Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Kekai Kotaki


My latest arthrob: Kekai Kotaki.

He just handed in the above painting for Berserker Lord, the next installment of David Farland's Runelord books.



Kekai is a concept artist for ArenaNet Games. (You know, the guys that sweep the awards.) Typically concept artists are so specialized that it's tough to imagine them working on a narrative painting. Not so with Kekai. His work has epic scale, cool costuming, and is all movement. It's so hard to find artists that can portray movement without stiffening up, but he's got it figured out in spades.

Check out his blog and website.

13 comments:

Doug Williams said...

He's also a great guy, who enjoys some really bad tv shows.

I can honestly say, you have not seen anything yet (Although that Barbarian piece is mighty kick ass). Cake's current work that is all NDA'd up at Arena is mind blowing.

It's Christmas with every new piece he pins onto the wall.

Congrats Kekai, you deserve it buddy!

Saskia said...

You're right, he's awesome!!

Irene Gallo said...

Doug - that so mean! But I;m sure the rest of us will start seeing in future annuals.....Just as he's on to even better stuff.

Actually - it is a tough point at times. Sometimes I'll look up kids that I saw a year earlier at a graduating student show and they don't have any new work up -- presumably they either dropped out of art or they're doing a lot of work that they can;t show.Just as they should be getting better in leaps and bounds.

Piya said...

I've been trying to incorporate Kekai's methods into my work. It's about as easy to pinning down the wind. He's really amazing at what he does.

Jaime said...

arthrob AND hearthrob <3

EricFortune said...

Hotness!

Highwayman said...

I see a very strong resemblance to Greg Manchess' layout & design of "Above the Timberline" It is nice that Greg had a spare bear that he wasn't using.

C.R. MacTernan said...

I've swooned over his stuff before. I keep seeing his work all over the place. The force is strong in this one.

Carl V. Anderson said...

Arthrob...such a great word! Did you coin that?

His work is terrific. Its movement reminds me of Raymond Swanland's book cover illustrations.

That polar bear is truly kick ass!!!

Anonymous said...

The "nineth" book of the Runelords?

Ninth, I think.

Irene Gallo said...

No one will ever accuse me of decent spelling and/or typing. And it's actually the "eighth", I just haven't gotten around to swaping the image out yet.

Tom Scholes said...

arthrob; brilliant.
He's a hell of a guy too.

Luca said...

He's really a Kickass! He deserves to swipe away all the awards! I wish to study his technique and his approach... but it's hard to find! Well done Kekai