In celebration of the release of The Warden’s Legacy, Brick Cave Media took some time to interview illustrator Henning Ludvigsen, the book’s Cover Artist.
This interview is part 2 of 2 and you can read part 1 here.
BC: Have you always worked digitally with your art? If not, talk about that transition and how it changed you as an artist.
Henning: I do have a couple of years of traditional art education from the early 90’s. But I did start out creating pixel art on the Commodore 64 computers back in the late 80’s, and later on the Amiga computers during the 90’s before moving on to Mac’s and Windows based computers. So, I did use different kinds of traditional mediums back in the days, but digital was always my go-to medium the minute I started working. I do, however, use quite a few workflows and theories I learned in art school when working digitally. So, a lot of the training can translate between analog and digital and adapt quite nicely, which has been very useful to me throughout the years.
BC: When you create characters, what would you say are your “signature attributes” things about the work that you hope will let people know the work is yours before they ever see your name attached to it.
Henning: This goes for any genre I do; be it characters, props or items, or location illustrations; I tend to lead toward having somewhat playful or dramatic colour, light, and shadows in my work. I’ve always been a fan of playing around with that and using that to my advantage. When creating environments I love getting lost in details and storytelling, which is especially handy when creating maps or assets for the games industry.
BC: Counting the many interior illustrations on The Ascension trilogy from Joe, you’ve drawn many of his characters over time. What character do you find most intriguing?
Henning: It’s been a while since I made those illustrations, so it’s hard to recall. We usually found more stylized approaches to those illustrations, like showing a close-up of a hand, or an item, instead of a full out scenic illustration. I used a Photoshop brush imitating a pencil brush for the interior illustrations, and I do remember enjoying trying to emulate the traditional medium, and embracing human error and mistakes which adds more charm to those kinds of illustrations.
BC: Whom else do you see in your field as exceptional artists that people should pay attention to?
Henning: I’ve honestly lost the overview. There are SO MANY amazing artists out there, there’s no way of singling anyone out from the rest. We do hire freelance artists for projects in our game studio every now and then, and there are just so many great ones to pick from. A few years ago there were usually a few that stood out that everyone looked up to, but either I lost overview on that, or the scene has changed or just exploded.
BC: What do you read? Who are some of your favorite authors?
Henning: I am ashamed to say, and I realize the irony, so please DO judge me; but I don’t really read books. My life is always super hectic and I can never seem to find the time, or I guess peace of mind to be able to sit down and properly read a book. I think the last time I read a book was way back in the late 90’s. What little time I have to wind down and relax, I either idle my brain watching movies or TV series. I do hope that I will be able to find enough balance in my life to be able to pick up reading sometime in the future. It would definitely be a good thing for the body and especially mind.
Thank you to Henning Ludvigsen for the time to check in with us and celebrate the release of The Warden's Legacy. You can see more of Henning’s work and follow him on his Website, Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram.
