At Game Artisans Workshop, there are no office/course politics, snail paced training offered during the span of 2-4 years, or students who are unsure of their career choice. At Game Artisans, our Master Workshops are taught by passionate professionals in the field who are excited to train hard-core artists that have signed up because they have a drive to succeed. If your goal is to focus your talents, get portfolio worthy art, and acquire training from an industry professional, then you have come to the right place. Rest assured, you are getting a real education. If you have any doubts, just check out our instructor’s portfolios to the competitions’.

The following pro Instructors will provide these specific 8-10 week duration Master Workshops in 2011:

Marc Taro Holmes

Art Director / Concept Artist

Marc Holmes has over 15 years experience as an Art Director and Concept Artist in both the games industry and digital feature animation, in studios such as Bioware, Turbine Entertainment, Ensemble Studios and Imagemovers Digital. He has designed characters, creatures, and environments for large-scale projects including Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Lord of the Rings Online, and Halo Wars.  Marc’s artwork has been on the covers of Computer Gamer, PC Gamer, Play Magazine and even two stories high on the front of the E3 Expo.

Marc will be sharing his hard-won industry experience in design for games; teaching you how to generate tons of ideas, successfully communicate them to the team, and become one of the visionaries behind the game.

Portfolio: http://marctaroholmes.wordpress.com
Sketchblog: http://tarosan.wordpress.com

Vlad Dergachov

3D Environment and Props Artist

Vlad has worked in the games industry for over 5 years, during which time, he has accumulated numerous techniques and methods to create outstanding 2d/3d art for various game genres, engines and platforms such as 360, PC, iPhone, Wii and DS. During his career in games, Vlad has focused his talents towards making professional game environments and props which included modeling, texturing, level building, lighting and other art-related technical aspects. On top of his usual tasks, he also assists interns and new comers to the industry by creating documents about in-house content creation pipeline and techniques. In the past 2 years, Vlad has given public presentations for artists in schools and within community hubs like Game Artisans Montreal. When Vlad is not hard at work making next gen art, he is vigilantly participating in online communities by sharing his knowledge and perfecting his skills. In his 5 year’s as a professional artist, he has won various awards for his work, the highlight being his 1st place championship win in an international game art environment competition held on UnearthlyChallenge.com. To this day, Vlad continues sharing his knowledge and methods with new artists entering the field.

Portfolio: http://www.matroskinworks.com

Meinert Hanson

Concept Artist / Illustrator

A native Montrealer, Meinert has a long list of credits in film, television and games. He has worked in animation, visual effects and production design, working in both traditional and digital media. He recently worked as production illustrator and concept artist on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Leatherheads, The Spiderwick Chronicles and 300. As a visual effects concept artist and matte painter, he worked on such films as Silent Hill, Across the Universe and Stranger Than Fiction.

Meinert also worked as an art director on the computer game Myst: Revelation. His television credits include The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Inside the Space Station and Alien Planet. As an animation director, Meinert’s credits include Bad Dog, and his own cartoon short for Hanna-Barbera, The Adventures of Captain Buzz Cheeply. He is currently teaching Photoshop Illustration at Dawson College.

Portfolio: http://www.fictionscience.com/spiderwick.htm

Jack Zhang

3D Character Artist

Jack Zhang has worked in the games and cinema industry for over 5 years. Previously working for Electronic Arts Montreal, he now works for THQ as a character artists and is a part-time 3d instructor at Dawson College. He has attained an assortment of accomplishments ranging from two cgchallenge honorable mentions, two CGSociety Choice awards and four times ballistic publishing art book inclusions. He is an active online community member and has for many year’s offered personal and professional training for advanced character modeling, production pipeline and creating solid demo reels.

Portfolio: http://jackzhang.cgsociety.org/gallery

Fredrik Hultqvist

Concept Artist / 3D Artist / Web Developer

As the founder of GameArtisans.org Online, Fredrik Hultqvist is a creative director who is passionate about his work. He holds a technical degree in Illustration & Design and has worked in the games industry both as a freelance and fulltime game artist. For the past 4 years, Fred began, organized and managed various online competitions, most of which have become renowned international events. Today, he is an occasional assistant 3d teacher at Dawson College Montreal. He has won awards of excellence for various personal artworks, has partners in various countries and is well connected to game companies around the world. Interviews with Mr. Hultqvist have appeared in Russian, Chinese, English, and Korean Game/Art magazines – Name brands include Playstation Magazine, Game Land, Advanced Photoshop, Imagine FX, CG Magazine China and more.

Fred’s artistic background together with his drive and passion to help artists everywhere level up, has given Game Artisans Montreal and GameArtisans.org Online a unique, fun and specialized program that is suited for artists of all levels.

Portfolio: http://www.artbyfh.gameartisans.org