Kristian: Do you want to hit me to just get up the energy?
Rembert Montald: I'll punch you and [Punches] - okay.
- Harder.
Go.
Yeah.
[Punching]
♪♪
[Intro]
- Well, Rembert, would you like to introduce yourself?
- Hey there everyone.
And I [Laughter].
Hello there.
My name is Rembert Montald.
I'm here at the Proko Studios with Kristian.
- I'm Kristian.
I'm also an artist and I work at Proko.
- Alright.
Can I just jump in like that?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Or do I need to give like an introduction first?
- No, no.
- Round 2?
I'll be more careful this time because with the kids, I was just laying my line.
It's more of a challenging angle of the face.
- Trying to think of questions to ask you.
- What's your favorite food.
- What is your favorite food?
- I'm a vegetarian, so it's tofu.
- Does being a vegetarian make you a better artist?
- It makes me a worse artist.
[Laughter] What are some of the most frequently asked questions?
- What kind of sketchbook you're using?
Who are the best artists?
- Who are the best artists?
- Yeah.
- Sweet.
- Sargent.
That's the only answer.
- I think Sargent is really good.
Don't get me wrong.
I have a lot of books from him.
- For me, it's like the spirit of his drawings that I really like.
- Yeah, I like his charcoal drawing.
I like all his work.
- His charcoal drawings are the things I probably like the most from him and obviously his little
paintings but to me, when I look at his art, it seems like there's a lot more joy in his
like quicker portrait stuff.
- I think it's really good but I think it's good to look at a lot of different artists.
- What would you recommend the people that are outside of the country that are wanting
to work in America?
- Stay in Europe.
[Laughter]
- No, I just [Laughter] - No, you mean just working for a big company in general or just
want to come to the states or?
- Yeah, like if somebody you know really wants to work in games and they want to I guess
leave their own country you know, and come to States like you know, you're obviously
somebody who did that.
- Mhm.
- What would you recommend?
- If you really want to do that, it depends where you are in a world.
If you're from Europe, you have no excuse to not go to art school because they're so
cheap.
I think in total, for my four years plus master, I paid $3,000 - $4,000 or something.
Like I have no depths at all.
I never had - like it's really great in Belgium or in Europe in general.
Schools are cheap.
So, if you're from Europe, go to art school.
It's like a no brainer.
- Right.
- Because you can meet other - it's not just for the education, it's to meet the other
people and make connections and drive yourself motivation, have that healthy or unhealthy
competition, you know, wherever your personality is.
And it's also it's good to meet like-minded people and create a little community because
that's the one thing if you're going to study online, if you're not in Europe, then it's
going to be difficult to build a community.
But the reason why is that also in Europe go to school is because a master diploma will
help you get a visa much quicker.
Not for the company that wants to hire you, they don't - they are never going to ask for
your diploma but the US border control and then the visa, it takes years sometimes.
But if you have a master, it can speed it up considerably.
- How long did it takes to get yours?
- A year, a year and a half.
- Yeah.
- And because I had a mastery, it went quicker.
- Right.
- There are cases where it can go faster but I wasn't that priority because I was being
hired as a normal artist and I could still fulfill my work remotely easily.
- Right.
- Why am I drawing a Amnesia armor?
[Laughter]
Just like when I go autopilot and like oh, that's a - Yeah.
So, that's one part of the answer.
If you can get a diploma, the only use for it is for artist to get a visas quicker.
If not, just work really smart as in fundamentals but obviously I think people say that all
the time.
Go to festivals like THU, like - just keeping in mind, there's so many in Europe or all
over the world and if you're in Australia and there is no art event and you have to
travel, I knew people that travel to these art events in Europe who came all the way
from Australia because there are other recruiters and you can start going there yearly and you
don't have to show your artwork immediately.
You can just hang out with people and get to know them and then after a while, you can
show them your portfolio and they already will know you.
It's like, "Oh, hey, Kristian".
Like, "Awesome, man.
I never saw your work, show me" and it's like, "Oh, that looks pretty good.
Damn".
- Yeah.
- It's like, it's more human.
- I feel like they were networking in general.
It's like, you know, it's not to go and just like want and ask for everything you want
to actually build a like a human relationship with somebody.
- Yes.
- You know, you're not talking to somebody because you want a job, you're talking to
somebody because you're actually interested in who they are and what they want to do.
- Yeah.
What I think is more important for people watching is like this build up is actually
perfect and you can render it individually.
I don't know.
[Laughs]
- Gonna draw a muscle man?
- Yeah.
- Some kind of guy with an axe or something?
- Yeah, let's do that.
I'm actually having fun just dueling.
The pressure is gone now.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I still remember Ryan Woodward and going festival every time I ran into him, "Don't
forget to send your portfolio" and I was thinking like "Yeah right, he's just - he's just kidding".
- He's being nice.
- Yeah, he's just being nice.
And I remember going back to Croatia, preparing this mail, Mr. Woodward.
We met like you know-
- Right right.
