How did you get started as a concept artist?
TL;DRRothery wanted to be a comic artist, but as the comic industry shrank and games boomed in the mid-1990s his illustration skills carried him into games, eventually to what he calls a dream job on Star Citizen.
Well, originally I was wanting to be a comic artist, so my background is in illustration and graphic design. So that was my degree, graphic design specializing in illustration. And what happened was I originally wanted to be a comic artist and I grew up reading 2000 AD, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, all that stuff. And I graduated in 1996. And around that period, the comic industry was really starting to scale itself back because Sony launched PlayStation and games were cool again. And you had things like Wipeout and stuff. And games just got really cool. And next gen, everything moves to 3D. Your Super Nintendo is starting to look a bit dusty. And the game industry was a very natural place for me to roll into because all of the skills that I'd learned wanting to draw for 2000 AD were super applicable to the games industry, all the design skills. All that stuff fit really well with the games industry. I fell into it, basically, and never left it, really. I've been in the games industry since 1996, so I've worked on all kinds of things. I've been around the block a little bit. Right now, where I'm in my career, Star Citizen, when I look back, it inevitably pointed me in that direction because it's all my favorite things combining. So I feel very fortunate. I think I've got very lucky along the way, but this is a dream job basically.