Jon Foster lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he churns out an unending array of incredible art. A freelance illustrator and accomplished painter, his work has been featured on many book covers and editorials. Back for another round of instructing at the Insomania Workshop, Jon is one of the most humble, dedicated and talented guys you’ll ever meet.

Bruno Gore (Noxizmad)- Projects include :Duke Nukem, NDA titles for id software, Warhawk 3 for Sony, and over 35 others both prior to, and while at Massive Black. He has also worked on titles for Ubisoft and the French film industry. The team at Massive Black regards Nox as the top digital painter and designer at the company. His demonstrations are not to be missed. Nox makes all of the MB artists better by leading with example. His work ethic is beyond what most people could even begin to endure and the quality of his work shows it. He is an inspiration to watch. We are excited to have him with us at the workshop.

William Whitaker has been a professional artist since 1965, during which time he has conducted workshops and been a university art professor.  He continues to work with one or two advanced student artists for fun, and has graced us with his presence at the 2004 Austin workshop.  He paints about three or four hours every day ands spends the rest of the time trying not to ruin any good work he's done. A methodical instructor and supremely talented artist, meeting him is a rare opportunity for anyone interested in realist painting.

Representing the great lone star state, Coro originally hails from the filthy border town of El Paso, where he began his career defacing public property with spray paint.  Through this illegal medium he honed his interest in the arts.  In 1997, Coro moved to San Francisco, where he studied traditional illustration at the Academy of Art College for three years.  After amassing a massive debt in college loans, he left school and began working in the production art industry, where he resides today.  Coro feels that "variety is the spice of life" and this is evident in the broad range of subject matter and varied execution in his art.  It is also evident as he has contributed concept design to nearly 40 AAA and Next-Generation video game titles for nearly all major publishers and developers. Although he uses digital media for work, his true passion lies in the time-honored tradition of oil painting, which occupies all of his free time, in an obsessive-compulsive kind of way.

He is one of the original founders or Conceptart.org and the 2D Art Director for Massive Black Inc.

Andrew’s previous projects as a visionary Concept Artist include all current Metroid Prime titles. Andrew was Nintendo’s only North American concept designer for the past four years prior to joining Massive Black as Creative Director.  He also contributed to the Icewind Dale series of titles for Black Isle Studios after doing his time at ILM.  Andrew is a founder of Conceptart.org and a leading expert in the field of concept design. Andrew consults major video game developers regarding project vision and the creation of concept design. He helped to further the education of students and professionals worldwide. He is well known for creating 1000 self-portraits in 1000 days…an artistic record no doubt. He currently shows his Fine Art at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco and has recently had work in the Expose and D’Artist art books.

Wes graduated from Cleveland Institute of Art with his BFA in 2004. He is one of the most talented young artists in the country and has become incredibly experienced in the world of video games. He has contributed his character art skills to more than 30 AAA titles for PC, Xbox, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. He is currently traveling and working with Massive Black Inc. His fine art shows at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.

HPX is a conceptual and graphic designer based in Paris, France. He is exceptionally skilled, talented artist and has contributed to a multitude of projects in the entertainment industry. He has his thumb on the pulse of contemporary art as well. He’s a quiet guy, but don’t let his demeanor fool you, he is a monster artist loaded with talent who will blow your mind when you see him paint. He is one of the fastest concept designers in the world. To see him paint, is life changing for any artist striving to be better at what they do.

Jason Chan was born and raised in Stockton, California in 1983. Obsessed with video games and art, he moved out to San Francisco and studied illustration at the Academy of Art University. While in school, Jason started freelancing to pay the bills. He worked on various video games, rpgs, trading card games, and other projects while attending school. In his final semester, he began interning at Massive Black and was picked up full time after he graduated in the Spring of 06. Jason Chan still freelances doing trading card games, book covers, and other projects that catch his interest.

Carl Dobsky is a young and talented painter who is at the beginning of a promising career.  Born in Victoria, TX and raised in Arizona where he studied painting and drawing under Jim Garrison. He left the southwest to study painting in Florida. After completing a B.F.A at Ringling School of Art and Design he decided to further his education in New York where he received an M.F.A. in painting from the New York Academy of Art. He has also studied at the studio of Jacob Collins in New York, and has since begun to exhibit his work professionally. Carl currently works as a concept artist for Massive Black. As you can see, Carl has a wealth of traditional Art Education as well as professional experience to the students at the Montreal Workshop. His Fine Art is shown at the acclaimed John Pence Gallery in San Francisco.

