Matt Dixon

http://www.mattdixon.co.uk/

Since an early age Matt Dixon has been drawing and painting away to perfect his skills as an artist. Being a motivated self-taught artist has lead him to create his own style in digital art and landed him a position as lead artist at Eurocom Entertainment Software. I talked with Matt about his career, what he thinks about the industry, his influences, and when the proper time to be a dad an artist is, and when to break out the tequila.

By Paul*PabloGrca*Hutchens

SQ – Tell us a little bit about yourself, where were you born? When did you become interested in Art and or Digital Art? I was born in Birmingham, England in 1972. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting, and computers have interested me ever since my Dad bought a Commodore VIC-20 home. That would have been around 1980. It was the games that first caught my attention, but it wasn’t long before I was having fun building pictures from ASCII characters. Since then I’ve always used a computer as an art tool in one way or another. Thanks, Dad!

SQ – Tell us a little bit about your background. I have no artistic training other than the standard art lessons offered by the British education system so I consider myself to be self-taught, though my motivation has always been the simple pleasure of picture making and the idea of serious training or education in relation to my own artwork is something that’s come relatively recently. So has the thought of art as a real career – I left school without knowing what I wanted to do, and never considered a creative profession, despite receiving regular commissions for my artwork. My first job was as a trainee accountant, a position I was pleased to leave during my first lunch hour. I then persued the rock ‘n’ roll dream playing in bands a working in a guitar shop for several years before I ended up in the videogame industry.

SQ – Where do you work at the moment and what’s your position there? I’m employed as a lead artist at Eurocom Entertainment Software. Eurocom has handled some really exciting licenses, so I’ve been priveleged to work on a variety of interesting projects, from game franchises like Crash Bandicoot through to movie properties like Harry Potter and, most recently, Pirates of the Caribbean.

WoodWitch