Artist Spotlight: Erin Bissonnette

Written by: Alesia Boles

I had the pleasure of talking with Erin, a current student at the Savannah College of Art
and Design. They are double majoring in Sequential Art and Game Development. Alongside,
getting a minor in Concept Art for Games. Erin’s art is clean with a slight bit of texture. They
employ muted colors with one bright pop of color. Which provides a unique focus to their art.
They like making pieces that focus on D&D. As well as, focusing on making stories and worlds.

Art has always remained a big deal for Erin. Their art journey started like many others.
Starting in fifth grade they discovered the fandom side of the internet. This led to them creating,
not yet posting, their own original characters for games like Undertale. They loved creating art
about things they cared about. Through this they learned they could create their own stories.

Erin learned about different indie games in middle school. Since then, they have
dreamed about owning their own indie game studio. This led to them pursuing art in a
professional way. They informed me, “I’ve always wanted to be apart of a small team…” Which I
can observe in the way they have focused on indie games and their art. They also focus on
teams a lot in their own story telling in their dnd based art.

Erin fell in love with D&D after playing it with her partner and best friends a few years ago.
They found collaborative storytelling to be much more inspirational to their work. As they stated,
“…you can sit down and bounce ideas with somebody. When you’re making decisions in the
heat of the moment, you get many interesting ideas.” Which allows them to come up with unique
worlds and stories.

After exploring storytelling and worlds, Erin wanted to find a way to bridge the gap into
the professional side of art. As someone from Atlanta, SCAD had appeared on Erin’s radar early
on. They heard from several people about their vast network connections and the way that SCAD
offered the teaching of both the program side and the development side of games, when usually
only one side is taught. Which caused them to choose SCAD as their way into the artistic
profession.

While being here at SCAD, Erin described several professors that have supported them.
Some stand out examples included Professor Duncan and Professor Castillo from the
Sequential Art department, a drawing Professor, Gabriel Lovejoy, and Won Chu from the Game
Development department.

After becoming a SCAD student and growing as an artist over time, Erin noted a clear
growth in their art over time. They also feel that overall they are more confident in their ability
which allows them to push forward and progress even further. As a final note from Erin they
pushed the importance of having a small following. They feel you should focus on building up a
community of mutual and artists. As they stated, “Having people who get excited about your
stories does so much for your motivation…you have to interact with people to get better.”

Erin was a lovely artist to talk to and gave me some great insights into their artistic
process and artistic journey over time. If you would like to see or hear more from Erin, visit their
portfolio website http://erinlb.wixsite.com/erindoesart or follow them on Instagram
@erindoesart