15th Anniversary of Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider 15th Anniversary

With the then upcoming reboot of the franchise, 'Tomb Raider' in the works, the 15th anniversary of the franchise passed by relatively quietly. Crystal Dynamics called familiar names to the franchise and 9 fans to create a piece of art to represent the new start of Tomb Raider. Check out the artwork below (click the thumbnails for larger images), or find the link to the official Flickr in the Sources to download all the artwork.

Press Release

TOMB RAIDER celebrates 15 years with a unique Digital Art Exhibition

Legacy artists and fresh faces lend their talent for unique interpretations of Lara Croft.

Redwood City, CA (October 4, 2011) — Crystal Dynamics, is proud to celebrate 15 years of TOMB RAIDER® with an initiative created for fans.

TOMB RAIDER was first unleashed on the world in October 1996, manifested from fantasy to reality by creator Toby Gard and the talented crew at Core Design. Little did they know how successful their adventurer would become; skyrocketed to become a household name within the year and carving a place in history as a pop-culture icon transcending the gaming space.

To celebrate the 15 year anniversary Crystal Dynamics, a Square Enix Group Studio is playing curator to a unique digital art exhibition, commissioning eight original pieces of art to be created by a selection of esteemed artists and released during the month of October.

The pieces will be created to showcase the new vision for Lara Croft in the eagerly anticipated new TOMB RAIDER game, whilst embracing the individual style of each of the selected artists.

The exhibition will begin on October 4th and starts with a piece created by esteemed artist Andy Park, artist on the original TOMB RAIDER comic book series. The month ends with a featured piece by Toby Gard, creator of the TOMB RAIDER series.

All art can be viewed over the course of the month at www.tombraider.com/15 in collaboration with http://Hiptic.com.

“This is the perfect opportunity to celebrate TOMB RAIDER’s history by looking at Lara’s promising future,” said Karl Stewart, Global Brand Director, Crystal Dynamics. “We can’t wait to share each artist’s unique interpretation of what it means to be Lara Croft.”

During the month a series of events will be held to mark the celebration, including a signing by artists at New York Comicon on October 14th.

As a finale to the event, a limited selection of T-shirts and posters will be available for purchase from The Nerd Machine’s website www.thenerdmachine.com with a portion of the proceeds to benefit Child’s Play charity http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

To date, the TOMB RAIDER franchise has sold over 35 million copies worldwide as of Oct 2011 and inspired one of the most successful video game film adaptation in history, grossing over $300 million at the box office worldwide.

TOMB RAIDER is in development for a multi-platform release, and is slated to launch fall 2012.
For announcements of each artist over the course of the month visit www.tombraider.com, Facebook.com/Tombraider or follow us on Twitter @tombraider.

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Artist Biography and Quotes

“REBIRTH” BY ANDY PARK

“It was such a treat to revisit Tomb Raider since I illustrated her adventures in the Top Cow comic book series over a decade ago. Typically, Lara is always shown as being supremely confident despite the odds she faces. Here I wanted to show trepidation and yet a confidence that is deep within but not fully realized. It was fun to be able to tackle the challenge of illustrating Lara in a similar way that I do in my day-to-day job as a concept artist for the film industry. I had nothing but fun.” – Andy Park

About Andy Park: Andy Park has provided concept design and illustration services to the entertainment industry for over 16 years. His work has spanned throughout the entertainment mediums of film and television, video games, comic books, books, and magazines.

Andy began his career in 1995 illustrating comic books for Image Comics, Top Cow Productions, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics on such titles as Tomb Raider, Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, Weapon X, and Superman. In the last decade, Andy has moved from comic book illustration to creating concept art for the film, television, and video game industries. He played a major role in developing games for companies such as Sony Computer Entertainment on the award-winning God Of War Franchise. In television, he has contributed to shows like True Blood and V.

Most recently, Andy has been doing visual development work/concept art for blockbuster films such as Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, and 2012’s highly anticipated film, The Avengers.

