Upskilling at Tactile, an interview with artist Casper H?g

At Tactile, we strongly believe in supporting the growth and professional development of our team members. We recognize that continuous learning is essential in staying at the forefront of the ever-evolving creative industry. As part of our commitment to supporting our people’s career journeys, we actively sponsor various educational initiatives. From courses and conference attendances to mentoring programs, we want to provide our Tactilers with the resources they need to excel in their crafts.

In line with this, one of our fabulous Character Artists, Casper H?g , recently had the opportunity to grow his skills by attending a workshop on Character Design in Rome, led by César Vergara. Casper has been creating amazing character art for the past eight years at Tactile, on games including Bee Brilliant, Cookie Cats, and Lily′s Garden. Initially working as an Art Director, Casper has devoted the past five years exclusively to character design. In this interview, we’ll share why Casper went, what he learned and what he’d like to dive deeper into in the future.

Tactile: Hi Casper! Please tell us a little bit about why you attended Vergara’s workshop.

Casper: Hi! Cesar Vergara is an amazing character artist and is acclaimed for creating solid, appealing and alive characters for companies like Warner Bros, Dreamworks, King or Wizards of the Coast (Hasbro). He also creates an art style closely aligned with Tactile’s own – solid toony drawings with exaggerated facial expressions within reason. Which made it even more relevant for me to attend.

?

Tactile: What’s one big learning you want to apply going forward?

Casper: A big takeaway from the workshop was the importance of starting the day with a warm-up session. I quickly realized that trying to pick up where you left off the previous day can consume valuable time, and by engaging in short warm-up drawings, you’ll get your creative juices flowing much faster. No matter your seniority, you’ll always benefit from forming a good habit around a little playful experimentation to start your day.

Another big learning from Cesar was to push the shapes beyond our comfort zone in 2 steps. First the body shapes (as seen in the picture to the left) and then the shapes of the facial details (as seen in the picture below). After that, find a pose that expresses the character's traits and personality, and then put it all together (as seen in the final project picture above).

Tactile: What area do you want to dive into next??

Casper: Within the past eight years that I’ve spent at Tactile, I’ve attended quite a few courses to upskill. One thing that I’m still missing, though, is a course on race inclusivity in character creation. Over the years, our shift to developing games featuring human characters – that started in 2019 with Lily's Garden – has increased the need and responsibility for us to be educated on inclusive character creation practices. Before Lily’s Garden, with games like Cookie Cats, Bee Brilliant, and Simon's Cat, the focus was mainly on animal characters. And whilst we’ve always been keen on creating diverse animal characters, creating human characters has introduced new challenges that require us to be extra mindful of authentic representation and inclusivity. Many art books are written from a white, male gaze, resulting in homogeneous facial proportions, so I hope to attend workshops or courses on race inclusivity in the future.

You can see more of Casper's art here.

By fostering an environment of continuous learning and supporting our team members’ professional development, we aim to push boundaries and create art that resonates with people from all walks of life.