To welcome him to the team, Vincent caught up with concept artist Michael Fiore for a conversation about his path into art, the projects that shaped him, and what excites him most about building the world of Trailblazers: Into the March.
Michael D. Fiore - Elven Migration
Hey Michael, for people meeting you for the first time—what do you do as an artist, and what pulled you into concept art/illustration?
Hi, thanks for asking, as for what I primarily do as an artist now a days is deliver and communicate ideas usually through concept. Whether its in 2D or 3D, the consistency with my job has been helping visually convey the ideas of people who might struggle with that. As for what pulled me to concept/illustration, I was lead into taking art more seriously because of my TTRPG home game where I was the game master. I ended up wanting to draw items, maps, creatures, and characters for my players to better convey my own ideas, all those skills perfectly lined up with what has become my career.
Where are you based these days, and what do you love outside of art?
I am currently based right outside of New York City in America, its where I was born and raised so its very familiar to me, but I do hope to move possibly outside of America in the coming years. Outside of art I love playing board games and videogames, TTRPGs are still a love of mine, I still run Dungeons and Dragons games for my friends when I can, but I also love playing card games like Magic the Gathering. I also love painting plein air, going to the gym, and usually biking around when I can, its something I really value having in my daily routine.
Michael D. Fiore - Sunken Keyple City
Before Trailblazers: Into the March, what projects have you worked on—games, TTRPGs, animation, anything interactive? What was your role on them?
In the past 3 years I was at schooling, and during that time I worked on many animation films usually doing background design, with prop design scattered throughout. I attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC, so there were many animation majors who needed a helping hand with backgrounds. Right out of school a couple months ago I was the 3D look dev on a project that is unfortunately still trapped in NDA, but I am very happy with the work I did, and what I learned there. But overall, I have been working with multiple smaller companies in the TTRPG space to illustrate mostly magic items, covers, and characters for their books, those were actually the first jobs I got before deciding to pursue art full time and attending SVA, so I also love doing more work in that space when I can.
Adrien set the overall art direction—what were the key ‘rules’ you had to match, and where did you have room to push your own taste?
Honestly me and Adrien have a lot of the same influences in our personal art direction so I had to make the adjustment to let myself work closer to my natural style. We both love a lot of similar media like Nausicaa, Mobius, and more so I have been fortunate that Adrien has encouraged me to push my ideas and influence from those genres into this game. I think the interesting and fun part has been seeing how much we can push perspective and design in a topdown environment. It brings me back to my time drawing Dungeons and Dragons maps like I mentioned earlier. Pushing perspective on certain assets to better convey more setting and world is a very fun challenge to juggle.
Michael D. Fiore - Dragonborn Bellower
Your portfolio spans environments, characters, illustration—what do you enjoy most, and what kinds of assets did you focus on for Trailblazers?
I enjoy environments the most, there’s something about illustrating cluttered old spaces that can tell a whole story about someone that is very satisfying. I have been focusing on those kinds of environments and making modular assets for the team the most recently. Its fun being able to help shape this world we are building one location at a time, the freedom the team has given me has really made me feel like I can leave my influence and ideas.
Your color work really pops—what influences shaped that (artists, films, games), and do you have any go-to color habits you rely on?
Thanks, I have been trying to push my colors more and more lately. As for influences its a long list, I think I’d be describe myself as an artist jumble of all my favorite things. My go to artists that inspire me are Dani Diez, and his amazing design and color work, Nicholas Kole, the master of character and expression, and Alexandre Diboine, his lines quality and love of props lives on in my work a lot. The Ghibli films and works like Avatar are big influences on my work for their sense of world, as well as some recent films like Scavengers Reign. Lastly games like Gigantic, Hob, and Journey had a big impact on my design and the kind of games I want to make one day. As for my colors I think I have been trying to stick to more of a limited pallet recently, Ben McEntee and Linnea Sterte have been blowing me away with what you can do with limited colors.
Where can people follow your work, and any quick advice for aspiring concept artists?
You guys can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @mdfiore.art. As for advice for aspiring concept artists, I would say to dig into your niche. I think my art style isn’t as consistent as other artists out there but what I am clearly very obsessed with, is. I grew up playing TTRPGS and watching only nature documentarys, there were national geographic magazines stacked up the the ceiling in my childhood room. I often find myself asked to work on projects that use skills that I learned from genuinely loving these types of media, whether is speculative biology, world building, and more. The second I started making art that I would need for the things I love, and stopped making what the internet told me what concept art is, is when I started getting work and enjoying the work I got.
Michael D. Fiore - Seafaring Ship
We hope you enjoyed this interview and a peek behind the scenes of our art team.
See you soon,
The Strangers Team