Website: http://www.andyparkart.com/

“THE DEPTHS” BY CAMILLA D’ERRICO

“When I watched the new trailer, I thought of the moment when Lara drops from the ship into the water and what that would have been like for her. What would she have done? Simply let the crushing debris and water overwhelm her, or would she fight? Seems to me that a heroine needs to struggle to define her strength and this piece to me shows Lara’s strength. I hope that I have that kind of strength in me too.” – Camilla d’Errico

About Camilla d’Errico: Camilla d’Errico is an urban contemporary painter, illustrator, character creator and comic artist residing in Vancouver, BC. With roots in comics and manga stylings, Camilla’s beautiful work is seen on toys, clothes, accessories, and more. She has been published by Random House and Tokyopop (Avril Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes), Simon & Schuster (Camilla d’Errico’s BURN), Image Comics (Sky Pirates of Neo Terra, Fractured Fables), IDW (Swallow 5, Sparrow 13), and Dark Horse (Myspace Dark Horse Presents, Vampy Cat, Femina & Fauna). Her literature-inspired graphic novel series, Tanpopo, is now published online by MTV and in hardcover format by Boom Studios (coming 2012).

Camilla is currently working on the graphic novel Helmetgirls: Origins. Camilla has distinguished herself as one of the breakthrough Pop Surrealism painters thanks to her ability to seamlessly weave manga and western styles with surrealist elements, wrapping it together with an extensive emotional palette. She has a unique touch – “West Meets East” – that bridges cultural and geographical boundaries, while remaining totally relevant to today’s varied audience.

Website: http://www.camilladerrico.com/

“WOLF DEN” BY LONG VO

“When I saw the demo for the new vision of Tomb Raider, I was instantly struck by how desperate and gritty the scenarios were. The original games always evoked a sense of awe, but none of those environments ever felt as threatening or ominous as the new game. My piece is a scene from one of the early demos where Lara is attacked by a grizzled wolf in its den. I tried to go for a claustrophobic scene with the only space being the light from Lara’s torch — Lara being pulled into the dark by the wolf. I hope you enjoy it!” – Long Vo

About Long Vo: Long Vo is an Artist, Creative Director, and one of the original co-founders of Gaia Online. Over the last decade, Long has worked on various art productions for companies like Marvel, DC, Image, Disney, Warner Bros, Mattel, Toynami, Harmony Gold, Udon and Capcom. He’s worked on properties such as Street Fighter, Tatsunoko VS Capcom, Inception, Robotech, Thundercats and X-men. Long is currently co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Hiptic.com.

Website: http://blog.vostalgic.com

“SHIPWRECK BEACH” BY BRENOCH ADAMS

“I’ve been locked up in Tomb Raider land for almost four years, and it was nice to step back and take a different approach to a subject that I have become very close to. The focus of this new Tomb Raider is about Lara’s metal and physical growth as a woman, but it is the island that ultimately changes her forever.” – Brenoch Adams

About Brenoch Adams: Brenoch Adams has been working as a concept designer in the gaming industry for over six years. His work has been featured in a variety of publications, galleries, and film festivals worldwide.

While at San Jose State University, Brenoch studied traditional illustration, and 2D/3D animation. Before video games, he worked as a snowboard graphic designer at Aero Custom rides, and as an illustrator for Fox Racing Co. In 2005, he was hired by Nihilistic Software as a concept artist to work on Conan for the 360/PS3, as well as a variety of other titles.

Brenoch is currently working as Senior Artist at Crystal Dynamics in Redwood City providing concept art for Tomb Raider.

Website: http://www.brenoch.com/

“INTO THE DARKNESS” BY BRIAN HORTON

“Survival has been a rich theme for the dev team, providing opportunities to add emotional depth and a new range of scale for a Tomb Raider game. For this painting I wanted to explore an intimate moment of Lara overcoming fear, pushing forward through a dark and claustrophobic space. In my fine art I collaborate with models so I was fortunate to work with Meagan Marie on a photo shoot for the painting. She captured the emotion I was looking for perfectly, pushing through the pain of that pose I asked her to hold. Thanks again Meagan, you rocked it!” – Brian Horton

About Brian Horton: Brian Horton is a 16-year veteran of the video game industry and is the Senior Art Director on Tomb Raider. Brian is also an illustrator and fine artist; his work has been shown in publications and galleries throughout the world. He lives in Foster City with his wife Susan and two children Victor and Evelyn.

Website: http://twitter.com/#!/brianhortonart

“THE CRUCIBLE” BY RANDY GREEN

“Lara Croft has always come across as a strong-willed, self-confident character. Here however, I imagined her at a point where that inner confidence must be forged into action and put to the test. She is shaken and unsettled by her current situation, but ready to face head-on whatever challenges lie ahead!” – Randy Green

About Randy Green: After graduating with a BFA in painting, Randy Green worked for several advertising agencies as an Artist/Art Director while dabbling in comics on the side. During this period he mostly collaborated with Dark Horse and Image before pursuing comic book art full-time and producing content for Marvel, DC Comics, and others.

