David Longdon
In the Studio With
Our first interview with David Longdon was published in the winter of 2018, and since then, both he and Big Big Train became household names for RVG and its most faithful listeners. Fast-forward two years and you’ll find us all here, having just finished the preparations for the publication of our follow-up interview with David, thereby marking the start of a new decade for Vox Groovy in a grand way.
We invited David over to the studio, so instead of our usual text-based interview, we’ve got a “real” one for you today. Of course, we much prefer this way because it allows us to really meet the person, which is exactly what we had the privilege of doing. The frontman arrived ahead of time, and it’s safe to assume that anyone’s first impression of him would be that he is a humble, sophisticated and well-spoken gentleman[…]
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Coming Soon:
Vadim Shchepilov
We’re excited to announce that our exclusive interview with Vadim Shchepilov is going to be published next week! Vadim was born and raised in Ukraine, which is where he’d spend most of his youth dreaming about becoming a graphic designer whilst working his day job. Once he learned to use Photoshop, he realized that this kind of software can be used for personal art as well, and like many others, he dived right in.
After a couple of years, Vadim ultimately became a generalist because he tried his hand at everything digital art had to offer when he was still learning. Things like CAD, illustration and MEL scripting were all familiar to him. And if any of you remember our previous interviews with the artists behind Ori and the Blind Forest (2015), you’ll know that Moon Studios’ workflow is built around having everyone do a variety of things, making generalists like Vadim a great fit for their new game Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020).
After five years, our favorite platformer is finally back on the front page of Steam, and it’s thanks to artists like Vadim Shchepilov and his wife, Lina Kit, who were there to bring the forest of Nibel back to life for our sake. If you’re a fan of real accounts of the games industry, Ori or Vadim’s personal artwork, we couldn’t recommend checking back to read this interview enough!
Art Relax Retrospective:
The Colourful World of Art Movements
On Tuesday, Vox Groovy’s Nina told us all about Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020) and its wonderful collaborations with some of the world’s most popular fashion brands. If you love style as much as we do, you should consider heading on down to your island’s Able Sisters’ tailor’s shop, it’ll be easy to find a new look now that Marc Jacobs and Valentino released a number of new designs for our in-game avatars.
After that, we continued to traverse the colourful world of art movements by taking a closer look at impressionism. This is a movement that had to fight for its place in the art world, and even if no one questions the impressionists’ masterpieces anymore, the artworks were actually seen as “lesser” back in the 1800s. Masters like Monet, Renoir and Cézanne had to make waves with their art in order for the movement to stand out—one of the most important moves being their organizing of an exhibition in 1874. It had no state involvement, no jury and no hierarchy of subject matter. An approach that would change Paris and its art scene for the better.
Lastly, we spoke about Spirit of the North (2019), a game about two foxes that allows you to explore the breathtaking and mysterious landscapes of Iceland. If you’re a fan of mythology or would like to learn a thing or two about any of the exciting topics from Tuesday’s show, tune in for the reprise!
Featured Artists:
Nightwish, Big Big Train, Evan Rachel Wood, The Beatles, Visions Of Atlantis, Gareth Coker, Whoopie Cat, David Bowie, The Amazing Devil, Regina Spektor, Cosmograf (and more).
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Irakli Nadar
Irakli Nadar is a Georgian digital artist whose main focus is creating hyper-realistic portraits of beautiful models and pop culture icons. As I see it, all of Nadar’s portraits have been successful because all of them have gone viral and brought him thousands of awestruck followers on social media. This artist’s portfolio is a combination of hyper-realism, wonderful lighting, and a set of unique renditions of popular characters like Overwatch’s Mercy and Princess Mononoke.
I think that when it comes to “marketability,” this mix is nigh impossible to beat. Nadar currently displays thirty-six pieces on ArtStation, and if you add up the views, you’ll see that they’ve garnered 1.9 million views, meaning that the community’s interest in a video tutorial from him is going to peak soon. The two video tutorials he does have no commentary so he’d definitely like to improve the product’s quality before releasing anymore.
In the interview, he told Vox Groovy that, “I want to add voice-over narration to my tutorials, but I also want to keep the subtitles for people who are hearing-impaired or for those who speak another language.” Interestingly, he’s also experimenting with a bigger navigator panel because it’s easier to see what’s going on if you can see how the whole painting changes over the course of time.
Today, Vox Groovy brings you an exclusive interview with Nadar where we talk about his artistic past, some of the harsher criticisms he’s been met with, and his plans for the future. (You can expect to see a series of improved video tutorials soon). Here’s hoping that you learn something new!