Kristiyan Bechev is a Bulgarian-Canadia artist who has this to say about what inspired him to study Concept Art and why he chose to attend Max the Mutt:
“Since I was little I have always been fascinated by the visual arts and I have been drawing and sketching in books and papers for as long as I can remember. It was only in recent years when I decided to pursue an art related career professionally that concept art struck me as the right direction to go in order for me to do what I love doing most.
For most of my life I have enjoyed coming up with scenarios, fantasies, and different characters. Worldbuilding is a dear passion of mine; creating landscapes and populating them with creatures and people. Figuring out who lives where, why they behave the way they do, what do they eat, what is the fashion and the social hierarchy of the different places throughout.
I have always found the best way to express an idea is through the visual medium. As the old saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words” and I think this is what concept art is all about.
When I set out to look for a school that can offer education in this aspect, I was going into the search quite blindly. A simple Googling of “the top schools for concept art” is what ultimately brought me in contact with Max the Mutt and its director Maxine. Moving to Toronto was a stressful and exciting journey but all worth it as I’ve spent three wonderful and enlightening years with Max the Mutt, learning both traditional and digital skills, going strongly into my fourth and final year. I wouldn’t trade this school and community for another.
I often wonder what will happen after graduation. My hopes are that my work can help push me forward as a creator and prove useful towards a project I can be proud of. Coming into the school, my biggest love lay in character design and my dream job is still being able to create creatures and characters, but over the years I’ve grown to also love environment design and the creation of props and objects.
I think there are benefits to both working within a small indie team and a large mature triple-A company. I personally will always be gravitating towards the former, but I believe going forward the most important thing is to keep an open mind, so I am very excited to meet the people of this unique industry and work alongside them.”
