Vessel Forge

Level up your material skills with personalized mentorship from Eric Wiley, Principal Material Artist at Blizzard Entertainment and a 15+ year industry veteran! 🎮

Whether you’re learning Substance Designer for the first time or refining your current workflow, together you’ll focus on strengthening your fundamentals, elevating your skillset, and creating more polished materials for games.

🎨 First, you’ll review your project idea, current skill level and goals, then define a personalized roadmap based on what you want to create.

This mentorship is designed for beginner to intermediate artists who want to improve their material art skills in a focused, constructive learning environment. Each week, you’ll receive feedback, practical demonstrations, breakdowns, and resources tailored to your project needs.

The goal is to help you improve your technical ex*****on and create more polished, portfolio-ready work while keeping your goals realistic, focused, and achievable. 🚀

Sign up to his Material Art Fundamentals Mentorship today with the link below!
https://vesselforge.com/services/material-art-fundamentals-mentorship/

🎨 Today, we are spotlighting Adam Galles' incredible work completed before joining Vessel Forge!

Adam is taking Ivanna Liittschwager’s Environment Art Sculpting Mentorship—take a look at how Ivanna’s mentorship can help take your art to the next level with the link below! 👇
https://vesselforge.com/services/environment-art-sculpting-mentorship/

Adam shares his favorite thing about creating video game art:
“Being able to create stories as a career has always been a dream of mine. I also love engaging with video games, so being able to help make the worlds that inspired me growing up was always my goal.”

🎮 We asked why he signed up for a Vessel Forge mentorship:
“I wanted to polish skillsets that I needed better guidance in, such as sculpting. I had talked to other mentees at GDC, and sculpting was always a weak point in my environments, which made me want to further develop my skills to land a job in the industry.”

We’re pleased to announce that Eric Wiley will be leading our new Vessel Forge Material Art Fundamentals Mentorship!

Take a look at his mentorship with the link below!
https://vesselforge.com/services/material-art-fundamentals-mentorship/

🎮 With more than 15 years in the video game industry, Eric has built an impressive career rooted in environment art, contributing to iconic titles including Diablo IV, Guild Wars 2, Destiny 1 & 2, Gigantic, and Skylanders Superchargers. Most recently, Eric served as a Principal Artist at Blizzard Entertainment, specializing in materials and environment look development.

Eric excels at bringing immersive game worlds to life through authentic environmental storytelling and is renowned for his expertise in Substance Designer and meticulous attention to detail. His work has been featured by Adobe Substance, LevelUp Digital, and 3D Artist Magazine!

Join his mentorship to deepen your understanding of material art! 🎨

Congratulations to Sage Park for joining Tencent as a Game Art Intern! 🎉

We know how hardworking Sage is as a Vessel Forge Mentee, and we’re so proud to see her take this next step in her career!

Sage took Jonathan Benainous’ Environment Art Mentorship—view below!👇
https://vesselforge.com/services/environment-art-mentorship/

Sage has consistently demonstrated incredible dedication and talent. Her final Environment Art Mentorship project blew us away!

Everyone at Vessel Forge can’t wait to see all the amazing things you’ll accomplish, Sage. We’re wishing you every success on this exciting new journey!

Congratulations to Rain Yan for joining Naughty Dog as an Environment Lighting Artist! 🎉

Joining an iconic studio marks a major milestone! We’re incredibly proud of all his hard work and this achievement!

He’s brought an amazing amount of dedication and creativity to his craft at Vessel Forge. We’re excited to see the work he creates next!

We’re also proud to showcase both of Yan’s outstanding final art projects, created during his Lighting Art Mentorship with Ted Mebratu. Check out the program here:
https://vesselforge.com/services/lighting-art-mentorship/

Congratulations once again, Yan—the entire Vessel Forge community is behind you! 🚀

Thinking about joining Vessel Forge? Jolyn Hu shares her experience in Jonathan Benainous' Environment Art Mentorship!

“I feel very positive about the experience. I learned exactly what I wanted to learn, got clarity on the questions I had, and gained a lot of useful insight for my project.”

