30 Characters Challenger: Matthew Goodmanson

Hey everybody!

I’m Matthew Goodmanson, and I must be crazy.

I haven’t updated my website since 2008. I’m a procrastinator, I have trouble with deadlines, I get distracted like a five year old with ADD and my motivation is constantly at war with the rest of me and that picture makes me look like a wizard. 30 characters in 30 days. Yikes.  I must be crazy.

But aren’t we all?

I work for a company out of Halifax, Nova Scotia called Silverback Games where I’m the head of the 2D department. We make casual games, with dreams of bigger things to come and I love it. I’m 32 and I live just outside of the city with my beautiful and talented wife, Meg who is a bastion of patience (one has to be when married to someone in the video game industry) and my tiny, adorable yet slightly despotic two-year old son Alexander. I’ve worked in kids TV production, was concept artist for a failed MMO and I’ve done sketch cards for Marvel, DC, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. As for non-work stuff, I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 15 years now, so I have a little bit of experience creating characters, but I have an intense love for comics, contemporary and classical fantasy art, sci-fi or any half-geeky genre out there. Part of this challenge for me is going to be drawing out of genres I don’t usually dabble in. I know everyone here has their reasons for doing this, and I’m very impressed at how willing everyone is to share. As I mentioned above, I know my weaknesses on and off the paper (or Cintiq if I’m lucky!), and this is a challenge that I need to face.

Working as a professional illustrator, at the end of the day the LAST thing I want to do is draw for myself. But isn`t that why I got into this business in the first place? I love my job, but it’s time for me to take my creativity back for myself, if only for a few hours a day. I have to give big thanks to Tyler for setting this all up and giving all of us a chance to flex our creative muscles and show the world what we’ve got. It’s going to be a crazy amount of fun watching how the days are going to unfold and the genius that I’ll be seeing on my screen from all of you. I’m looking forward to it.

A few samples of my older stuff and if you want you can follow me on Twitter @Gensanova or on Facebook HERE

Good luck to all of you!

~Matt

Category: About, Participants