Obsidian Entertainment - Behind the Scenes with Brian Menze @ PA

[RPGWatch]

The Penny Arcade Report talks with Obsidian artist Brian Menze, picking several pieces of art from his portfolio and discussing the origin and thought behind them. On Visas Marr:

Visas Marr was created for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. This was one of the most exciting titles I've ever worked on. Obsidian opened its doors with this title and I'm very proud to have been a part of that. Plus, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of having helped create a small part of the Star Wars universe. Development for this game was so fast-paced though, I didn't really get to enjoy the moment as much as I would have liked to. I didn't really take a moment to realize what I'd just been a part of until it was over! Visas here was painted rather quickly. I had just started to paint my concepts instead of approaching them way I had in the past which was just a line drawing with simple color.

I was new to digital painting here and had to figure it out on my own. Every piece I did during KOTOR2 was a challenge. For Visas Marr's look I remember trying to mix the Baroness from G.I. Joe, ninjas and previous Sith Lords together. Also, because so much of her body is covered I tried to really make what little of her we see as sexy as possible, which ended up being only the bottom half of her face. Those lips had to be exactly right! Also, based on her written description, I thought I could soften her a bit by adding color to her as opposed to the customary black worn by the Sith in the Star Wars films. One thing to point out is that this concept doesn't reflect how she eventually ended up in the game.