Pavel Hristov is a freelance concept artist with several years of experience in the game sector. His work often uses characters as a medium for worldbuilding and storytelling, rather than purely focusing on their visual impact.
We caught up with him as part of our series of interviews with digital artists. to learn more about his inspirations and how he progressed his career.
You might also want to see out character art tips, and if you need to build your own art setup, you'll need one of the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing.
Outside of art, has most influenced your work?
This may sound odd, but street fashion photography had quite the impact on me very early on. Especially Japanese magazines. I always enjoyed seeing photos of random people just being themselves, especially before the age of social media.
There was no real artificiality to it, so to speak. It’s that feeling that I often try to capture with character design, like you took a snapshot of a random person, rather than presenting an idealised or exaggerated version of them.
Is making a living as a digital artist all you thought it would be?
Honestly, I never really planned on making a living out of it. I was studying something completely different before I stumbled on my first job, so I didn’t have any real idea or expectation of what it’s supposed to be. All of it was a bit of a surprise to me.
In some ways, it’s better than I could’ve imagined. You get to work with some of your favourite artists and get paid to design silly goblins or whatever. That’s crazy. But it’s still a job. There's l ots of tedious administrative work, and being a freelancer is more challenging than I could’ve ever imagined.
But I love doing what I do and hope I can continue doing it for years to come.
What advice would you give to your younger self to aid you on the way?
Study the fundamentals! But, knowing myself, I wouldn’t have listened. Also, don’t get lazy when things are going good, because it sets you up for failure later on. It’s very easy to get comfortable on a project/job and neglect your studies, thinking you ‘made it’.
You always need to push yourself forward. Especially as a freelancer, where the market is so competitive and oversaturated with amazing people, who can sometimes have decades of experience more than you.
Has digital art changed since you’ve been working in it?
As a medium, it’s more accessible than it’s ever been, and there are endless resources to learn from nowadays, which is fantastic. But the emergence of things like generative AI, the algorithmic changes to social media, and just the way some companies treat artists really makes it hard to have digital art as a pursuit.
However, there are also more ways than ever for digital artists to make a living out of it, especially by making their own independent stuff – whether that’s educational content or personal projects. So it’s honestly been a mixed bag.
What is your next step in art or life?
Who knows… I would love to maybe expand my skill set a bit beyond just character concepts. Animation seems quite interesting at the moment, but also so daunting.
Honestly, I just want to continue designing characters and get better at it, that’s the immediate goal. There’s always so much to learn.
You can see more of Pavel’s work on his ArtStation profile.
This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.
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