- "Oh, do you remember me?".
Like I don't know or something, and I thought he's never going to answer this.
Never.
I'm not exaggerating.
I sent a mail.
Within a minute.
Like with the time difference and everything, but I was like in a minute.
I was like "Oh my god".
- Yeah.
- So he must have been accidentally sitting behind his PC or in his mailbox or something.
- Right right.
- It was crazy.
I was, he's never going to answer one week later.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's like ****.
- One, that stuff does happen to people.
You know, it's not necessarily a quality of the art, it's not necessarily a personality.
I think it's a combination of a bunch of different things.
- Yeah, all of the above.
- Yeah.
- It's a really big axe.
Oh my god.
- I like it, man.
It's like a League of Legends axe.
- Yeah.
I would never draw something like this for myself.
It's cool that you - I mean, I do it for work all the time but maybe not this big.
This is really big dude.
It's usually for cinematics, so it's sort of like a little bit less exaggerated.
- You animate a lot.
- Yeah.
- Does this stuff help you animate?
- Oh yeah.
I can constantly thinking about how I would animate this in a way.
So now I can exaggerate the pose to be more like that and be more like that.
It was here but now it's there so.
And I just ignore what I drew first.
Can I try one last one?
- Absolutely man.
- It's just like - it's like ahhh.
- This is part of the process of like you actually sketching.
- I'm just trying to think, it's - let me try to draw this way right now.
- Yeah.
- I can fail horribly.
- Yeah.
- Ever thought about making your own brick-and-mortar school?
- Yeah.
Actually yes.
My great great grand uncle is this famous artist Constant Montald.
He has like - works in a museum.
He's like a symbolic painter with symbolist movie.
- Right.
- And he left an entire heritage actually and he has houses and people know him still.
So, I was thinking like you know what, I can capitalize on that name.
Yeah, when I told that to Scott Flanders, he was like "Yeah, you should make the Montald
School".
- You have classes on Nomon and Art Station, right?
- Yes, a couple of them.
It's like I'm coming up with an idea but it's just like okay.
I just sort of designing it in my head.
I think I might take this one on the side.
I can actually do it justice.
I like small - This is actually really how I sketch when I want to make a nicer drawing.
- Yeah.
- It's like "What do I like about that?"
It's like a little bit of a down view.
That's something I like from that sketch.
I was like okay, I like that she had like two swords like that.
And then I like this - like a huge coat.
Like a big shape.
Makes her sort of imposing.
It's made out of wood or something, you know.
Then she's looking up.
Her head kind of like that.
There is just a crown.
And then there is sort of a moon behind her.
And with this, like you can start with the collar again.
Like a collar and it goes like this.
Like I wasn't designing before but I don't consider myself the best designer.
Yeah, this is actually my real process.
I do it and I do it again and I do it again.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I'm not that-
- You just keep doing it, yeah.
- Yeah I just keep doing it over and over again.
Yeah, I'm not happy.
[Laughs]
You can - you can put this in the video.
Like it's -
- Yeah, yeah.
Well, this -
- Super transparent.
- Yeah, yeah.
This is actually what it's like to do drawings.
You know, whenever you see people drawing online, there's generally like you know, they
edit out everything else that makes it not more compressive but you know, you're only
seeing the 15 minutes or something of them actually executing the thing but there's all
the other preparatory work and all the stuff that you know, goes into them.
Like performing essentially.
- Yeah.
I don't like that either [Chuckles].
Let's just keep going.
Let me let me draw like a nice - a thumbnail that you can use and not rendered per say
but - I did something in my job interview that probably a lot of people would advise
against.
Ryan Woodward, he also asked me like "So, why do you want to work for Games?"
I went like a very emotional route.
My parents, when they were divorcing, for me World of Warcraft, that virtual world was
sort of a safe space.
And it was actually kind of escapism from the situation but escapism can be good sometimes.
- Right.
- But at the interview, it's like if I can provide that safe space for someone else that
is going through a difficult time in their lives, then I think I would have given back
what the game did to me.
Yeah, he liked that answer but I think if it wasn't him or someone else, it would've
- I would've, yeah, gone off really bad.
- Well, I think that part of the thing is like there are things that happen that are
completely out of your control when it comes to getting a job.
Like that might have worked with somebody else.
That might have worked better with another person, it might have not worked at all with
ano - you know.
- Yeah.
- And - but that was who you were in that moment.
Right?
- Right.
- And it's like - I think it's important to just be okay being who you are and be okay
either way if you do or don't get the job.
Cuz there's ton of things out of your control that you know, you just can't influence whether
it works out or not in those cases.
- But yo see what I was mentioning before, it's like foreshortening is not that hard.
Like really I could have drawn a hand way bigger actually for more impact.
It's just drawing shapes on top of another and stacking them.
It's like not caring about-
- Proportion either.
- No, not at all.
This is not a League of Legends character.
I don't even know what I'm doing.
It's - I'm just trying to draw something that is like clickbaity.
Sometimes I suffer from the impatience and then I draw too fast.
