Michiel van den Heuvel

Environment concept artist & illustrator

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Summary

Hi! I'm Michiel, a freelance artist based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. My passion lies in painting backgrounds and designing environments for games, animation projects, and visual novels. I believe that the right environment can set the tone for an entire project and transport the audience to another world.

As a concept artist and illustrator, I use a combination of traditional software like Photoshop and Blender, as well as VR sculpting tools to create stunning visuals for games, animation projects, and visual novels. My goal is to always stay ahead of the curve and use whatever tool is most effective to achieve the best possible results for each project.

Becoming a full-time freelance artist has been a dream come true for me, and I'm proud to have worked on exciting projects such as Candy Valley Network's 'Wild Life', an open-world RPG built in Unreal Engine 5. Working on this project has honed my skills as a concept artist and given me a taste of what it takes to create immersive game worlds.

My primary interest is in working on large-scale game and animation projects, with a keen eye towards exploring opportunities in film. I'm constantly on the lookout for new and exciting challenges to expand my creative boundaries. Additionally, I dedicate time to personal projects to refine my skills and explore my creative vision. One of my most thrilling personal projects is an ongoing Lord of the Rings series pitch. If you're interested in discussing potential collaborations or have any questions, please feel free to get in touch!

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Skills

Software proficiency

Photoshop

Blender

Keyshot

Quixel Mixer

Gravity Sketch

Gaea

3DCoat

Quixel Suite

Medium by Adobe

Unreal Engine

Experience

2D/3D artist at Self employed
January 2014 - Present
Visual novels, mobile- & pc games, animation projects, marketing artwork and more.
Marketing Artist at Divine Madnes
October 2023 - November 2023
Created the cover art for a new TTRPG artbook
Background artist at Cheese Broccoli Studios
Arcadia
January 2018 - Present
Designing and painting cartoony backgrounds for a educational dungeon-crawler mobile game 'Drugs & Diseases' https://www.cheesebroccolistudio.com/
Environment Concept artist at Candy Valley Network
Berlin, Germany
December 2021 - May 2023
I was responsible for re-designing the open world MMO 'Wild Life'. My main responsibility involved creating 3D blockout models, overpainting for layouts, designing assets, and proposing narrative- & gameplay driven concepts
Concept artist & background painter at Douwe Works
Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 2021 - February 2022
Designing concepts for sets and backgrounds, as well producing background paintings
Concept artist at Star Ark Ltd
United States of America
December 2020 - June 2021
Concept art and background images for a scifi-based game project
Background artist at Smiling Meerkat Studio
Australia
October 2020 - April 2021
Card art designs for a unannounced board game in development
Concept artist at Reddlock Studios
Netherlands
April 2020 - July 2020
Concept art for an upcoming educational science-related game about classical physics and quantum physics. 'Science Tales' developed by Reddlock Studio

https://sciencetales.io/
Marketing artist at Legends of Sora
July 2018 - February 2019
Designing and illustrating concept art, as well as marketing images for the online novel 'Legends of Sora' as written by Broc Sewell https://legendsofsora.com/
Concept artist at Studio Blonk
Apeldoorn, Netherlands
November 2016 - January 2016
Visual Development for the Entertainment industry. Most recent project : Theme park ride- concept art

http://www.studioblonk.nl/
Pocket Quest at Art King Studio
January 2013 - July 2013
Concept art, Background paintings, U.I and character design for PocketQuest, a mobile RPG.

http://www.artkingstudio.com/pocket-quest
Race Day Challenge at ArtKing Studio
January 2013 - July 2013
Vehicle, prop en U.I design for RaceDayChallenge, a mobile racing tycoon game.

http://www.artkingstudio.com/race-day-challenge
World of Difference at Monkey Bizniz
Utrecht, Netherlands
January 2012 - July 2012
Concept art and background design for 'Wereld van Verschil' a Therapeutic PC game developed for young people dealing with ( imminent ) grief. A virtual world was designed to help them deal with their grief, fear and other worries, but also to encourage them to remember and rejoice. In addition, it is a platform to keep and share memories with other young people reminding them that they are not alone.

http://dewereldvanverschil.nl/

http://www.monkeybizniz.com/work.html