art | Polygamer

Angela O’Hara is a senior artist at Big Viking Games, creators of mobile and social games such as YoWorld and Fish World. At Big Viking Games, O’Hara creates vector art for avatars and accessories that players use to design their virtual world. Many of the games are popular with middle-aged women, and diversity and representation is a core value in the art O’Hara creates for these games. In her spare time, she produces fan art, seeks inspiration from anime and manga, and mentors local aspiring game artists.

In this podcast interview, we talk about the evolution of her career path from comic artist to game artist; whether a college degree is necessary to work as an artist; how an always-online game means work on a game is never done; avoiding burnout when your hobby is your job, and vice versa; preserving the history of Flash games; being president of a college’s anime and manga club; the value of self-care; and the differences and similarities between Sailor Moon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:18 — 25.7MB) | Embed

Steven H. Garcia is an artist of gay erotica, especially of the pinup variety. His models are characters from throughout geek fandom, including movies, comics, and video games. His 2016 wall calendar showcase popular icons such as Superman and Batman, Ash from Pokémon, Street Fighter’s Ken and Ryu, Spider-Man and Deadpool, Harry Potter, and more. When not creating art, Steven is the co-host of the Gayme On video game podcast.

Steven recently exhibited at GX3, the third annual GaymerX convention. In this interview, Ken and Steven chat about their experiences at that event; how Steven finds real-life models for his art; representation of gay characters in comic books; whether Steven’s art represents or violates canon; how objectification of male characters is similar to and different from how women are traditionally portrayed; and why a video edition of an audio podcast isn’t a bad idea.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:26 — 21.7MB) | Embed

Tag Archives: art

Polygamer #80: Angela O’Hara of Big Viking Games

Polygamer #36: Gay erotica artist Steven H. Garcia