Gaming Artist (2D Experience)

We are looking for a talented Gaming Artist (2D Experience) with a strong specialty in creating richly detailed, realistic hand-painted icons and game assets. You will be responsible for producing high-quality artwork that brings characters, items, skills, and UI elements to life with a painterly, tactile feel. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable working in Photoshop and Illustrator for production art, and in Figma for collaborative UI design and asset handoff. Key Responsibilities Illustration & Icon Art Create high-fidelity, realistic hand-painted icons for items, skills, characters, and collectiblesProduce detailed game assets weapons, armour, potions, spells, environment props with rich texture and depthMaintain a consistent painterly art style across all icon sets and asset librariesIllustrate hero artwork, card art, and feature visuals as required UI Design & Asset Preparation Design and iterate on game UI screens in Figma menus, HUDs, card layouts, inventory panelsPrepare and export production-ready assets optimised for Unity (atlases, slices, naming conventions)Create icon frames, borders, rarity indicators, and UI chrome elements that complement the hand-painted styleEnsure art and UI assets meet technical specs across multiple resolutions and aspect ratios Collaboration & Production Work closely with the art director to establish and maintain the visual style guideCollaborate with developers on asset integration and Unity UI workflowMaintain organised, well-labelled file structures and deliver clean, layered PSD/AI source filesReview in-engine implementations and flag visual inconsistencies Required Skills Core Artistic Skills Photoshop Expert-level hand-painting technique in Photoshop creating realistic textures, lighting, materials (metal, leather, fabric, stone, organic)Strong digital illustration fundamentals form, value, colour theory, and compositionAbility to create icons that read clearly at small sizes while retaining detail at full resolutionExperience producing consistent icon sets across large libraries (100+ icons) Adobe Illustrator Vector illustration for scalable UI elements, icon outlines, borders, and decorative framesAbility to combine vector structure with raster texture for hybrid icon workflows Figma Must-have: UI layout, component organisation, and asset handoff for developersExperience structuring design systems for games frames, variants, and auto-layout for UI componentsClear annotation and specification of interactive states and asset requirements Game Art & Production 5+ years of experience as a 2D Game Artist, with a focus on icon art and hand-painted assetsStrong portfolio demonstrating realistic hand-painted game icons across multiple genresExperience preparing assets for Unity sprite atlases, correct pivot points, naming conventionsUnderstanding of game art pipelines and technical constraints (texture budgets, resolution tiers)Familiarity with animated UI feedback and icon states (idle, hover, active, greyed-out) Nice to Have Experience with card-based or strategy gamesConcept art or character illustration skillsBasic After Effects or Spine 2D for icon animationsFamiliarity with Notion or equivalent for production tracking Portfolio Must Show Realistic hand-painted icons weapons, consumables, skills, character portraits, or similarDemonstrated range of materials and lighting styles within a consistent art directionComplete icon sets (not just individual standout pieces) that show production consistencyUI screens or components designed in Figma or a comparable toolBefore/after or style guide examples that demonstrate adherence to a visual languageApplications without a portfolio will not be reviewed .