Born and raised on the island of Hawaii, Kekai Kotaki’s passion for art started at a very young age. According to his biography, he found the sunshine and beautiful scenery of Hawaii distracting so he moved to dreary Seattle to attend art school. After graduating, he found a job at ArenaNet, the makers of the Guild Wars franchise. Through hard work and more than a little luck he progressed to Concept Artist and later Lead Concept Artist on Guild Wars 2.
As a freelance artist Kekai has worked on projects for DC Comics, Valiant Entertainment, Applibot Inc, Fantasy Flight Games, Paizo, Phoenix Age, ROBOT Communications, ImagineFX, Macmillan. and many more.
Below is a small sampling of the artist’s work. Each image links back to the site of origin. Enjoy!
Vibrant colors and a lot of detail make Kekai’s work stand out from the rest. I just love the free-for-all style, but there is more to it than finely painted action scenes. His work is evocative and the tone solid. His paintings exude a pretty specific ambiance. I enjoy his work because his paintings feel like pure, unfiltered fantasy.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments and remember to check out this week’s Art of Science Fiction over on Kōsa Press.
Cheers, mates!
Woelf
Woelf Dietrich 
I like the way his colours contrast. That creates a kind of perspective and a depth to the painting.
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His paintings are very busy and vibrant, but there is also a carelessness to them that I like, almost like an invitation to just come and enjoy the fantasy. lol
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