Samantha Malzahn, A passionate and experienced freelance illustrator!

About

I am Samantha Malzahn, and I am a concept artist and illustrator. The body of my work focuses on bringing fantasy, sci-fi, and everyday concepts to life through impactful colors and imagery. I specialize in both background creation as well as character design, with a heavy focus on lighting and color to help illuminate my concepts fully. I believe it’s the finer details that are what really brings a piece together. I work in a range of styles to best fit what ever concept or idea a client has in mind for their respective project.

Experience

Aldrich Academy

Dec 2019 – Present

Remote

Background Illustrator/ Creative Consultant

Works closely with the writer to help flesh out and establish detailed scenery for their visual novel fantasy games. Adapt in style to best fit the environment and world the backgrounds are illustrating. Creates multiple sketches and concepts to help the writer finalize, visually, what world they are trying to create. Creates detailed environment and background illustrations, with specific elements to help the player become fully immersed in the world. Helps in the creative development process, providing feedback and creative input on writing options, visual elements, and gameplay mechanics. Play-tests the games, taking detailed notes while looking for bugs and errors in the text.

Freelance

Dec 2015 – Present

Remote

Illustrator/ Concept Artist

Has taken over 40 different paid freelance private commissions. Goes through a highly collaborative process with each client to integrate feedback at brainstorming, mockup, sketching, and finished stages. Works in a wide range of styles, from detailed to minimalist, to best fit whatever creative vision the client has in mind. Works in a timely manner to adapt to whatever timeline a client has in mind.

All That Ales Yew

Sep 2021 – Oct 2021

Remote

Background Illustrator/ Creative Consultant

Helped a small team fully realize and finish a visual novel game for the Itch.Io Spooktober Game Jam within a tight one-month deadline. Created over 25 fully illustrated backgrounds, visual assets, and game user interface elements within a month. Worked closely with writers, character artists, and programmers to provide feedback and creative input in the design and completion process for the game. Adapted quickly to feedback and produced visual assets to best fit new concepts the team wanted to implement.

Urban Institute

Jun 2018 – Aug 2018

Washinton DC

Creative Consultant

Created published graphic illustrations based on research and data regarding family education plans for Urban Institute. Adapted to a corporate style and color pallet to best fit the needs of the paper and researcher. Directly incorporated feedback from the research staff.

Education

Virginia Commonwealth University

Aug 2017 – Present

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Communication Arts

Samantha Malzahn

A passionate and experienced freelance illustrator!

Skills

Languages