Q&A With Ryan Jones, Artist

[nikasaur]

Cruising past Ryan's desk, it's hard not to peer over his shoulder and see what he's working on- with his own unique style, he turns Telltale's dreams into visual inspiration, and sets the stage for how our games play out.

TODAY, that's Friday 3/26 from 3-4pm PST, we're gonna have him in here to do a Q&A and release some new concept art for you guys! Got any questions for him? The place is here, the time is now! Bring it on.

[Irishmile]

Whoa awesome....

What piece are you most proud of?

and

What do you think is your crowning achievement while working for TTG?

and

What is your favorite medium?

[Tjibbbe]

This is going to be great! A couple of questions:

How do you handle working on a character that isn't your own visual creation, like Sam & Max themselves (or any of the other returning characters from either the comic or the older games; assuming you have to do concept art for them)? How much room do you have to insert your own vision? And how much creative space do you have when you have to design a new character for Telltale?

Was the (brilliant) piece of concept art you can see on the newspaper on the teaser site (Sam & Max getting handed the key to New York) inspired by the picture on one of the last pages of Bad Day on the Moon, where the mayor of New York hands the giant cockroach the same key? The way the mayor hands over the key and the way the cockroach accepts it looks quite like the way you have drawn it. And in a semi-related question, did you ever work together with Steve Purcell in trying to achieve a certain look or quality to your drawings?

What do you think of the huge positive response Telltale has gotten on the quality of your drawing (resulting in various products like the Voodoo Cards)? Will we ever see a book containing all the art you created for Wallace, Monkey, Sam & Max and whatever you will be working on in the future?

If you could get Telltale to make any game in the universe, regardless of how fun it would be and just based on what you like to draw, what would you like Telltale to work on?

That's it. All that I can say now is that I love your work (and I love it when some of your art directly appears in the game, like with the voodoo cards and the judge paintings Monkey, and the golf paintings in Wallace). I already asked this during the Telltale Heart video podcast, and I know you don't have the time for or any interest in making one, but I would pay huge amounts of money to see you creating another comic to appear next to Dank. Thanks for all the quality art you've given us in the past few months!

[light_rises]

Hooray!

Present Self to Afternoon Ryan: Hi, Ryan! I hope you'll forgive me for starting off with some fairly boring questions.

1) Between designing characters and settings/props, which is more fun for you? Do you find one of them more difficult than the other to design for? How much does designing with 3D in mind affect your answer to either of the previous questions, if at all?

2) What is the best piece of advise you can think of for artists who want to improve their use of lighting and color in whatever they're painting?

[GinnyN]

Ok, here's I go:

How is the process (roughly) when you do concept art? When I do web pages I always say "tell me exactly what you want and I'll do whathever I can", Is it something among this lines or different in some sort of way?

I love the Narrator the first time I saw his desing in the teaser page. Really. So... who has the great idea of make him black and white except for the rose?

And... that all I got.

[Cheri]

Where do you draw inspiration when you've hit the dreaded artist's block? Especially if it's for some assignment and you're only given a loose guideline of what to do.

[Majus]

When do you want your "The Age of Sam and Max"-book back?

[The Commissioner]

Do you think that the finished results (3D models) in the game look like your concept art, or do they exceed your expectations?

[Ganon159]

Now, I'm not exactly sure just how much you do at Telltale (if you just design the characters, or if you just do the locations, or if you design everything) but if you've done locations, then what was the hardest location to make in any Sam & Max game?

[Avistew]

Did you have fun making the tarot cards? (That was you, right?) I'm thinking especially the ones that are several cards.

Will you post some concept art in here? (for the Devil's Playhouse I mean).

[GinnyN]

Originally Posted by Majus

When do you want your "The Age of Sam and Max"-book back?

By the way, Majus, you have at least the telltale logo next to your name! Congrats!

[PressidentMax]

Why did you decide to work with Telltale?

[Junaid]

Will you marry me?
And if not, will you marry my cat so that I own you?

[Ry Guy]

Eh, it's about that time! Hey guys, my name is Ryan.. Ryan Jones. A very unique name I know. As was stated before, I draw stuff for Telltale Games. I started on in finishing production of W&G 101 and have been here for about a year and a half now. I got to work on Monkey Island from the ground up and now with Sam and Max! I like to draw and sometimes is turns out not so bad. Either way it's a rad gig! I enjoy it mucho. Anywhoo.. let's answar these questions.

(bear with me, my forum skills are very low level even with my +10 leather belt of posting)

[Hassat Hunter]

Out of the games listed, which one was the most fun for you to work with. And (of course), why?

[Fury]

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

[Irishmile]

Whos idea was it to put Treasure Crab in the credits and is there a high rez version of it?

How much direction do you get when designing stuff? Or do you just draw a whole bunch of stuff and they pick and choose their favorites?

[Avistew]

Do you think you'll have figured out how to work this thing before the end of the Q&A? :P

[Irishmile]

If the Telltale staff were forced to fight for a cookie who would be the last man or woman standing and who would be the first to go down?

[Will]

Shaun Finney would beat us all. But then he wouldn't eat the cookie because it's not very healthy.