Dalton Barnett

Game, Animation, & Simulation Design

Artist Biography: Early on Dalton Barnett was exposed to a lot of science fiction such as Stargate and Battlestar Galactica, as well as other genres of film and TV, like Godzilla. These shows fired up Dalton’s imagination, inspiring him to recreate his favorite scenes through drawings at school. Growing up, Dalton did not spend much time making friends at school. Instead he spent his spare time at the end of classes drawing and finding material for inspiration. When he was 10 he discovered the work of Arthur Singer, a wildlife painter. Before this experience, he did not think that photorealism was possible without taking a photo, and this greatly inspired him to be a better artist and from there on his passion for art was centered on photorealism.

Around the time that Dalton was 13, he began developing a bit of a reputation around school as someone who ‘draws really good.’ This caught the attention of the middle school principle who then hired him to draw a picture of his late hunting dog. In high school, Dalton entered into a few contests, winning 3rd place in an art show and 1st place in the county fair art contest. By this point everyone in high school was at least familiar with Dalton’s abilities and was voted Most Artistically Inclined 4 years in a row in the school yearbook.

After high school, Dalton attended Southern Arkansas University in hopes of becoming a concept artist and was immediately knocked out from his delusion of being the best. Moving from a school where he was the best at art to a school where everyone has common interests and was better at art was a huge wakeup call. Thankfully Dalton was introduced to 3D modeling, where he carried over his attention to detail. With this high degree of photorealism, he was able to win an Art Performance Scholarship over his peers for putting together an exceptional portfolio, contents of which featured some renders from 3D modeling.