Today we’d like to introduce you to Alana Macalos.
Alana, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
From the age of four, I wanted to be an artist. And I’ve been playing video games since around that time as well. After some aimlessness in community college that resulted in an AA in humanities and fine arts, it seemed natural to return to those two passions and combine them when it came to my bachelor’s degree. I spent much of middle and high school wanting to draw for video games. And thus I left The Art Institute of California – San Diego with a BS in game art and design. Naturally, the industry is competitive, so while I still do apply to established studios, I am more focused on my freelance work and starting up my own studio, Lupinaria Productions.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Haha, absolutely not. I had to break a lot of bad habits to get to where I am now. Things such as starting pieces of art but never finishing anything, never being satisfied with the end result for the pieces I was finishing, impostor syndrome, etc. There were those few months after graduating fearing I’d end up back in a retail job I’d hate and not having a portfolio worth anything. Deciding not to wait and hope the industry would notice me and instead carving my own place into it was the best decision I ever made.
Please tell us more about your work.
Lupinaria Productions was something I originally came up with to have a name for anything I created. But I knew that in the end it would mostly be a banner for me to make the video games I want to be playing. At the moment, all of the game development stuff is under wraps so I’m mostly known for my illustrations. The majority of my commissions actually come from the game master (GM) of a Dungeons & Dragons group I’ve been playing with for two years now. I do a lot of character portraits and recently started a foray into maps.
Currently, all my company pride exists in the fact that it’s mine. The freedom to run it how I please, getting to choose which projects I work on and with whom, that fact that it’s an extension of me and the work I create. I hope we’ll be set apart by our unique perspective, storytelling, and art style. We’ll see once our first game drops.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Picking out my first puppy when I was in kindergarten. My Mom took me to the Humane Society and they put me in a room with a litter. I was sitting on the floor, covered in dogs. In the end, all but the runt got bored with me. She was who we took home that day. That’s probably going to stick in my brain for the rest of my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lupinaria.com/
- Email: a_macalos@hotmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lupinaria/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lupinaria
- Other: https://www.artstation.com/lupinaria
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