Hi! My name is James Tillman, I'm 44 years old and I'm happy to announce that my childhood aspirations are back on track.

 

           Believe it or not, even as a kid I wanted to be an illustrator. Often I would tell my parents and teachers that when I grew up, I would write and illustrate books about wildlife, thus combining two interests at the same time—animals and drawing.

           I continued with my artistic endeavors into middle school where I played my first game of Dungeons and Dragons. This first exposure to role-playing games (in conjunction with my love of Star Wars) led to my focus shifting to the fantasy/sci-fi genre. D&D also sparked an interest in storytelling and subsequently in creative writing. When I began conducting my own games, I would write up the scenarios as well as illustrate them.

           My trajectory took a slight detour, however, once I hit high school. By my junior year I was barely committing any time to my craft, engaged by the things that typically distract high schoolers: girls, parties and video games. Additionally, I developed an increasing dislike of academia in general and by graduation, had no plans or desire for college. I decided then that I would take time off and apply to college the following year. Needless to say, that ‘plan’ never attained fruition.

           Fast forward eight years. Intervening years filled with 9 to 5 drudgery and dead end jobs had finally put in a retrospective frame of mind. On that day I thought back to the things I used to enjoy and picked up a brush to start my first painting in years. The feeling it elicited helped to put my life up to that point in perspective and at the age of 27, decided the time had come to follow through on my plans to attend college. I applied to the Maine College of Art that same week, all the while blowing the dust off my old art supplies so I could assemble something resembling a portfolio. I managed to produce all of five pieces to show the registrar, but it proved to be sufficient nonetheless. So 1997 would mark the year of my return to student life.

          Since then I’ve attended both MECA and now the University of Southern Maine. My time at MECA helped in solidifying my interest in illustration, a path I resumed following upon entering USM. There I was also able to explore various types of digital media, including film, 3d modelling and animation, along with how to incorporate it into my work. 

          Currently I’ve joined a collective of programmers,  coders, animators and artists—called Revolutionary Technology, or RevTek—based out of the Portland campus that seeks to learn the ins and outs of developing video games for possible publishing, with the ultimate goal of developing a stronger video game industry here in Maine, as well as increasing interest in augmented reality technologies as well. Here I have found my niche, doing conceptual art for the games we're currently developing.

 

 

James "Mempter" Tillman

10/18/14