Concept Art

Craig Mullins

Today we look at Craig Mullins, a renowned Concept Designer, whom many call “The Father of Digital Painting”

Craig Mullins

Mullins was born in 1964 in Sacramento, California. He attended Pitzer College for two years. After which, he went on to the Art Center College of Design to study Product Design and Illustration. He did a six-month internship at Ford Motor Company. However, his design sense was a little “weird” to be of any value and so returned to Art Center to study illustration. He finally graduated in 1990.

Initially Mullins was doing a number of commissions for architects and theme parks, which slowly led to contacts within the film industry. While at Ford, in 1987, he had used the bygone computer graphics program Dubner Paintbox. He was introduced to Photoshop by one of its creators, John Knoll. By the time Photoshop 3.0 was released, in 1994, Mullins’s work was all digital for commercial projects. He was painting digitally long before there were drawing tablets, painting with just a mouse for 10 years.

Mullins has worked on countless projects as concept artist, illustrator and matte painter. He has created art for books, video games and films.

Some of his book projects include the Halo Encyclopedia, BioShock: Rapture (2011), Murder of Souls (2011).

His film contribution includes The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Armageddon (1998), Apollo 13 (1995), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Forrest Gump (1994), Jurassic Park (1993) and Tangled (2010).

And his long list of video games includes BioShock 2, Halo 2, Age of Empires, Need For Speed, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2, and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

You can watch two great interviews with Mullins, one with Bobby Chiu, the second with the Level Up! Guys.

To see more of Craig Mullins’s work head over to his website.

Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins
Craig Mullins

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