Community Focus – Brian Moncus

Moncus: Thank you and Hi! My name is Brian Moncus, but some just know me as or call me by my last name "Moncus." I'm an artist who works freelance from time to time. I was lucky enough to have some of my artwork make its way over into the Destiny Community back in 2015. Since then, I've enjoyed creating random pieces of art involving Guardians and other characters from the Destiny universe.

Moncus: Most of my artwork can be found primarily on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I post updates to artwork as often as I can and sometimes I throw in some warmups or just random sketches. The Destiny community is very active on Twitter, so I try to make it a priority to get it there first.

Moncus: Thank you! I really can't thank everyone enough for all the comments, support, and love that I get for my work. The community for Destiny is unlike anything I've ever been involved with, which I think is why I enjoy creating fan art for Destiny so much. 

My process is really rather simple. Like most artists I start by gathering as much references or turnarounds for armor and weapons that I can and begin sketching. There are usually a lot of "bad" sketches before I find a good balance and "feel" for what I want. I strive for details and realism but I will also exaggerate features and twist elements to create a more interesting look depending on the mood of the character or drawing. 

In the case with Destiny related work, I want everyone to identify with it being Destiny but I want my work to give something more for someone to look at. At least that is what the goal is. I tend to work digitally on my wacom cintiq a lot these days but I'm a very accomplished in traditional work as well.

Moncus: Definitely the past 3 pieces of artwork that I've shared, not just because of the response to them – which, again, I'm very thankful and humbled by. I wanted to create something as sort of a tribute to the game and for myself to hang up and remind me of my time in Destiny the past three years and the fan art I've made. Speaking of past fan art, a lot of people will notice some of my older Destiny related work included " chibi" or cute styled guardians. Some of them were even added as avatars here on bungie.net. You can thank JoJo from Destiny Raiders for sharing my art for the first time on Twitter and back before The Taken King expansion dropped. At the time they were just cute little cartoons to me.

Moncus: There are so many. I could literally list paragraphs of them but my top picks would have to be Frank Frazetta, Joe Madureira (Joe MAD), Alex Ross, and Samwise Didier. I grew up with each one of these artists' work in front of my eyes in one way or another. Between comics and videogames, there are tons of inspirational artists and so much to learn from them. Other inspirations come from right here in the Destiny community with the DCA (Destiny Community Artists) discord that I was invited to. Being in a virtual room with artists sharing art and critiquing each other's work helps motivate me tremendously. 

I would also like to give some inspirational credit someone else other than the artists in my life however and that is my wife. She is the most supportive and understanding person in my life when it comes to my endless hours of drafting table time and even went so far as to surprise me with my first cintiq a few years ago. Which for those familiar with their cost is a big deal. Without her support I don't know where my art would be today.

Moncus: From what I have seen so far I think we are all in for a ride. Some of the changes in Destiny 2 whether big or small are going to change the way I play and the feel I have for the game. I also feel like the new abilities offer so much more for tactical gameplay opportunities and the new Supers look amazing. Personally, and I think I can speak for most, the Titan Sentinel looks like a force to be reckoned with. I think the changes to weapon slots is refreshing and interesting but it’s going to take some getting used to for sure. The artist side of me cannot wait to start work on drawing some of the new armor and weapons. Altogether I think Destiny 2 is going to be an amazing experience and I'm counting the days until its release.