SB1: nick swift

After discovering Nick Swift from the video that I watched about Character Design, much like when I found Sergio, I wanted to find out more about Nick's actual work and info.

On the PHA website it states:

This week on the Powerhouse Animation blog, we’re going to focus on one of our employees, Nick Swift, and his personal illustration work! We brought Nick onto the team back in early 2014, and he’s added so much to our company from adorable character designs to consistently maverick lunch suggestions.

NAME: Nick Swift
FAVORITE MOVIES: The Iron Giant, Inglourious Basterds, Assassination of Jesse James
FAVORITE CARTOONS: Samurai Jack, Sym-Bionic Titan, Steven Universe
FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES: Team Fortress 2, UNDERTALE, Final Fantasy 7
FAVORITE COMIC: Blacksad

Nick’s influences range from the classic Norman Rockwell to modern character designer Tony Fucile, whose work you would know from The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Character designers Bruce Timm and Shane Glines, known for their work on Batman: The Animated Series, also played an important role in influencing Nick’s designs and pin-ups. Some of his favorite artists at the moment include Shiyoon Kim, character designer from Big Hero 6, and Kevin Dart, a color keys artist on Steven Universe.

Looking at his gallery below, you can see how his influences come through in his art – the soft gouache-style painting, strong symbolic figures, and beautiful composition and color choices.

I really enjoyed looking at Nick's work. Like it states in the article about him from PHA, he uses a soft gouache style which is really inviting. I really like this style of working and think it would be interesting to try out.