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 instructed 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 as well as being prominently featured on the TV show Miami Ink.

Igor's multiple talents include illustration, creature and production design, sculpture, storyboarding, Kung-Fu, medieval fencing, choreography, and story writing.

For the past ten years, Igor has provided a considerable amount of designs, illustrations, sculpts and storyboards for films like X-men 3, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone, Feardotcom, Flintstones 2, The Snow Queen, and more. He also has several toy designs and book deals being produced, and he is part of a new art collective called DynamoPress. He has many professional experiences and helpful techniques to share.

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.

Wes is a BFA alumni from Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio. He is one of the most talented young artists in the country and has become incredibly experienced in the world of video games, specializing in character and monster design. He has contributed his character art skills to more than 80 AAA and next-gen titles for PC, Xbox, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 as well as feature film. He is currently traveling and working with Massive Black Inc. His fine art shows at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.

Nick is currently a concept artist at Massive Black, Inc. in San Francisco. He studied music and art in Georgia and NYC before joining MB in 2005, and has contributed to over fifty next generation titles.

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 over 120 AAA and Next-Generation video game titles for 15 of the top 20 video game publishers and 80 major developers as well as contributions to film projects like Transformers and commercial work for Coca Cola. 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 Senior Art Director for Massive Black.

www.coro36ink.com

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 wife.

Marko Djurdjevic is a Senior Concept Artist and Cover Illustrator for Marvel Comics. His recent contributions include the upcoming HULK movie, Spiderman, Blade, X-Men, and others on the comics side of the industry.

www.sixmorevodka.com

Known as "Nobody Knows" 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 it’s inception. He is a senior concept artist and has contributed to over 80 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.

Carl Dobsky is still alive.

Daniel Dociu has served as an Art Director or Concept Artist at Square Soft, Zipper Interactive, and Electronic Arts, and as an art consultant for Microsoft.

Titles which Daniel has worked include the Need for Speed, James Bond, and SSX series, MechWarrior 3, Crimson Skies, and Brute Force II.

He is currently employed at ArenaNet as an art director where he works on the Guild Wars series of successful titles.

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.

Senior Concept artists at Sega, currently working on Golden Axe Riders)
Previous credits: Lord of the Rings Online, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Age of Empires, and Halo Wars.

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.

http://tarosan.wordpress.com/

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.

www.michaelhussar.biz

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 instructed 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 as well as being prominently featured on the TV show Miami Ink.

In the East, Andrew Jones has been heralded as "the apocalyptic art shaman."   His work is a hybrid of academic training, emerging technology and the mystical experience, bringing together a mixture of archetypical mythology and contemporary magic. Beginning his career working with George Lucas at INDUSTRIAL LIGHT and MAGIC, He has served as Nintendo’s North American concept artist for 5 years where he envisioned the classic metroid franchise, he went on to start and serve as the Creative Director of MASSIVE BLACK. 

In 2002, Andrew co-created the non-profit online art community CONCEPTART.org, which has attracted nearly 87,000 registered users and receives over 1,000,000 unique visitors / month. Andrew has used this internet portal to launch a series of highly acclaimed art workshops, and has traveled the world teaching art to students from Berlin, Romania, Amsterdam, Paris, Montreal, Texas, Florida, Seattle, San Francisco and beyond. With work featured on the box cover of Corel Painter X, he is a leader in the digital fine art community, and works closely with the developers of emerging digital technology to create software that gives artists new tools to create their dreams.

Andrew has now taken his art out of the studio and onto the stage performing live at festivals, from the high rises of Tokyo to the desserts of Burning man, his creative domain includes; forests, clubs and ample theaters, touring with the worlds top underground DJs and bands (such as Bassnectar, glitch mob, tipper, and bluetech).

In his pursuit to master of the digital art medium, Andrew continues to push the limits of what’s possible with the manipulation of light and energy and is on the front line of “innovation.”

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.

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.

http://www.kevart.com/

Jason is responsible for defining the company vision and successful business model of Massive Black Inc. which has now contributed to more than 150 AAA and Next-Generation video game titles and major feature film and television projects. 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 91,000 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.

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 acclaimed Frank Miller’s 300.

Bruno Gore (Noxizmad)- Projects include: Duke Nukem, NDA titles for id software, Warhawk 3 for Sony, and over 80 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.

Kemp grew up in Athens GA. There he got his degree in Graphic Design and decided to pursue a career in entertainment as a concept artist. After graduating, he moved to San Francisco to work with Factor 5, then Massive Black where he has worked on many great projects and became one of the leading industrial designers and illustrators working in film and games today.

www.kempart.com