A short history of me

  • 2003: Dipped a toe into computer science II at the university. Dropped out real quick. Switched to communications design – a much better fit. 
  • 2003: Started freelancing as an illustrator. That never really stopped.
  • 2009: Graduated Dipl. Kommunikationsdesigner from HBK Saar. I illustrated Joanna Newsom’s song “Monkey & Bear” as propaganda posters.
  • 2011 – 2021: I explored leadership roles on the visual side of the games industry: concept artist, art director, team lead, creative advisor, talent scout, design director.
  • 2010s – 2020s: Taught design and concept art in various schools. I like sharing stuff and had the opportunity to do so there.
  • 2025 april – august: Selling strawberries, ’cause before starting university was the best time to try something completely different.
  • 2025: Let’s try the magic reset button in real life: started a dual study program in career guidance (Beratung für Bildung, Beschäftigung und Beruf – HdbA Schwerin, Agentur für Arbeit Berlin Süd
  • 2025 december: I quit the dual study program.
  • 2026: I guess it’s back to freelance

Currently

I’m always going through books, albums, and other things – here’s what stuck lately:

  • Drink & Draw Livestreams

    I haven’t been participating in this month’s daily challenge, but I turn in for the Thursday streams every week. So here are the drawings I made during those.

  • w34 2021 – the braizard

    This is the result of a random character design prompt. Brain + Lizard = Braizard.
    My first thoughts went towards brain-eating zombie lizards, but I didn’t feel that so I went with something “cute” instead.

  • Arestia – It’s about loss

    Shortly after announcing my return to freelance, I got an e-mail from a musician who had seen and liked some of my various explorations from the past years. The musician was looking for someone to create an album cover for him. The music wasn’t going to be published, instead, it is only for his own private use.
    For a briefing, I received a spotify-playlist of music from other musicians, a short description of the theme of the music that he wants to collect into an album, and a budget.
    From there I listened to the playlist on repeat and did a couple of sketches. I’m happy to say he liked all of them, but he decided on only commissioning me to finalize one for now.

    The band name and album title I made up myself from the description that I was given.

    I’m really happy with this project, I had a lot of fun listening to the playlist and letting my own imagination & emotions guide me through the process of making those comps/sketches. I’m also happy that I got to work on the one sketch that I threw in as an “out there”-suggestion.

  • w33 2021 – Saladmander says

    Just some random Monday dad-joke level goofing around. I’m very proud of the term “Saladmander”, I bet I’m the first one using it.

  • w32 2021 – Ole Hippo

    I’m a big fan of old Hanna Barbera and Warner Bros Animation art. While drawing I have all sorts of art from Flintstones/Jetsons/YogiBear/Tweety/MarvinTheMartian/… in rotation on my secondary monitor. It’s both motivating and disheartening to have those artworks open, these artists were so damned good!
    Today I drew my own cartoon character in the spirit of these old cartoons and mocked up my own model sheet for it.

  • Harry Mack – Omegle Bars Tribute

    I don’t know when exactly I discovered Harry Mack. It wasn’t too long ago but before the pandemic. I saw one of his Guerilla Bars videos and followed his channel on youtube. But it was only when the pandemic hit and he started a series called “Omegle Bars” that I became a big fan of him. The concept of the show is that Harry chats up random people on a chat-roulette site called “Omegle”. He offers to do a freestyle for his chat partner based on random words they provide.
    Harry is marvelous in his freestyle performance. But the series really shines because you can see and feel Harry lifting the spirits of the people he encounters. And that positive energy is so strong that with every episode I can’t help myself but be happy myself, for Harry, his chat partners, everyone.
    I had the opportunity to join his HappyHour stream a few months ago. Here’s the time-stamped link to it:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HViiFqbGD2g&t=2523s
    I think you can easily see just how happy I was!

    A couple of days ago I was feeling anxious. There’s time-sensitive bureaucracy I have to deal with so I can freelance again. A job that would have been beneficial for the aforementioned bureaucracy just fell through and I was putting myself under pressure to produce portfolio artwork that I didn’t really want to do but which would make it easy to get some quick jobs.
    I wasn’t in the best mood or mindset and I was spiraling down fast.
    So I stopped my “work performance”, turned on a Harry Mack video, and let myself be uplifted. This then turned into me being motivated to draw something Harry Mack related. It turned into a sketch and the sketch turned into an illustration.

  • Drink & Draw thumbnails and livedrawing

    Here are two more sets of thumbnails before a new daily challenge starts for august.

    And all the drawings I did for last thursdays livestream.

  • w30 2021

    I am excited, hopeful, fearful, anxious, energetic, motivated to start freelancing again on August 1st. I will take some time to adjust, it has been almost 4 years of working solely with/for KARAKTER after all. I will take one step after another to see where this change leads me. I put up a website (link above or bagatzky.de ), though there is nothing new on there since I can’t show any of the work I was involved in with KARAKTER yet. I started exercising my draftsmanship again which I put up here in the past few days already. While I have projects ideas to explore, I will start small with individual images first. One step after another.  

  • The practice continues

  • More practice

    I had my last active day at work this week. I’m still with the company until end of next week but effectively I’m now solo-freelance again.

    In the meantime I did more practice thumbnails and participated in the Thursday drink & draw stream, 3 poses, 30min each.