The Pop Quiz, Monday is a fun little exam that we love to give to savvy professionals. The examination is not a surprise after all since the interviewee already knew about the questions in advance. However, we can always pretend and have fun with the scenario of a young professional sitting in class nervously biting on their pencil. They are ready to take a pop quiz on a chapter they were supposed to read the night before. Instead, they played Metroid all night on their SNES (Oops, this was me in high school). 

The real purpose of the pop quiz is that this is a fun way to introduce tips from real-world experiences that you can not learn in a classroom. We want to thank our professionals for being a good sport and volunteering their time to answer a few questions to help our community grow from their knowledge.

I want to introduce you to our guest today who will be taking our Pop Quiz Monday.

Would you please tell everyone your name?

Hey folks, I'm Lucas Staniec.

What is your job role?

I currently work as a concept artist on Cyberpunk 2077.

What do you love most about your job?

Creating! You have to live in the world you create, whether it's something small you are designing or something big. Your brain is hundreds of miles away from the planet earth, living in another world. You tinker, you are building, step by step, you solve problems you are facing. That feels incredibly satisfying!

Who in the past or present in the industry has inspired you in your career path?

My parents would take me to art galleries with incredible Polish painters like Matejko, Kossak, and others. I think that created a tingle in me for paintings. The second thing was the games I played as a kid: Dune 2000 and Baldur's Gate. I hated books, but I loved the stories in them (try to understand the logic there. LOL !) Now I am trapped between worlds, exploring the dark pits of my imagination.

What are some of the professional tools you use to perform your work?

Photoshop & Blender. I love to paint, and I love to do stuff in 3D; sometimes, I combine these two, sometimes, I keep them separate. I also have an iPad with ProCreate, but unfortunately, I don't use it very often. Last but not least, good old pen and paper. Feels very primal to me.

What motivates you to get up every day and go to work?

The possibility to learn! My gosh, it sounds so cheesy, but it's true. I am always up to something. Aside from designing, I love to explore different things. I love books, and I love to figure out how to paint better, for example. I search for inspiration every day; sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed, but I like that feeling when I find this one photo or whatever it is, and it opens the flood gates of imagination. That is something that I cherish!

What are some lessons learned from a past project that you can share with us?

Learn how to work with people and stay objective-oriented. Creating something in a studio is like a football game. You can try to make a goal yourself, but it's more likely that you score if you work together.

The other important thing just for yourself: know yourself. Look into what you like as a person and live for some time with it. People nowadays are obsessed with looking up to someone else's work (I speak from experience), but the best you can do is learn who you are.

What advice would you give to someone new and starting in your industry?

Stay at it, keep pushing your skill, and exploring your imagination. Learn what other people do, but create your own. You have to build resilience and remember that this whole art thing isn't a 1-month school project or 2-year contract; it is a lifetime project!!! So have fun with it! You will get frustrated but remember: that's good; it serves as a motivator to do better! :D

Thank you for taking our pop quiz today. You get an A+ for effort. You can learn more about our interviewee and their work by visiting them on the web:

https://www.artstation.com/lucasstaniec

Artwork by Lucas Staniec

All artwork is owned and copyrighted by the artist, Lucas Staniec.