By Tobijulo Onifade

About 3 weeks ago, I was on the Africandigitalartist website when I came across an art piece on their Instagram feed. This piece was a digital illustration of a temple/mountain scene of some sort using famous Nigerian relics. It was beautiful but what I remember most was the way it made me feel. There was a nostalgic element to it. Further research led me to the artist, who coincidentally is our Artist of the week, Godwin Apkan.

Godwin Akpan is a Visual artist that specializes in Concept Art. Concept art is an aspect of Illustration that involves visualizing ideas for modellers and more to use in films, video games, and animation. It involves bringing ideas to life through artwork (before production). Concept art is either stylized or photorealistic, Godwin Apkan falls on the latter category.

Concept art has four different specializations, which are Character design, Creature design, Environment design and Industrial design. Godwin Akpan specializes in Character and Environment design. His use of colour, attention to detail and perspective makes his work good but what makes him stand out is the feeling he draws from his audience with his visuals. For instance with his work ‘Old Temple’ his use of the monochromatic colour scheme to for the background (environment) and the singular colour used to represent the character going into the temple creates a balanced and well thought out image. There is an exhilarating atmosphere that comes through that visual. Concept art requires a strong visual library as well as a keen eye for design and it is clear that Godwin is on the right path.

With an impressive resume which includes MTV’s Shuga, Youneek studio’s Malika and many more, it is clear that Godwin Akpan’s art is going places and nothing more than great accomplishments will be expected of him.

To see more of his art and read more about him, please visit his Art635 artist page