(Above: Prison City's key art, created by Jeff Delgado)
1. Briefly describe who you are and your involvement with Prison City.
Hello, I'm Jeff Delgado, and I'm a freelance illustrator from Southern California. I've been working as an artist professionally for about 18 years now. A few months back I was contacted by the awesome team from Retroware to create the key art for Prison City, and I instantly said yes! I fell in love with the gameplay and overall concept of the game and I couldn't wait to get started.
2. As an artist, what inspired the overall look of this Prison City art?
When I heard the game was a love letter to all things 80's action flicks I immediately knew how I wanted to tackle this project. For reference, I went back and looked at old 80's action movie posters and watched a few Arnold films to get the creative juices flowing. Growing up in the 80s totally helped me prepare for this job.
3. Can you briefly describe your process?
I work in Photoshop and I draw on a 27" Wacom Cintiq. I gather all my inspiration and references and start sketching small thumbnail drawings to get an idea of what direction to go. I send it over to Retroware where the team takes a look and sends back notes and suggestions. We keep going back and forth until we're happy and I start taking it to finish. The Retroware team is fantastic with their ideas and it was a blast shaping the finished piece with them.
4. What is your approach to adapting sprite art into a full resolution painting?
The sprites in the game are amazing. It was super easy to see the details and design of the characters so it was fun to translate that into a more realistic version. Luckily for me, the team also filmed a live action trailer for Prison City so I got to see the costume of the actor playing the lead character. All that was super beneficial in helping me with the final look.
5. Where can we find more of your work?
I'm currently working with the Retroware team in helping design the backgrounds for the upcoming Toxic Crusaders game! Make sure to check that out because the team creating this game is incredible and I can't wait for that to come out.
We’re excited to share more behind-the-scenes insights as we get even closer to Prison City’s launch!
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