Top Cow’s Witchblade was Randy’s first extended run on a title and opened the doors to many other opportunities, including contributions to Tomb Raider and a creator-owned title – Dollz – which he hopes to return to in the future. He continued on to pencil additional work for Marvel on Emma Frost and New X-Men Academy X, always managing to squeeze in a project or cover for other comic companies.

In recent years Randy has been doing most of his work behind the scenes for DC Creative, and has had a couple of books come out through Aspen Comics.
Randy has been working in comics full-time for over a decade now, and enjoys life in the country with his wife Amy and children Haley and Max.

Website: http://randygreen.deviantart.com/

“PROFILE PIC” BY JONATHAN JACQUES-BELLETÊTE

“The idea behind the illustration was to give the viewer (and the players) something a bit different; a bit unexpected. People are now well aware of the events portrayed in the trailer, as well as the plausible impact they will have on the actual game. So I didn’t want to show these same events again. I wanted to illustrate something new, something that happened before the trailer. The new Lara is all about her genesis, the beginning, and the unknown. Hence, I thought it was suiting to show her right before she gets on the Endurance. Ultimately, I wanted to put some meaning inside the image. The piece is basically a premonition: she’s taking a picture of herself before getting onboard, but the resulting photo is her future self. It’s her on the island, discovering who she really is and what her destiny will be. And if you squint your eyes while looking at the image, you will notice that the strap from her bag looks like the braid she had in the older Lara models. Which for me, also represents an omen of the women she will become.” – Jonathan Jacques-Belletête

About Jonathan Jacques-Belletête: JJB is a Montréal-born, bearded, tattooed, French-speaking art director. He graduated from Classical Commercial Arts in 1997, but had already been working in traditional animation as a background designer for over a year by the time the diplomas were handed out. He then spent a few years freelancing when not snowboarding. He’s now been working in the video game industry for 13 years. Jonathan jumped on his first opportunity back in 1999 as a concept artist for a small start-up that eventually became JamDat (EA Mobile Games). He then joined Behavior as a Lead Artist and Assistant Art Director, working on many different projects for Disney and Warner Brothers. Jonathan was then hired by Ubisoft as an Art Director, where he worked on the Farcry, Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia series, as well as developing many new IP concepts including one that landed Ubisoft the James Cameron’s Avatar license.

Jonathan spent the last four years art directing Deus Ex: Human Revolution for Eidos Montréal/Square Enix as well as getting more random, pointless tattoos. He enjoys boxing quite a bit, but hasn’t really been on a ring for quite some time now.

Now that Deux Ex: Human Revolution has shipped and received critical acclaim, Jonathan has begun art directing a new project for the Eidos Montréal studios. He wishes he could sleep more and enjoy a healthier diet.

Jonathan still lives in his native town of Montréal, in a neighborhood called Mile-End where hipsters from around the world come sit in circles to drink coffee and eat bagels. He drives a shiny black Smart named Ninja, and he never gets stuck in snow.

Website: http://jayjaybe.tumblr.com/

“KYUDO” BY TOBY GARD

“I think the key thing about the new Lara that Crystal is creating is how much more human she is. I wanted to capture fear and vulnerability but in a way that expresses her ability to overcome both her internal and external difficulties.

I'm a sucker for bows, and I wanted to represent her as an almost mythical figure, like some injured Ronin against a harsh but beautiful world.

I'm a game designer and animator by trade, who just does a bit of art on the side, so knew I couldn't possibly stack up with the accomplished artists who have gone before me by trying to render the image realistically. I chose to go the natural media route and used Painter 12 to imitate an ink wash/watercolor look getting a lot of texture but with little detail.” – Toby Gard

About Toby Gard: Toby Gard designed the original Tomb Raider back in 1995 along with its heroine Lara Croft.

After leaving Core Design he ran the development studio Confounding Factor until returning to the Tomb Raider franchise as a consultant for Tomb Raider: Legend. He worked as the cinematics Director on Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Underworld.

Since then he has been consulting on various game projects while writing and drawing the online graphic novel Otherworld.

Website: http://otherworldcomic.com/