Biography

Mural: Self portrait, 2005, Almere, The Netherlands

Hello my name is Frank Härtenhoff, I'm 28 years old. Since I can remember I've been creating things. From Lego cities to board games with monopoly money and such. Later I was making comics with a friend on the copy machine. When I got older I did some graffiti which got me into artschool. (www.spuitverf.nl).
I studied graphic design for a year but it wasn't for me. I still liked to paint and did some murals, and other commissions, had a few expositions and a great time, but I felt it wasn't really heading anywhere, so for a few years I didn't paint that much.

Somewhere in 2009 I got the idea of making a Flash based game, I got some friends together and we started out with good spirit but the programming was hard and we never completed it. However it got me to pick up painting again and looking into concept design, it lit a little spark again, this was something I would love to do. I read some great books and surfed the web to find out as much as I could about concept design. And so since a few years I've been working with a friend (www.jeroengroen.com) on some cool projects, he models, I design.

At the start of 2012 I entered in a new online project, motivarti.org, it's a program which helps artist to get in contact with the professionals in the field (mostly from LA). Here I was hand-picked by Christian Alzmann, (www.christianalzmann.com) Senior Art-Director at Industrial Light and Magic, over the course of 10 weeks he was my mentor. I learned a lot about the industry and it was great to have someone awnser all my questions, it also helped me to figure out what parts of my work needed work... which we then worked on. Mainly he helped me to push myself to a next level. Thanks Chris!

I like to work on projects, wether its a story or a world or something doesn´t really matter, but I like to approach things as a whole. I think it bennefits design and makes it easier for me to think up new stuff. I love to do concept designs and intend to make great things for the rest of my life.

Have anything to share? You can always contact me.