PN Featured Artist: David Kopet

Hello everyone, this weeks Pure Nintendo featured artist is David Kopet. An awesomely talented artist who uses all varieties of pop culture as inspiration for his work. If you like some of the artwork you see David also creates designs for graphic tshirts on various websites. You can checkout some of his work and where to purchase some awesome tshirts on his site. His contact info will be at the bottom of the interview, enjoy!

Kong

KD: How long have you been an illustrator, is that something you’ve always wanted to do?

DK: Yeah, I’ve pretty much always been into illustration since I can remember. But it wasn’t until about a year ago that I ventured into the indy t-shirt business.

FALTRON

KD: What inspires you the most when creating artwork?

DK: Most of my work parodies pop culture. Some of my favorite franchises to draw inspiration from are ones from my childhood, like TMNT, Star Wars and Transformers. Obviously video games were also a very prevalent part of my upbringing, so there is a heavy influence from the Nintendo franchises as well.  I’m also a huge fan of shows like Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad.

Kart

KD: What is your favorite Nintendo game or series, why?

DK: I played countless hours of NES, SNES and N64 as a kid, so there is a lot to choose from. But I’d have to say that my favorite Nintendo game of all time is Super Metroid on the SNES. I must have played through that game a hundred times. The game still holds up today and has been mimicked many times. The Metroid series was groundbreaking for being one long seamless experience without the traditional “levels” found in other classic games. This was the first game that I can remember where leveling up your character was the primary way to advance in the game, as it gained you access to the surrounding world in a more natural way. My runner up would be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the N64. For me personally, that was the first Zelda game that I really loved, and the open world feel was something very new in consoles at the time.

LINKTRON

KD: What’s it like creating your own tshirt designs? Have you seen anyone wearing your designs out in public?

DK: It’s a very rewarding feeling creating a design that a lot of people want to wear. There’s a certain level of commitment when someone chooses to wear a design on their chest, or put one on their phone, or tattoo one on their body, etc, because it becomes a statement and part of that person’s persona in a way. 

I see friends and family wearing my designs all the time, but I have yet to see someone I don’t know wearing one in public. I’m definitely excited at the prospect of that random sighting though… I’ll have to do something special when that happens, like give the person a free shirt or something!

Quick side note to that: I recently saw a photo of Manu Bennett (AKA Deathstroke from the show Arrow) wearing one of my designs at NYCC. So that was my first celebrity sighting and it was very exciting!

MARIOTRON

KD: How long does it take you to finish an average piece? Do you take commissions?

DK: It usually takes me about 4 to 5 days to complete a complex design and I usually try to do one design per week. I have not been taking commissioned projects as of yet, mainly so I can stay focused on designing my own ideas

Rebel Fox

KD: Have you been involved in any new projects or art collaborations recently? 

DK: In addition to working on a few new shirt designs, I recently launched my official artist website. That was definitely the biggest collaborative project I’ve worked on recently. Helping me with most of the coding was my friend, Kevin Sullivan, an extremely talented photographer and graphic designer, whose photography can be seen at www.xylux.net

SAMTRON

KD: Thanks for the interview David, I love your artwork! Where can our readers buy some of your designs or checkout some more awesome artwork?

DK: Thanks a lot, and thank you for taking the time to do this feature. I welcome everyone to check out my website that I mentioned, www.djkopet.com, where you can see my entire portfolio (even designs that have yet to be released ) as well as upcoming print dates and links to where my designs are sold.

MEGATRON

 Any artist interested in having their artwork on PureNintendo.com or in PNM can contact me at Kaelyn@purenintendo.com. Submit fan art, sculptures, baked goods, comics, etc. If the theme is ‘Nintendo’ we want to see it! You could be the next Pure Nintendo featured artist! Also to see artwork from artists featured in our magazine, PNM, please head to PureNintendo.com/magazine to subscribe! Thanks for reading.