Tyson Tan

In this Chinese name, the family name is Tan.
Tyson Tan
谭代山[1]
Born (1984-08-29) 29 August 1984 (age 40)
China
Other names钛山
Occupation(s)Concept artist, character designer
Years active2012–present
Notable workKonqi (mascot of KDE)
Kiki (mascot of Krita)
Freedom Planet 2 (Concept artist, character designer)
Websitetysontan.com
Tyson Tan
Traditional Chinese譚代山
Simplified Chinese谭代山
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTán Dàishān

Tyson Tan is a Chinese concept artist and character designer. He redesigned KDE's mascot Konqi and designed a few other mascots for free and open-source software projects. Tyson speaks three languages: Chinese, English, and Japanese.[2]

Tyson is observed to have been using only free and open-source software to work since 2012.[3] He has been supporting several FOSS projects in various ways. He has a permissive attitude for others to use his works, and licenses most of his artworks under free licenses like Creative Commons.[4]

Art style

Kiki the Cyber Squirrel, design sheet by Tyson Tan, showing his unique organic mech style.

Tyson has an art style that draws inspirations from both anime and western cartoons. He draws mostly anthropomorphic animal characters.[5] He is also known for his ability of designing robotic characters with organic shapes while keeping a level of convincing mechanical details.[6]

Works

FLOSS Mascots

KDE mascot Konqi by Tyson Tan
Libbie the Cyber Oryx, proposed LibreOffice mascot

Tyson designed Kiki the Cyber Squirrel as the mascot for Digital painting software Krita in 2012, and has been Krita's startup artwork artist since.[7] In 2013, his re-design concept of KDE's mascot Konqi was chosen from a contest and has been used since KDE version 5.x.[8] He also designed Kate the woodpecker as the mascot for advanced text editor Kate in 2014.[9] Tyson submitted a mascot (Libbie the Cyber Oryx) for LibreOffice during a contest run by The Document Foundation in late 2017 however his entry was unsuccessful.[10][11]

Video games

Tyson drew several pieces of fan-art for the platform game Freedom Planet after its release. His fan-art was later adopted by the game's developer and publisher, GalaxyTrail, for promotional purposes.[12] He later became the concept artist and character designer of the game's sequel, Freedom Planet 2.[13]

Books

Tyson's works have been included in the following books:

  • IMAGINE: the art of Imaginary Friends Studios (Artwork used)[14]
  • Furries Furever: Draw and Color Anthro Characters in a Variety of Styles (Artist and writer of Chapter 6)[15][16]
  • Digital Painting with Krita 2.9: Learn All of the Tools to Create Your Next Masterpiece (Cover artist)[17]
  • Dessin et peinture numérique avec Krita (Artwork used)[18][19]
  • Made with Krita 2016 (Artwork used)[20]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tyson Tan.

References

  1. ^ "关于本站 » 黑兔工场". archive.is. 2013-06-21. Archived from the original on 2013-06-21. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  2. ^ "Tyson Tan (@TysonTanX) | Twitter". twitter.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-10. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  3. ^ Tyson Tan (2017-06-16). "Welcome to Linux bois! Do I look like I'm scared by a little meltdown by system update?!...LET'S GOOOO". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  4. ^ "Cloud White v4". DeviantArt. Archived from the original on 2018-06-09. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  5. ^ "Tyson Tan's Deviantart Gallery". deviantART. Archived from the original on 2017-07-13. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  6. ^ Tyson Tan (2016-07-08). "#オリロボ ケモロボ専門です。". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2018-05-13. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  7. ^ Krita Foundation. "Krita's mascot Kiki". krita.org. Archived from the original on 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  8. ^ "26 Years of KDE". Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  9. ^ "Kate's mascot woodpecker". Kate Editor. 2014-10-12. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  10. ^ "LibreOffice contest entry". Twitter. 2017-09-28. Archived from the original on 2017-11-20. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  11. ^ "LibreOffice Mascot: Iterating the submissions". The Document Foundation Blog. 2017-11-13. Archived from the original on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  12. ^ BurntToShreds (2015-08-07). "@galaxytrail keeping it real with Freedom Planet. Excellent art for the booth! #RTX #RTX2015". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  13. ^ "Freedom Planet 2 - Now in Development!". freedomplanet2.com. Archived from the original on 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2017-07-19.
  14. ^ "IMAGINE: THE ART OF IMAGINARY FRIENDS STUDIOS". Greg Johnson Books. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  15. ^ Hodges, Jared; Cibos, Lindsay (2014-07-16). Furries Furever: Draw and Color Anthro Characters in a Variety of Styles. IMPACT. ISBN 9781440334474. Archived from the original on 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  16. ^ "Furries Furever: How to Draw Furries | NorthLight". NorthLight. Archived from the original on 2017-07-10. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  17. ^ Petrovic, Scott L. (2015-10-28). Digital Painting with Krita 2.9: Learn All of the Tools to Create Your Next Masterpiece. Louvus Media. ISBN 9780996851701. Archived from the original on 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  18. ^ "Dessin et peinture numérique avec Krita". Google Docs. Archived from the original on 2022-05-30. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  19. ^ GIET, Timothée (2016-03-10). Dessin et peinture numérique avec Krita. Editions D-BookeR. ISBN 9782822703802.
  20. ^ Foundation, Krita. "Made with Krita 2016 — the Krita Artbook | Krita". krita.org. Archived from the original on 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2017-07-20.