15-Year Celebration: “Profile Pic” by Jonathan...

15-Year Celebration: “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. [JJB on Tumblr] [JJB on Twitter]

(Note: Tumblr sometimes NSFW, but in a tasteful, Art Director sort of way.)

Visit tombraider.com/15 and download “Profile Pic” to adorn your desktop or favorite mobile device.

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