I’ve never played any of the Witcher games, not that I can remember if I’m honest. My introduction to the Witcher was through the original stories that started it all. I first read The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski a couple of years ago and liked it; the concept and the lore and worldbuilding–which is uniquely Slavic–are awesome and original, or, if not original, at least original in approach.

Sapkowski’s main character is a man called Geralt of Rivia. He is a monster hunter trained from a young age to develop unique supernatural abilities that help him battle monstrous creatures. The books have been adapted into a film, a television series, a graphic novel, and of course, video games. The style of storytelling is different to what I am used to because of it being translated from polish and initially took me a bit to get climatized to the tone and action descriptions. The important thing is, though, I liked it. Today’s art post focus a special note on the Witcher fantasy series.

Originally trained as a sculptor, Bartlomiej Gawel, also known as Bartek, is the Principal Concept Artist for CD Projeckt Red, a Polish video game developer, publisher, and distributor based in Warsaw. Bartek attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and his first job after graduation was as an artist for the advertising company, Tequila Polska. He did that for two years until he found his niche in concept art. He later joined People Can Fly, a video game company known for such titles as Bulletstorm: Full Clip and Gears of War: Judgment, and worked there for another two years before joining CD Project Red in 2007. Since then Bartek has worked on every installment of “The Witcher.”

Below is a small selection of his work. Enjoy.

And that is that for this week. If you want to see more of Bartek’s work click here.

Until next time.

Woelf