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ENLARGE
Trading card game: Roseburg High School graduate Adam Gillespie, 24, now lives in Portland and owns Night Light Graphics. He created over 100 illustrations for the skateboarding trading card game STOKED!
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ENLARGE
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Skaters: Pictured is artwork by Glide native Adam Gillespie. It is for the skateboarding trading card
game STOKED! Gillespie created Socalia, a
fictional, futuristic Southern California where skaters are the enemy and fight for their survival.
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ENLARGE
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GILLESPIE GLANCE
<b>WHO:</b> Adam Gillespie, former Glide resident and 1999 Roseburg High School graduate. Gillespie currently lives in Portland with fiancé, Meagan Barner, also a 1999 RHS graduate, and runs Night Light Graphics. His family still lives in Glide.
<b>WHAT:</b> Gillespie drew a series of cards for the skateboarding-themed trading card game called STOKED! He created more than 100 pieces of art that make up a fictional world known as Socalia for the game’s first series, called Skateboard Must Die. |
Roseburg High School graduate Adam Gillespie is stoked about his latest work in the art industry.
Actually, he's STOKED!
Gillespie, 24, a Glide native who now lives in Portland and runs Night Light Graphics, illustrated half the artwork for a new skateboard-themed trading card game called STOKED!
A graduate of Portland's Northwest Pacific College of Art, Gillespie said starting out in the art world is a challenge.
"At first, it definitely starts out as a starving artist deal," he said. "... I'm pretty much doing it full time now and not so much the starving artist anymore."
That is thanks, in part, to STOKED! Gillespie has done contract work for other companies, but this is his first full set of published artwork.
He worked on the project for six months.
STOKED! is a trading card game in the same vein as Pokémon or Magic The Gathering. The difference is the theme, as well as the art.
Gillespie responded to an ad seeking artists for the game. He then met Michaelo Ross, the creator of STOKED! and owner of Sir Mantaplay Productions Inc.
Ross, of Vancouver, Wash., said he was looking for a certain "attitude" for the game's art. He said it was vital that the skateboard community accept the game.
"It's a really fine line and I think we walked it well," he said.
Ross, who spent several years developing the game, gives much of the credit to Gillespie and the game's other artist, Thomas P. Reidy III.
The first edition of STOKED! is called Skateboarding Must Die. The game is broken up into two locations, Vegalas and Socalia -- futuristic fictional versions of Las Vegas and Southern California.
The story is that both cities are perfectly running machines, except for the skateboarders. Players take the roles of the skaters, trying to learn new tricks and defend themselves from giant robot police officers who want to wipe them out.
Ross said he was a Magic The Gathering player, but got "bored with the goblins and the wizards and stuff like that."
Actually, he's STOKED!
Gillespie, 24, a Glide native who now lives in Portland and runs Night Light Graphics, illustrated half the artwork for a new skateboard-themed trading card game called STOKED!
A graduate of Portland's Northwest Pacific College of Art, Gillespie said starting out in the art world is a challenge.
"At first, it definitely starts out as a starving artist deal," he said. "... I'm pretty much doing it full time now and not so much the starving artist anymore."
That is thanks, in part, to STOKED! Gillespie has done contract work for other companies, but this is his first full set of published artwork.
He worked on the project for six months.
STOKED! is a trading card game in the same vein as Pokémon or Magic The Gathering. The difference is the theme, as well as the art.
Gillespie responded to an ad seeking artists for the game. He then met Michaelo Ross, the creator of STOKED! and owner of Sir Mantaplay Productions Inc.
Ross, of Vancouver, Wash., said he was looking for a certain "attitude" for the game's art. He said it was vital that the skateboard community accept the game.
"It's a really fine line and I think we walked it well," he said.
Ross, who spent several years developing the game, gives much of the credit to Gillespie and the game's other artist, Thomas P. Reidy III.
The first edition of STOKED! is called Skateboarding Must Die. The game is broken up into two locations, Vegalas and Socalia -- futuristic fictional versions of Las Vegas and Southern California.
The story is that both cities are perfectly running machines, except for the skateboarders. Players take the roles of the skaters, trying to learn new tricks and defend themselves from giant robot police officers who want to wipe them out.
Ross said he was a Magic The Gathering player, but got "bored with the goblins and the wizards and stuff like that."
He said this game should appeal to people who grew up on card games, but may have outgrown the existing selections.
When Ross was receiving submissions from artists who wanted to draw the STOKED! world, he said he got a lot of "dragon drawers." That wasn't the world he was looking for.
