Digital artist wows industry

ImagineFX, the world’s best-selling digital art magazine, devoted a double-page spread to Ellie Cooper a University of Northampton Games Art student’s portfolio.

The 20-year-old is hoping the exposure will help her to land her first job in the video games industry.

She said: “I’m really happy to be in ImagineFX, especially as I am featured alongside some brilliant other artists.”

“I had a feeling my work was going in the magazine as they asked me for higher resolution images, and when the issue came through the post I handed it to my dad to open it.

“When he found my work in there, he, myself and my mum all went a bit mad – it was a surreal feeling.

“I’ve since had people online congratulating me, including some industry experts, so hopefully it has helped to get my work noticed.”

Ellie’s newly found exposure has given her CV a boost as she looks to break into the games art world – something she’s now concentrating on doing, having recently completed her final year of studies.

Ellie said: “The games industry is incredibly tough, my ultimate ambition would to be to work for Ubisoft, especially on their Assassin’s Creed series, as that’s the game that has always inspired me.

“But for now, I’m pursuing junior design roles and it may be that I will have to undertake an internship, but whatever it takes, I’ll do it.”

Ellie discovered her love for digital art when she was 10 years old, after becoming fascinated by an image of a mythical horse.

Her dad, Mark, explained it was created by somebody using Photoshop. He gave her a copy of the program to experiment with, followed by a tablet so that she could paint her own images.

She added: “I’m so glad I discovered Games Art at Northampton.

“I’ve learnt so much and grown as a person over the last three years.”

To view Ellie’s online portfolio please go to https://www.artstation.com/elliejcooper