Ruby Bayer from ArenaNet released a new blog post featuring another concept artist of their team, this time around it is Naomi Baker. Ruby asked her about her background, artistic interests and influence and more.

Q:  Your figure work is really strong; it seems sleek, but also explores angles and edges. Do you find yourself primarily drawn to characters and figures rather than environment work?

Naomi: I am drawn to characters and figures. While I was in Los Angeles, I constantly drew in coffee shops and could be found in different figure drawing sessions in Los Angeles two or three times a week. Now that I’ve moved to beautiful Washington State, I am drawn to my surroundings more!

Q:  What are some of your main artistic or aesthetic influences?

Naomi: Definitely old illustrators’ construction and draftsmanship. I’ve always liked the aesthetic of this old German publication called Simplicissimus because of its strong graphic look, but also good drawing. And then there are Sargent and Layendecker, artists who explain things perfectly in a few strokes of paint—like a boss!

Two of Naomi’s drawings featuring some of her “simplistic” work.

 

Aside of the full interview over at the official blog post go visit the her own blog at naomiful.blogspot.ch with quite a few of her works. And for those interested, here you can find the Wikipedia article on Simplicissiums, a legendary, German satire from 1668/69 still discussed today. Mostly in school of course, but still something only very few ever achieve.