Joan Kowalski
Visual Development Artist
LIMBITLESS SOLUTIONS
While attending university, I was honored with the opportunity to intern as a student scholar at Limbitless Solutions for two semesters in their paint team. Working hands-on with others in the creative field was an invaluable experience of collaboration utilizing physical mediums. As visual development artists, we constantly seek knowledge from the world around us to illustrate things we may have never faced before. My time at Limbitless pushed me to experiment with the subjects and research my concept work.
Limbitless Solutions' mission is to empower confidence and increase accessibility in the limb difference community through art-infused bionics. Their team combines engineering and art to promote access and engagement in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) education for a more inclusive future.
Designing and air brushing this foam blaster was a collaborative project I underwent with my teammate Tiffany Petrovic. Our inspiration was to create a type of blaster used in desert battles. We researched the types of camo that would typically be used in desert regions, as well as the different kinds of wear that would appear on machines and tools in a desert environment.
Part of our duties on the paint team was being able to paint our arm sleeves as closely as possible to its 2D design, and this sleeve challenged me to do that. To familiarize myself with airbrushing different patterns and textures, I created a water and shiny brass design and used various masking and airbrushing techniques to replicate that look as best as I could.
To first practice using the airbrush equipment, paint team members would be given "mini arms" that we would try out different paint combinations or different stencils. Once comfortable with airbrushing, the next challenge is to create batches of mini arms as quickly as possible to prepare for future high demands from the paint team. For example, on the bottom right I completed that batch of mini arms over the span of just 4 hours from start to finish in one shift.