Dramatic Game Concepts

Bartłomiej Gaweł, Principal Concept Artist at CD PROJEKT RED, discusses the importance of storytelling in art, and showcases his work on The Witcher games.

- Annie Moss

Drawing has been a life-long passion for Bartłomiej Gaweł, who began drawing when he was only four years old, motivated by his father’s love of Baroque style oil painting. The child-like approach is something he has tried to maintain over the years by attempting to find meaning in artwork without judging them. Instead Bartłomiej looks for meaning in the story behind an artwork, attempting to uncover the essence of what the artist is saying in each piece.

Having worked for CD PROJEKT RED on The Witcher projects for the past nine years, Bartłomiej has a wealth of experience creating exciting concepts which incorporate complex narratives and multiple characters. This month Bartłomiej shows us his recent works and talks to us about the importance of being kind to yourself, how breaking projects down to small steps helps him stay focused, and why he thinks it’s important to work with pencils.

2dartist: Hi Bartłomiej, thank you for talking to 2d artist! Can you kick things off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your work?

Bartłomiej Gaweł: Hi, thank you for having me. Well, I’m thirty-eight-years old and I live in Poland, Warsaw. I’m very happy to have a great family (a fiancé and a two-year-old son) who keep me busy all the time! Also I have a great job which happens to be my passion. So, I’m lucky.

For my work I just do what I have been doing my whole life. I started drawing when I was four or five years old and since then I haven’t stopped. So I was lucky enough not to have to think about what I wanted to do in my life. The path was clear for me: I wanted to create art. What I didn’t expect was to be working in the videogames industry. That was a surprise.

2da: Storytelling is really important in your work, how do you ensure there is a clear sense of narrative in your work?