THE ART OF LOGAN PRESHAW

Ian Dean discovers a vis-dev artist and art director whose approach to life is as bright as his paintings

- Ian Dean

Many of what I consider to be the most successful and influential concept artists are unconventional and highly stylistic,” says Logan Preshaw, who acknowledges that defining a new style in concept art is difficult. “But when I think there couldn't possibly be any more originality left to be explored, a fresh new artist crops up and blows that presumption away. I think the key to that is working towards a style that combines all of your most treasured influences, because the result of that probably doesn't exist yet.”

In Logan’s work that often means painting colour with abandon. It’s a refreshing approach for an artist with a career that’s seen him work at Weta Workshop, Studio Moshi, Working Dog and numerous studios in and around his native Australia and New Zealand. For an artist who’s CV lists video games Valorant and League of Legend, as well as films such as Men In Black: International, and the forthcoming Avatar sequels, that’s impressive.

His paintings, both personal and professional, feature explosions of colour. They’re loose and active, and rarely let the eye settle. He tells us it was never a conscious choice to make colour a dominant part of his art. “While I was defining my approach to painting I played with colour in many ways until it began to look appealing to me… and I mean not just realistic, but appealing and pleasurable,” Logan explains. “I do that with many elements in my work, but I think the general audience notices colour first and they're less likely to pay attention to other fundamentals like perspective, contrast and form language.”