This week’s Community Spotlight is on TamplierPainter, who recently created this excellent piece called “Jandice Barov”. We asked the artist to tell us more about it.
Q: What was your impetus for the design of this piece?
A: I really like the old instances and raids in WoW. You could say that I'm a big fan of the classics, and that’s one of the reasons that I decided to portray this character. Most players’ attention goes to new content, but I would very much like to draw the attention of players to old dungeons and bosses, some of which have been long forgotten.
Q: How long does it take you to create something like this?
A: This is affected by many factors, from my workload to the complexity of art. If I’m very lucky, I can finish it in a week. If not, a picture like this can take up to six months. But this one only took about a week.
Q: What other works inspire you?
A: I love the creativity of Wei Wang. For me, he remains the undisputed authority going back years. He just has amazing technique and command of anatomy, light, and detail. His piece "Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise" took my attention for a very long time. I was also delighted by his "Warchief Garrosh Hellscream”. He is like a teacher to me, and I hope to get to meet him personally someday.
I also really like the work of Andree Wallin and Mariusz Kozik. They are great masters of their craft.
Q: How did this one tie back to the game?
A: Most of all I love the Warcraft story and the world itself. I love the characters and heroes. I remember, as a kid I played Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and most days of my life since, I’ve continued to play games from this universe. Playing WoW, I usually spend most of my time in PvP. I would like to fully complete the PvE content, but that wouldn’t work with the amount of time I have to spend on my art.
Q: If you could add one thing to the game, artistically, what would it be?
A: I don’t really know. In artistic terms, the game is so harmonious and efficient that I may not have anything to add. Okay – I wouldn’t mind updating the old battleground loading screens! I like how the the new battlegrounds (Kotmogu, Mines ) have very nice loading screens by comparison.
Jandice Barov by TamplierPainter
Thanks goes to TamplierPainter from all of us at Blizzard for sharing his talents with us. If you’ve seen a great piece of fan art lately, e-mail us at fanart@blizzard.com and tell us all about it.