PAINTERLY STYLE
“I did something in this
painterly style for the
first time in 10 years
because a client asked
for it. Afterwards, I
did it for myself.”FOUR-LEGGED
FRIEND
“This four-legged robot
is something directly
inspired by the short
anime movie from
Katsuhiro Otomo: A
Farewell to Weapons.”WORKING FAST
“I was on vacation, but had to deliver a video
for my Patreon page, so I had to choose this
subject very fast, like I do in commercial work.”like starting from scratch, but it was
exciting. There was an element of
performance about concept art: he had
to draw in front of people, have them
watch over his shoulder, make
comments. Nivanh was comfortable
with this. It was like street art, like
graffiti, like working on a giant sheet of
paper with six or seven others. He got
the job and, appropriately enough,
appeared in the credits under his
graffiti name, Duster132.
GOING DEEP WITH HIS CONCEPTS
Nivanh joined Eidos-Montréal in 2013,
where he found a mentor in art
director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête.
Jonathan hand-picked his team and
made sure they were given the freedom
to bring their own ideas to projects.
Nivanh’s art improved dramatically
during this time because the sheer
quantity of work he was producing, but
he also “went deep” with the work and
encouraged to refine his art. Jonathan
also protected his team from “internal
political conf licts.” Nivanh was free to
focus on his art and art alone. It was
“the best company in town.”
But Nivanh was also very aware that
he’d would never be able to share
NIVANH CHANTHARA
The plan has
always been to see
a piece dying by
itself to make space
for a new piece