Oh well, at least it looks confidently bad drawn.
- Yeah.
- It's always hidden.
It's like, probably I could have taken these further but-
- Well, I think the drawing of preliminary things is actually really important part of
the process of doing this stuff.
- Yeah, because I said I was going to draw that but suddenly I drew her head and I was
like "No, I don't think".
- Yeah.
- If you want to see drawings of pretty girl, just go to my Art Station.
Or go to any of the other artists on this channel and watch one.
Watch them all.
- Yeah.
- Binge watch them.
- Learn how to draw-
- And I like them and subscribe.
[Laughter]
- Press that thumbs up button.
- Today we're going to a guy with a sword.
Slap Like if you're excited.
This doesn't look too terrible.
- You know, the drawings weren't terrible.
- Like I always make mistakes with this skull or something.
Like I would draw it too short or too long.
I don't know what to do with this hat.
Let's do something.
- That story of how somebody gets a job at a company like right is actually fairly common.
I meet people all the time who feel like they have to get the job right away or something
or they feel like they don't have anywhere else to go or they kind of like lost faith
in themselves or the process but to me, it seems like if you just follow the path and
do the right things, eventually, it's going to work out in the way it's supposed to work
out.
- So, you believe in coincidence?
- Well, I believe in, you know, taking responsibility over your own career and stuff and I think
that accepting that, yeah, there are plenty of things out of your control and if it wasn't
Riot, I think you would have tried something else, you know, eventually until something
worked.
There are plenty of failures along the way to your journey that completely influenced
where you're at now.
- Right.
- Well, if somebody feels like they're, you know, they're in that stage where they are
not sure where to go next, I think that - there are always people you can reach out to.
There are always events you can go to.
There's always something you can do to put yourself further along in the path.
- Right, if you have the drive.
- Damn it, did you believe that?
- I met people that are really good and they just never had that luck, even having the
drive.
So, that's why it's important to go to events to create those chances, you know, and it's
- and some of them are expensive but they're worth it.
- Well, I think it's not just events but it's also just like reaching out to people online.
- Sometimes, people reach out to me and say like, "Oh, you do mentorships?"
or something and I'm always reluctant to accept because I just don't know them.
- Right.
- I don't even feel like am I in a place where I can teach.
There's a reason why not every artist or is willing to teach.
That makes it difficult online to meet people because there's this barrier and it's not
just a barrier from oh, you can't reach these artists because he's too good to respond,
it's also them being afraid of like "Can I - can I do this?"
Well, if you confront them in person, they have nowhere to go.
You drop them.
- Well, I think - well, I think so too.
- Normally, I would have blurred it in Photoshop.
- I think that an important part of getting a job is like also being somebody that people
want to be around.
Like it's not about being the best, you know.
Really isn't.
Like for me personally, I would way rather work with somebody who's not as good at draftsman
but they're more fun to be around, you know.
- Right.
- And in my opinion, that person is actually a better artist because they can communicate
ideas better, at least more successfully.
- Right.
Who do you want to work with?
Someone really talented that -
- Can't communicate ideas.
- Or - yeah.
- The point of artists is to communicate ideas and if they're not good at communicating,
I'm kind of missing the purpose of art in general I think.
- Yeah.
- Somebody once said to me it's like, if you want to be a concept artist, don't try and
go for the big companies.
Like just message a bunch of companies on Steam and just - like indie companies that
aren't number one and just say like "Hey, I'll do concept art for you for free or for
a little money.
If you do that for long enough then you'll actually have experience under your belt to
tell people like "Hey, I'm a concept artists who worked on these games".
- I don't know if that is really good advice because maybe I'm talking frivolous right
now because I was lucky or something but you definitely can.
I had no experience working for a game company at all and my first company is Riot so.
- Might not be good or bad advice but I think the thing I'm saying is that it's something
that you can do if you feel like you are stuck.
If you feel like you can't go to a place like Trojan Horse or you can't go to Comic Con
or any -
- Right.
- At the very least you have a computer and an internet connection, you could do something.
- You answered the question better than I did.
[Laughs]
- Anyway, yeah.
- Do you want to talk about how people should follow you?
- Oh yeah.
You can follow me on Instagram.
That's @rembertmontald and Art Station is just Rembert Montald.
- Cool.
Awesome.
Thanks, Rembert.
Where would King Arthur be without the Knights of the Round Table or Dorothy without the
Tin Man Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion?
A hero can only achieve so much without a community.
While the ultimate fate of your art quest is in your hands, we'd like to help you by
inviting you to join our community of art adventures at proko.com.
While you probably won't find an elderly wizard with wisdom to spare nor lovable metallic
men on the hunt for a heart, you will find a growing community packed with humans, hobbits,
and hob goblins all united under the goal of becoming the best artists they can be.
When you sign up for a free account, you unlock a world of possibilities with students, mentors,
and instructors.
All ready to chat, share strategies, offer feedback, and more.
So, come and join us at proko.com and start your adventure today.