Flyos Games team
