The Art Of Gabriel Verdon

(Via)

Gabriel Verdon is an Ottawa based artist and illustrator that we stumbled into during the entire shield design contest for Dark Souls II, which drew a ton of amazing entries despite being a rather peculiar challenge (You'd think they would have opted for something a little cooler). Verdon actually ended up getting two winning entries, and after tracing him back to his portfolio we came to realize why.

The Guardian Shield, one of Verdon's winning designs now available in Dark Souls II.

Thematically Verdon's tastes seem to gravitate around highly atmospheric dark fantasy, which brings to mind the aesthetics of Woodkid and Team Ico titles like Shadow of the Colossus, among others. Mysterious creatures remain shrouded in fog in the background of his pieces, enchantresses hold up the shrouded sun in a post apocalyptic setting, giant colossi lumber towards unprepared warriors. Above all it's the story being told that Verdon seems to enjoy conveying the most in his pieces. Check out more of his awesome work after the break!