"Adam was just totally outstanding," Ross said. "The thing that you have to understand ... there's like over 100 different drawings (by Gillespie). It's an enormous project."
"I can't think of a single image I'm not a fan of."
It was a new drawing style for Gillespie. He's used to creating more digital work, he said, with realistic-looking characters.
He prepared for the project by studying graffiti and art that is typically attached to skateboarding.
"I did a lot of research to find out what would be a good style, and then kind of made up my own," he said.
The result is highly stylized. He draws all his art by hand and colors it in, both freehand and on the computer.
Gillespie said he strove to make sure his work in STOKED! didn't come across as a cartoon.
There are skaters doing electrified rail slides down staircase banisters. There are exploding buildings with a skater gliding down the side of the wall.
"I wanted it to apply not just to little kids, but more mature users," Gillespie said.
A review at the Web site About Skateboarding -- http://skateboard.about.com -- believes the game finds that balance. It gave STOKED! 4 1/2 out of five possible stars.
When Ross was receiving submissions from artists who wanted to draw the STOKED! world, he said he got a lot of "dragon drawers." That wasn't the world he was looking for.
"Adam was just totally outstanding," Ross said. "The thing that you have to understand ... there's like over 100 different drawings (by Gillespie). It's an enormous project."
"I can't think of a single image I'm not a fan of."
It was a new drawing style for Gillespie. He's used to creating more digital work, he said, with realistic-looking characters.
He prepared for the project by studying graffiti and art that is typically attached to skateboarding.
"I did a lot of research to find out what would be a good style, and then kind of made up my own," he said.
The result is highly stylized. He draws all his art by hand and colors it in, both freehand and on the computer.
Gillespie said he strove to make sure his work in STOKED! didn't come across as a cartoon.
There are skaters doing electrified rail slides down staircase banisters. There are exploding buildings with a skater gliding down the side of the wall.
"I wanted it to apply not just to little kids, but more mature users," Gillespie said.
A review at the Web site About Skateboarding -- http://skateboard.about.com -- believes the game finds that balance. It gave STOKED! 4 1/2 out of five possible stars.
The reviewer wrote, "The artist they got for these cards seriously rocks!" He specifically cited Gillespie's work in creating the Socalia universe.
It's praise his parents, who still reside in Glide, knew he would receive.
His father, Mike Gillespie, is the lead chaplain at the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His mother, Nancy Wolf, taught art at the Cobb Street Learning Center for six years.
Wolf said her son's first drawing still hangs on a wall in their Glide home. Gillespie was 2 1/2 when he drew it, a picture of a person.
"He's wanted to be an illustrator since he was, gosh, about that age," Wolf said. " ... He's just been very focused and known exactly what he wanted to do and he's never really wavered from that."
Right now, STOKED! is not being widely marketed, but there are plans to try and get it into grocery store chains. If that happens, and it catches on, Gillespie would be ready to return to that world.
For now, he's trying to grow his business.
Gillespie said he'd like to eventually get more into drawing for games and comic books. His ultimate goal is to make Night Light Graphics a "player" in the art industry.
"When people think, 'I'm going to start planning to do my next movie or my next game, I need some really great creature design or character design,' they can come to me and get what they need," he said.
* You can reach reporter Paul Craig at 957-4211 or by e-mail at pcraig@newsreview.info.
It's praise his parents, who still reside in Glide, knew he would receive.
His father, Mike Gillespie, is the lead chaplain at the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His mother, Nancy Wolf, taught art at the Cobb Street Learning Center for six years.
Wolf said her son's first drawing still hangs on a wall in their Glide home. Gillespie was 2 1/2 when he drew it, a picture of a person.
"He's wanted to be an illustrator since he was, gosh, about that age," Wolf said. " ... He's just been very focused and known exactly what he wanted to do and he's never really wavered from that."
Right now, STOKED! is not being widely marketed, but there are plans to try and get it into grocery store chains. If that happens, and it catches on, Gillespie would be ready to return to that world.
For now, he's trying to grow his business.
Gillespie said he'd like to eventually get more into drawing for games and comic books. His ultimate goal is to make Night Light Graphics a "player" in the art industry.
"When people think, 'I'm going to start planning to do my next movie or my next game, I need some really great creature design or character design,' they can come to me and get what they need," he said.
* You can reach reporter Paul Craig at 957-4211 or by e-mail at pcraig@newsreview.info.
ON the WEB
<b>GAME:</b> The game is available online at www.stokedtcg.com/home.html
<b>INFORMATION:</b> Gillespie’s Web page for his business is at www.nightlightgraphics.com |
