The name Ana Fedina may not ring a bell, but if you’ve played games like “Diablo IV,” you’ve seen her work.
For more than seven years, Fedina has been working as a professional artist and has contributed illustrations to games like “Raid: Shadow Legends” as well.
Most recently, she was the illustrator for “The Armory of Heroes,” a full-art compendium of weapons and character art released by the gaming and media company Critical Role in July.
Fedina didn’t start out as a game artist.
“I didn’t know that you could make a living doing what I do now. These cool comic artists seemed pretty unreachable when I was younger, so I thought I would study design and become a graphic designer,” Fedina told Business Insider.
But in college, she discovered that drawing for games was a viable career and went all in on making concept art.
It started on Tumblr
Fedina, who worked on “The Armory of Heroes” alongside writer Martin Cahill, was a fan of Critical Role before landing the book gig.
“Back in the day, I spent too much time on Tumblr and one day I started to see some interesting-looking characters on my feed,” Fedina said. Those characters were from the crew’s second Twitch-streamed “Dungeons & Dragons” campaign, which has now been written into an Amazon-backed animated series on Prime Video.
“I wanted to work with Critical Role for a while, and I may have had some opportunities in the past, but they didn’t work out,” Fedina said. “So it was pretty cool to try something, but I didn’t expect this project to end up being this big.”
Years later, an editor working with CR’s publishing arm contacted her and asked to contribute to the book. That kicked off a yearlong gig that began in January 2024, in which Fedina illustrated around 120 pieces for the book, which spans 216 full-color pages.
Intricate details
Fedina’s illustration process for “The Armory of Heroes” involved everything from research to drafting, then getting several rounds of notes from the Critical Role co-founders.
“There were some notes, like, ‘The character wielding this sharp weapon might hurt themselves.’ Or, ‘let’s make it more functional,’ or, ‘Let’s make changes to suit the armor and weapons to the wearer, make it more personal,'” she said.
She said she also relied on notes she’d taken from the Twitch stream. Fedina also said that she included some personal touches in the character art. The cleric Pike Trickfoot was one of her favorites to draw, and Fedina produced her own version of the character’s armor.
Top tips for creatives
Fedina’s top tip for artists who want to secure a role with companies like Critical Role is to branch out and create more than just fan art.
“If you want to work on a wider variety of gigs, you should learn character design, learn more complex illustration,” Fedina said. “Analyze the market and what it needs, not only popular fan work.”
She added that many artists who have worked with Critical Role have an “original touch and vision” that they can add to the project.
On the portfolio front, Fedina said market analysis will help budding creatives get gigs.
“Analyze the artworks of the artists who already worked with that particular client, and try to understand: What are their needs?” Fedina said.
“For all the gigs I was hired for, I had something in my portfolio that aligned with their needs,” Fedina added. “I think I was hired by Critical Role because I had weapons in my portfolio, not just character art.”
Fedina added, too, that some good old in-person networking doesn’t hurt.
“For some gigs, you will be recommended by an artist, or other people from the industry who know that you are a good person to work with, not just a great artist,” Fedina said.
“It’s about having soft skills, and knowing that it won’t be a problem for people to work with you,” Fedina said. “Try to not only get the likes on social media, but also, just make friends, have thoughtful discussions, and make great connections.”
Do you work on the Critical Role franchise and have a story to share? Get in touch with this reporter at [email protected].
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