This week, Hex TCG artist Pablo Fernandez was kind enough to donate some time to Hex Shuffle for an interview. His profile, TheBastardSon, on deviantart.com is bursting with artwork, and among them the ‘Venem Sniper’ and ‘Eurig the Robomancer.’ I was personally interested in the conceptual stage of these pieces, as they exuded incredible amounts of atmosphere, especially in the background work surrounding the central characters.

One of my goals in these interviews is to unveil the Cryptozoic-Contract Artist relationship. It’s interesting to see the business side of creativity, and I think it is valuable to learn of the countless interactions between people that goes on behind the scenes. If a piece of art is the destination, it adds a layer of appreciation to see and understand the journey it took from nonexistence to conception to creation.

Who was your liaison with Cryptozoic, and how did they work with you as you developed your pieces?

“I worked with David Baron in [the] first place and then also with William Brinkman. They were nice and clear about the corrections. I had no trouble with the feedback.”

Interviewer’s Note: David Baron served as Cryptozoic Entertainment’s Art Director for two years. In January of 2013, he became art director for Pints and Pixels Productions Inc.

William Brinkman became Cryptozoic Entertainment’s Art Asset and Web Content Manager in January 2012. Previously, he had been a marketing and internet community associate for Cryptozoic. Before that, he was an Associate Online Content Manager at Upper-Deck where, presumably, he worked with Cory Jones on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.

Your Armored Dwarf piece is now revealed to be Eurig the Robomancer. Were you aware of which card you were creating art for? How did that knowledge, or lack of knowledge, influence your creative process?

“I had detailed descriptions of all the characters I was commissioned to do and that had a negative and a positive part. It’s nice to have detailed descriptions about the characters when you are running out of time because you don’t have to come up with your own designs and ideas; but I always prefer as much freedom as possible to define and draw a character and such detailed descriptions wouldn’t allow me to do that. But in the end it was nice because I liked the characters in the first place.”

The electrical colors of the dwarf’s armor and the golem’s eyes are stunning. How did you create that perfect TRON-esque glow?

“I [would] rather show you how in a quick video or image sequence tutorial. Its not so easy to explain with words. Let’s say you just draw vibrant and bright color lines and then add some glow effect in that layer. You can overlay over and over again with brighter colors until you get that effect. But like I said, it’s hard to explain it just with words.”

The ‘Venem Sniper’ piece is quite the prickly piece of work. Was the general thorny-ness of the character and the background a theme from the beginning, or did it evolve into the work?

“The character was already somehow that way from the beginning. I guess the background came out that way influenced by the character, but to be honest I’m not sure ha,ha. Usually, I just use my instinct with composition, colors, etc.”

Where did you get your inspiration for the Vennen as a race? Nature? Fantasy?

“Like I said before, I didn’t need much of my own imagination for this characters in particular since they sent me pretty clear and detailed descriptions of all of them.”

Do you have any tips or advice for artists looking to break into these sorts of artistic gigs?

“There is no short or simplified answer to that ha,ha. What I can tell you is that I’m open to all kind of answers and I’ll be more than happy to [offer advice (from] my humble experience) to anyone that wanna chat in my facebook page: Pablo Fernandez Artwork.”

It’s plain that the creative minds in Cryptozoic Entertainment have many parts of Entrath already envisioned, and these specifics are sent to artists as a guideline for their assignments. However through the varied styles readily apparent in the cards of Hex TCG, it is obvious that the individual talents of the artists mold into these conceptual frameworks. From where does this style and creativity originate? Science is yet unable to tell us, but for Pablo Fernandez, it seems to flow subconsciously into mind and hand.

Thanks again to Pablo for the time in answering my questions! If you enjoyed this interview, please head over to his profile on deviantart.com and give him some likes, comments, and favorites!