Jason is responsible for defining the company vision and successful business model of Massive Black Inc. which has now contributed to 44 AAA and Next-Generation video game titles, as well as made major feature film and television. Prior to leading Massive Black, Jason's work experience includes that of a Concept Artist, Lead Artist and Art Director. His artwork has helped clients like id software, Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, Troika Games, Interplay, Vivendi/Universal, Black Isle Studios, EA, Atari, Wizards of the Coast, Whitewolf, and more.

Jason is also President of our Non-Profit Organization, ConceptArt.org, which now has over 39,000 registered students and industry professionals sharing, creating and learning conceptual development for the entertainment industry. He created the ConceptArt.Org workshops as a way to bring Artists from around the world together for personal and artistic betterment. Jason will be helping Artists understand how to reach goals, survive in the business world, and have a workable idea what it takes to strive for success in the field of entertainment while instructing at the workshop.

Characters, creatures, graphic design, costume and armor design, and now comics- Marko's doing it all. Previous clients include White Wolf and projects include Degenesis, Hellgate London, Tabula Rasa, and over 30 others during his two years full time at Massive Black Inc.  Marko is one of the industry’s highest profile concept designers specializing in human characters and monsters. He is a wizard with a pencil and a generous teacher, having attended every single one of the conceptart.org workshops as a professional instructor. Marko is currently doing work for Marvel Comics and living in Germany with his fiancée.

Jason Felix is known for his digital photo manipulations which have won awards and appeared in numerous art collections of Expose and Spectrum. Jason is also held accountable for creating character/creature concept art on high profile video games franchises such as StarCraft, Prince of Persia, and Hellgate:London.

He lives in San Francisco and can be found fraternizing with other local artists, wrestling his 2 cats of terror, or working at home on his next personal art project.

Shawn Barber's body of work focuses primarily on painting and illustration. He received his BFA in 1999 from the Ringling School of Art & Design, in Sarasota, FL. Shawn has lectured and given painting demo's at several American Universities and Art Institutions, including the California College of Arts, Ringling School of Art, the Academy of Art and the ConceptArt.Org Workshops in Prague, San Francisco and Montreal.

Commercial clients include: Atlantic Records, The New Yorker, The Grammy Awards, Rolling Stone, Converse, Scholastic Books, GQ, MTV Networks, The Source, Maxim, Elektra Records, Juxtapoz Magazine, Rock Star Games, TV Guide, The Village Voice and Electronic Gaming Monthly, among many others.

Shawn's paintings have been exhibited in diverse solo and group venues across the country and featured in many prominent art publications.

Michael lives and paints in Los Angeles CA, and has been involved in the west coast "lowbrow" scene all his life. He's currently represented in LA by La Luz de Jesus gallery. He recently abandoned a short lived career as a painting teacher to devote more time to his work. His hobbies include, but are not limited to, long stretches of Isolation, followed by bursts of consumption.

James Kei was born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Japan, and educated in Russia. His work has a strong traditional figurative background. He works at Massive Black as a Concept artist, where he sits in a corner and laughs at everyone from behind his wacom tablet. James has contributed art and vision to almost 30 next-generation video game titles during his professional career. His Fine Art is currently showing at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.

Known as Insane Visions on the Conceptart.org forums, Rich was recruited from the community as Massive Black Inc.’s first full time employee and has been with MB since the beginning. He is a senior concept artist and has contributed to over 40 Next Gen titles for clients like Activision, EA, Sony, Disney, Microsoft, Nintendo and other major developers. He has also been a part of several group shows, showing his fine art at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.

Hailing from Athens, Georgia, Kemp is a concept artist for Massive Black Inc. He has contributed to AAA and Next Gen titles for the industry, for publishers such as NCsoft, Codemasters, Nintendo, Disney, and Storm Front Studios. He has shown his fine art with his MB team mates at the Shooting Gallery in downtown San Francisco.

Nick is one of the newer artists at Massive Black. He studied music and art in Georgia and NYC before joining MB in 2005. Since then, he has contributed to over two dozen next generation titles, for clients such as Nintendo, Monolith, Disney, and NCSoft.

Petey Konig, aka SmellyBug, grew up fascinated with monsters, creatures, and the bizarre, and has subsequently contributed to over 27 major feature films and 43 video game titles during his career. He is a master of multiple arts in the entertainment industry. During this time, Petey has sculpted, painted, molded plaster, learned to computer animate, become a lead animator, an animation supervisor, a concept designer, and an art director. He has played key roles in many film projects such as Jurassic Park (Tippett Studios won an Oscar), Dragonheart (Oscar nomination), Starship Troopers (Oscar nomination), Evolution, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well as on games like Hellgate London, Tabula Rasa, and many others.

