Featured Pro Portfolio: Eduardo Peña

 I can not quantify which one is the best or the worst, due the fact that all “experiences” are in some way lessons for us to grow and learn from ourselves and the way the apply our passions and knowledge in our personal lives and professional environment. It’s always a win / win situation. But of course, there are always things that you will always remember and appreciate with the time. For example, one of those experiences was around 6 years ago when I was working at WETA Workshop. I was surrounded by very talented people and learning lots form them. I had and still have big respect for all my colleagues and friends over there, especially Richard Taylor! He was a great mentor to me. I had fun working on too many projects over there and loved being part of the design team.

 

 When i started working in the industry, there was not much social media or strong platforms in the way there exists today. At that time,  I was exposing my work on different  channels, such as: Books (Spectrum, Expose, Digital Art Masters, Cafe sale among others), Forums (Cafe Sale, Concept art.org, CG society). but times are always changing and technologies and channels are moving very fast so I’m still learning the new ways. Nowadays, I use ArtStation which seems to be a growing platform that allows the new coming generation of artists expose their work and get noticed. I also use other tools such as: Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.

Now, there’s many ways of getting your work noticed by lots of people. I think now it’s more about developing a language and something interesting that speaks for itself and not replicating trends. The good thing is that the most basic and essential factors still the same. Regardless of the technology we are using, developing something unique and different takes time. Thats’ the beauty of our craft. We can not rush it but sometimes thats contradictory, because we live in a world with an immediate rush, where everything needs to fulfill an instant gratification. Maybe our work can change the way we develop our content. That’s a personal view, but again I’m still learning, always changing and most importantly, enjoying and honouring the craft.

I travel and interact with different cultures and try to learn something from them: language, traditions, their history, something timeless and human, that makes the experience worthwhile and memorable. Those moments of joy are bliss and boost my perception of life, so it makes my artistic decisions different and flexible. I’m constantly challenging myself not to address technical standards or look for approval and sympathy from social media, but to always explore something new, something intimate and personal.  That way if people like it, it is ok and if not , then I still have joy in my discoveries.

Just a lot of passion, hard work, and always being a child and seeing the world with wonder and magic. Imagination is the nation of magicians.