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ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu wins award for digital art

by Eliot Lefebvre on Jul 15th 2011 6:30PM

Fantasy, Guild Wars, MMO Industry, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-Play

Guild Wars 2 has had a distinctive art style ever since it was first announced, helping to solidify the game's image in the minds of fans. A big part of that has naturally been the vision of Daniel Dociu, art director for ArenaNet and overseer of the visuals for the project. So it should come as no surprise that Dociu has been awarded the Grand Master Award for Exposé 9, Ballistic Publishing's digital art annual for 2011.

Both Dociu and concept artist Kekai Kotaki were featured in the pages, with both praised for their expressive and immersive artwork for the game. It might be a surprise to the readers of the magazine, but it's no surprise to the players who have been enjoying the work of these talented figures for years. Congratulations are in order for the award, one well-deserved considering the visual treat that Guild Wars 2 promises to provide.

Source: Daniel Dociu wins Expose award

Tags: anet, arena-net, arenanet, art, artists, awards, concept-art, concept-drawings, culture, daniel-dociu, guild-wars, guild-wars-2, gw, gw2, kekai-kotaki, ncsoft

Reader Comments (18)

Congratulations to Daniel and just further proof that ArenaNet has the right people to go in the right direction.

Daniel Dociu is a brilliant artist, in every definition of the word. My inspiration & drawing technique are from him & his masterpieces of Art.

As a Comic Book artist myself, Im often asked where my technique & inspiration comes from, when I say "Daniel Dociu", Im mostly looked at with puzzled expressions. My next words are "Just wait another year or so...you'll know who he is, trust me".

Could not go to a more talented & brilliant person.

Bravo!

All Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 art is beautiful. ArenaNet are truly hiring the best concept artists in the business.

GW2 Concept art truly is the best work I've ever seen, and i love how they incorporate that art style into the ui and graphics style. Congrats Daniel!

One for Daniel....one for Romania. Keep up the good work man, make us proud!

Well deserved, the art in this game I've seen so far rivals games like FFXIV for concept and design and that says a lot.

I don't think any games recently released even comes close other than FFXIV art style-wise this good, so looking forward to actually giving the game a real go when released.

Congrats all around! Always nice to see this industry attracts such talented artists.

When I studied under Daniel, to be honest I was a little dissapointed because I never got to look at his art or style in any real detail...... that, and he was like a fish out of water teaching faceless people on the internet.

Kekai on the otherhand was fantasic, not only as an artist, but he's a good teacher too. Swears alot mind you, which I found enlessly entertaining.

I expect that Futurepoly will have another Online Masters class next year.
Now if only Stokes can get around to teaching that 3d modelling coarse he promised months ago.

~Yoh

@Yoh I'm happy you got a chance to be a student under these two, I hope you yourself become as famous as they are.

@Seldra
Thankyou Seldra, that's a very kind thing to say.

The guy is a Master in his own right.

I am not a fan of the mixing of swords/guns/robots in GW2 but the art is fantastic.

His art is great, no doubts there. Still my personal fave is Hans Werner Sahm. These two have similarities, but I like the scenery a bit more clear and not as, for lack of a better word, "painterly".

Hi my name is Massively, and I repost things verbatim from other blogs.

@antagonistyahoocom

lol

Yea his art is amazing! Its the first time in a game that I wanted the art book.

I must say I love the idea of mixing guns with swords and fireballs in GW2 against all the nay-sayers. And Daniel has an awesome style, I can't say much about it since I'm out of my element talking about art (more of a numbers guy here) but I must say he is incredible.

The guy is brilliant at what he does and deserves all the recognition!

ArenaNet's Daniel Dociu wins award for digital art

Reader Comments (18)

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 6:44PM Alex Oglitchkin said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 6:45PM Faction 3 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 6:57PM Danteeeee said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 7:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 7:33PM Cristian Ceo said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 7:44PM real65rcncom said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 8:23PM hereafter said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 8:39PM Yoh said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 9:15PM Seldra said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 9:17PM Yoh said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 9:55PM BubleFett said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 11:22PM winterborn said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 3:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 10:13PM antagonistyahoocom said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 9:40AM arryn11 said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 9:41AM arryn11 said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 11:28AM Kalec said

Posted: Jul 17th 2011 11:09PM (Unverified) said

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