Barringer Fox Wingard III (aka. Bif) began his career in the traditional art world. Bif transitioned to Digital Media while attending college. His growing interest of the creation of digital characters and 3D generated art brought him to Orlando, Fl where he continued his schooling and graduated with honors. He has since worked as an instructor himself, as well as entering into the TV/video, video game, and movie industry. As a contractor, he had the opportunity to work on games for companies such as EA, Turbine, Flagship, Activision, 3DO, Guerrilla, Perpetual, NC Soft and others. Animation, Modeling, Texturing, as well as Technical Setup are among the many roles Bif has played over the years. He now resides in San Francisco, Ca where he continues his pursuit of Digital Character Creation. Bif is currently a high end character modeler and Senior 3D Artist for Massive Black Inc.

Dan is a freelance storyboard, concept and production artist. Producing artwork digitally allows Dan to work on projects worldwide from the comfort of his studio in Toronto, Canada. Dan’s clients run the gamut from major advertising agencies to feature film productions and AAA video game developers. He earned his BFA the Ontario College of Art and Design and is a crowd favorite at the Conceptart.org Workshops. His entertaining lectures and professional quality demonstrations are extremely informative. Dan’s most recent work can be seen in the upcoming Frank Miller’s 300.

Kevin Llewellyn lives in Los Angeles, where he is represented by the Forum Gallery. A graduate of the Ringling School of Design and a student of 19 th century realism, Kevin is a breath of old world fresh air mixed with contemporary edginess. His work is featured in prominent private and museum collections across the country, and has appeared in several solo and group shows.

Art Director at Ensemble Studios, devellopers of Age of Empires, and Halo Wars.
Previous credits: Lord of the Rings Online, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate.

Background: BFA in graphic design and illustration, Alberta College of Art and Design Area of work: Team lead and Concept artist. Concentrating on RPG Character design, minor in Environment.

Aleksi has been working in the videogame industry as a Concept Artist and Art Director for 7 years. He was Lead Artist on the horror-action game called Cold Fear (developed by DarkWorks for Ubisoft) and more recently on the hit Splinter Cell 4. He contributed to high-end promotional materials for the Heroes of Might & Magic 4 and Prince of Persia . He is an illustrator for books, RPG manuals (hundreds of interior illustrations), magazines, cards and a comic book artist. He did covers for Mage, Vampire, C.O.P.S Rpgs, Tolkien, J.V.Jones, Bradley books, and cards and packaging for Wizard of the Coast ( Dreamblade, Magic cards). He was an early contributor the comics adaptation of the videogame Alone in the Dark 4 and a former artist for Todd MacFarlane Productions. He’s currently doing covers for the Hellgate comic-books for Darkhorse and completing an ambitious artbook about Merlin (130 fully illustrated pages). Aleksi brings his veteran skills and proven teaching abilities to our workshop. We are fortunate to have him with us.

John Mueller is an acclaimed artist, author and games designer. He graduated from Parsons school of Design IN LA and was immediately tapped to create original covers for the resurrected DC Comics Swamp Thing series. Since then, his work has contributed to numerous Gaming titles and films. He currently resides in Texas, working for Epic Games.

Ron and Vanessa Lemen are very dedicated artists and instructors who have worked in several different arenas of art, from representational and fine art, to illustration and entertainment art. Not only do they work as freelance artists and commissioned painters, both have a strong and extensive background in art instruction as well. They are currently teaching an assortment of drawing and painting classes, both traditional and digital, at Studio 2nd Street, and have developed a solid place in the community of Encinitas, participating in a variety of local art events held throughout the year.

Vanessa Lemen is a co-founder of Studio 2nd Street in Encinitas, CA, with her husband Ron. She has worked in several different arenas of art, from representational and fine art to illustration and entertainment art, and works in both traditional and digital media. She and Ron have a solid and extensive background in art instruction as well, and the classes at their studio are a culmination of the wide-ranging knowledge they have gained through their experiences as artists, with a strong attention to classical foundation. Vanessa has found a good balance utilizing her communicative nature to be a very altruistic and dedicated instructor, while her personal work speaks from the strength of solitude, and expresses an inward perspective.

Brian Haberlin is the award-winning founder of Haberlin Studios, whose innovative computer technique has been highlighted in magazines around the world. Haberlin is the former Vice President of Creative Affairs at TOP COW PRODUCTIONS. He was responsible for the entire creative direction of the highly successful comic company. While there he co-created the extremely popular WITCHBLADE comic character. Since, he and his studio have been involved with at least one top-ten comic title every month for the last four years and as many as four in any given month. His studio's client list includes all the top comic companies and properties, including SPAWN, X-MEN, DAREDEVIL, SPIDERMAN, and ARIA.