Take a look at Jonathan’s mentorship with the link below 👇
https://vesselforge.com/services/environment-art-mentorship/

“This format worked perfectly for me, especially since my personal schedule was pretty tight at times — it allowed me to progress at a realistic pace while still constantly improving. I really loved that balance of structure and flexibility.”

🎨 All art featured was completed before Jolyn joined Vessel Forge — we can’t wait to show her final project in the future!

🎨 In today’s Mentee Spotlight, see the incredible work of Andy Lee prior to Vessel Forge!

Andy took Romain Jouandeau’s 2D Concept Art Mentorship to evolve his skills and portfolio. Check out the mentorship with the link below! 👇
https://vesselforge.com/services/2d-concept-art-mentorship/

🎮 Andy shares what his favorite thing about creating video game art is:
“What I enjoy most is the process itself—the research, the exploration, the bad ideas that lead to small discoveries, the conversations, and the focused construction of every line, shape, brush stroke, texture, and color of a piece of art. Every day feels different, which keeps it exciting.”

“Something I didn’t expect was the friendships that have grown out of it. Simply by creating things, I’ve connected with other artists and developers, and those relationships have become one of the most rewarding parts of the experience. One day, it's a doodle on a post-it note that unlocks a big problem, or a polished piece of art that gets others excited. Either way, the whole process is incredibly fulfilling.”

💡We asked why he signed up for a Vessel Forge mentorship:
“After my studio closed down, I wanted to get back into making art for myself while learning new skills and evolving my portfolio. When Romain's mentorship opened up, I knew I had to jump at the chance because he's long been one of my favorite artists working in the industry and whose work I most admired in terms of quality, style, and feeling.”

✨ Maxx Ortiz Project Showcase LIVE on Discord + Q&A! ✨

Learn and get inspired by our talented Vessel Forge Mentee who took our Environment Art Mentorship with Jonathan Benainous!

📅 Thursday, June 11th, 7pm PT | 9pm CT | 10pm ET
📍 On our Live Stage Discord channel—Open to all!
👉 https://discord.gg/pcPf6A5Pwt

Maxx will walk us through:
⛩️ A visual breakdown of his “Jade Portal” project!
🔍 Behind‑the‑scenes insights into his process!
📘 His experience as a Vessel Forge Mentee!
🎮 His journey in the games industry!

💬 Got questions? Send them in early through the live-stage-qa channel. We’re excited to have you join us and get behind the scenes of our mentees’ incredible work. See you there!

🎨💡 One of the biggest challenges for Technical Artists is effectively showcasing their work!

Many technically minded artists have strong skills, but their portfolios don’t communicate the full range of what they can do.

Grayson Cotrell’s Technical Art Mentorship isn’t just about improving your technical skills—you’ll learn how to review and present a portfolio for a career in the industry.

Explore his mentorship below 👇
https://vesselforge.com/services/technical-art-mentorship/

👉 Don’t just show in grayscale or as an isolated effect
🌍 Place it in an environment
🎮 Show how it works in a real-world game scenario
📖 Tell the story of the problem you solved

Context turns a technical demonstration into a compelling portfolio piece. Your portfolio shouldn’t just prove that something works; it should demonstrate how your technical and artistic skills come together.

These Vessel Forge Mentorship spots are open from June to July, and they’re filling fast!

Don’t miss out! Grow with professional support and sign up today with the link below 👇
https://vesselforge.com/mentorship/

You’ll get 1-on-1 guidance from experts who’ve contributed to AAA titles. Our mentors with availability include: Raouf Bejaoui, Dorottya Kollo, Edgar A. Martinez, Damon Woods, Maxim Dorokhov, Romain Jouandeau and Ted Mebratu! 🎮

With 5–20 years of experience, our mentors will help you level up your skills, refine your portfolio, and move closer to your dream career in the games industry. Keep an eye out for Grayson Cotrell’s, Ivanna Liittschwager’s, Jonathan Benainous’ and Jared Sobotta's mentorship availability in the months ahead. 👀

Take the next step in your game dev journey with guidance that makes a real difference at Vessel Forge! 🚀