Character Design Winners Interview — Untamed: When Animals Ruled the World

Waiting for the next ArtStation Community Challenge? Read what Untamed Character Design Challenge winners Didier Nguyen and Epple Rice have to say about their experience and get valuable insights to help you prepare for the next one.

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Taking on the Challenge as a Community

Part of what makes ArtStation Community Challenges exciting is getting to see how different artists approach the same brief and challenges. Taking part along with other artists makes the experience more motivating and fun.

Epple: I am very interested in this topic. The idea of animals ruling the world is both crazy and fun. I think a lot of crazy and interesting things happen in this world. There is a lot of story and drama. At the same time, I am also looking forward to participating in the challenge with so many talented artists at the same time.

Didier: Have you seen the other artists in here? You’ve got friends, instructors, students, amateurs, pros, and whatnot! I’m absolutely joining the damn party! Also I’ve never really done animals/creatures design so that was a good way to kickstart that exercise!

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Seeking Inspiration Beyond

Epple and Didier shared how they found the inspiration and ideas for their stand out entries:

Epple: My submission subject is the ROMANIMAL EMPIRE. This coined word is derived from Rome and animals. I want to create an empire built by animals. This inspiration comes from the appearance of many interesting wild animals. Such as monkeys with exaggerated eyes and turkeys with plump feathers. They have a unique identity in this world. It is the various special animals that make up this world.

Didier: The inspiration was the previous 8 ArtStation community challenges! Lucky me, I had 8 characters to make for this one so I threw in the previous themes! I’ve also had a huge art crush on Ami Thompson’s work, she is definitely my main inspiration for this project!

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Challenges and Rewards

The winners told us about their most challenging and rewarding moments during the creation process:

Epple: The hardest part should be creating eight different characters in a very short amount of time, and achieving a certain degree of completion at the same time. In addition to coming up with a worldview in a short time, it is also a great challenge to the speed of painting. The most rewarding part should be seeing high-quality work by many talented artists. Each artist creates an interesting and different world. Every world has a different era and culture. It’s so exciting.

Didier: Most difficult part was letting go and calling it a day y’all, you eventually need to put down the stylus, don’t overdo it! Most rewarding was drawing with my friends on discord, feedbacking each other, giving and receiving advice, learning from them, I think that’s the hidden and most precious reward you get from this.

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Advice for Future Challengers

Epple: This competition provides a stage to show off your skills and ideas, and it’s a lot of fun and rewarding to get involved.

Didier: This won’t be a 1 sentence answer! It’s similar to making a personal project but it’s seen by the ArtStation community for a few weeks. So have an overview of what you want to showcase on your website/social media and start from there. Keep your expectations low. Obviously, you might want to be on the podium but the real reward is finishing the assignment with your peers and showcasing it on your portfolio. Give yourself credit for what you’ve done even if you haven’t finished on time. Have as much fun as you can!

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Read more articles in our Untamed: When Animals Ruled the World interview series >