Eva Widermann is a great artist. No doubt about that. Her works (illustrations, cover art, etc)  for Wizard of the Coast (and not only ... see here ) are wonderful and impressive, and now she's ready to battle the MMO market with Runewaker/Frogster for Runes of Magic. We told to her about these aspects.

GS: Could you talk about your previous experiences in the videogames industry? You’ve worked for NCsoft, for example …

Working for Ncsoft was my introduction to the video game industry. I thouroughly enjoyed the concepts that I designed for them and this was the experience which lead me to the realisation that this is an area of the industry where I feel very much at home. After Ncsoft, I worked for a number of studios such as, Virgin Lands and Karakter Concept in Amsterdam ... the rest is history

GS: Are you a videogamer ? Do you like MMOs? Or still prefer paper and pencil RPGs, maybe?

To be honest, I'm actually not a gamer at all, I simply have no time left for a time consuming hobby like that, which is kinda hard from time to time as there are so many interesting games out there! I sometimes play videogames, though, even if it's just to study the overall look and game design. I love Zelda and Super Mario, yeah, I'm old school! =P I also was playing one or two common MMOs, but that was before I started with freelance work. I had loads of fun with MMOs, but when I think of it, I preferred to play them because of the design. You just cannot stop being an artist, no matter what you're doing... Concerning Pen & Paper RPGs, it's actually funny as I just have been invited to join a group and I hope I can make it in my rare spare time.


GS: What kind of involvement you have with Runewaker and Runes of Magic, at the moment? When and for what kind of contents we will see your work implemented in Runes of Magic?

As I just recently started working on Runes of Magic, my involvement is not defined to a certain degree yet. But mainly I'm doing concept art for costumes and armor design. Weaponry design, character and creature concept art was also a subject we talked about. It's gonna be interesting!


GS: What do you feel to see your artworks gain life in a videogame character ?

Oh, it's awesome! That's always the best part of doing concept art. I'm always dreaming of once fighting an end boss in a game which was developed by myself. Though, I probably wouldn't have the heart to kill it ;)


GS: What’s your favourite subject to draw ?

Definitely character design! I just love faces, bodies, all the different types of humans, old, young, pretty, ugly, skinny, fat... it's always competitive to bring them to life and to give them an authentic feeling.


GS: What are the main problems to solve or the primary aim to have in mind,  creating art for a MMO?

Of course you have limits of what's possible to realise, especially in games where everything's gonna be 3D in the end. You cannot go too complicated and you have to follow certain specifications from the game developers. For myself, I mainly aim for an authentic overall look of the concept. I'm not a big fan of oversized, exaggerated and unpractical looking weapons or armor designs. People should look at it and instantly feel like wearing that piece of costume, because it's genuine but still cool in it's design. I have the feeling the whole trend of the current MMOs is focused on going back to an authentic look and I very much appreciate that.
 

GS: Could you talk about your future projects?

I currently don't have big projects in my mind as I'm always trying to be flexible with my work, even though the work for Runes of Magic is the biggest job so far I did in the gaming field. Besides conceptual art I'm also doing a lot of illustrations for books and RPGs. I had interesting offers from several companies to work for them full time, but in the end I refused as I don't wanna give up my variety of art. That means my job is time consuming, but in the end I'm free in my choices. I always wanted to draw a graphic novel, though. Well, that's gonna be a job for my retirement ;)


GS: What are the music, the movies and the books that inspired you?

Everything inspires me! From a good song I hear in the radio to a leaf falling down from a tree. I love music and I always need music whilst doing my work. I have a very mixed up taste, but mostly I prefer something with guitars ;) Electronica and ambient stuff on headphones works great for nightime. Paradoxically, I'm not able to draw when I'm listening to movie soundtracks (mainly the classic type of fantasy or history movies), they make me freak out, even when the music is really nice! Concerning inspirations from movies, I just cannot tell, there would be too many to name. Watchmen was the last one which deeply impressed me. History books, I find very interesting, I have a huge collection of archaelogic catalogues from ancient Europe and the middle ages, costume studies, weaponry books, etc. I was doing early medieval reenactment some years ago, which also was contributing a lot to my historical background knowledge.

 

Thx to Eva for the interview.