An exclusive into Zoltan Boros’ inner world, Girls, Robots, Dragons’ Co-Creator
Girls Robots Dragons is a high quality, hand-drawn masterpiece NFT collection in the Web 3 ecosystem. One of the main attractions is its cutting-edge cross-layer blockchain gamification technology. The collection has 15 characters in total (five girls, five robots, and five dragons).
The GRD NFT collection also has a collectible card game with four rarity levels: common, rare, epic, and legendary.
Since its launch in June 2022, the collection has witnessed a growing community in bear market conditions, gaining popularity among NFT collectors and other NFT enthusiasts.
The brains (and hands) behind these breathtaking digital artworks are none other than the famous digital artist duo Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai.
Digital Artist Power Duo — Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai
“Boros-Szikszai” is the widely acclaimed illustrational/artistic collaboration between Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai, which lasted almost 25 years (1986–2010).
The duo created cover art for hundreds of books within the European market during this period, mainly in the sci-fi and fantasy genre. They also acted as lead concept, character and environment artists for the birth of numerous European role playing games including M.A.G.U.S. in Hungary and Dark Eye in Germany. Lastly, they provided hundreds of illustrations and became significant artistic contributors to the world-wide success of the Magic: The Gathering TCG, Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars RPG, World of Warcraft TCG, and then Hearthstone.
Their cooperative artistic endeavor garnered numerous critical accolades and awards, both in Europe and the US. One particularly exciting and inspirational award at the time was the “Chesley Award” granted for their “Blazing Archon” MtG illustration in the “Best Gaming-related Illustration” category in (2006). There’s a chance you might have met them at one of numerous MtG events held all around the World (US, Europe, Japan, South America, etc.), where they appeared throughout the last 15 years as invited guest artists.
Boros-Szikszai separated in 2010, with both artists moving to the US to pursue individual artistic careers, thousands of miles apart.
“The friendship between Boros and Szikszai remains unbroken, however. They are in daily contact, cooperate occasionally for certain projects, and even continue to sign MtG cards in cooperation.”
The Beginning of Science Fiction for Boros
Zoltan Boros is an expert science fiction illustrator who has been in the game for over 35 years. In a recent interview, he revealed some interesting facts about his early life and his first contact with sci-fi.
His first contact with sci-fi was with a Star Wars creative, which he saw in a youth magazine at the time. He was fascinated and started drawing posters in anticipation of the film’s release.
Since the film was not available in Hungary then, he had to wait for two years to watch the movie. The rest is history, as he already knew what his passion was.
It is when he went to School of Fine and Applied Arts that he met Gabor.
Being a World Renowned Sci-Fi Illustrator: What It Takes
Boros-Szikszai experienced many many trying years to break into the international market but that didn’t break their spirits. If you ask him today what it takes he believes that his success is a combination of luck and hard work.
They received their first recognition in the Hungarian and German markets. However, their eye was still on the main goal — the American market.
After several rejections from various publishers, a serendipitous opportunity was presented to them! Szikszai’s wife stumbled upon the phone number of a popular illustrator Jeremy Crawford, and informed him about the duo. Crawford requested for their portfolio, and the rest is history. Their first work was Magic The Gathering.
The Evolution of Technology in Drawing: Boros’ View
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast replacing many manual occupations, and it has revolutionized the graphic designers industry too.
Boros believes that AI is simply to aid manual drawing and not take over its uniqueness.In fact, Boros only started working digitally about a decade ago.
As a traditional artist who approached any brief with his hands first, he uses Photoshop to enhance his drawings and not to create it. He enjoys advantages like speed and accuracy these tools provide. But most of us won’t be able to differentiate between his digital-aided artwork and hand-drawn work, he is that good!
Funnily enough he believes the more tools there are out there and more access it gives people to be a digital artist he is receiving more requests for his high quality, hand-drawn creations! He believes over time there will be a higher need for hand-drawn concepts and use of analog tools like paint and paint brush. This in turn will increase their demand and their value in the market.
Zoltan’s Biggest Inspiration
Boros started drawing at a tender age of 4 and was incredibly good at it. Aside from drawing, he used to play football. He used to send his drawings to different drawing competitions, though he never won any.
He was also kicked out of a competition after drawing a horse because it was not a “child’s drawing.” Despite this, his mind was already made up about being a graphic designer.
Boros didn’t spend a lot of time looking for external inspirations, most of them were internal. He admired the works of Vallejo and Frazetta, usually published in the Hungarian Inter Press Magazine (IPM). And the comics created by artist Ernö Zórád.
Boros’ Favorite GRD Character
Boros wishes that his superpower would be to fly around (not so high though). He enjoys observing the world from an aerial point of view! That being said, he confessed he is not a fan of superhero movies.
Boros has a soft spot for Billi, even though he says he has no favorite GRD character. Billi is known as (The Mechanic) in GRD, and she signifies technological advancement recorded over time. She usually floats around with a rocket. This cypher punk embodies the technological breakthroughs achieved throughout time. Her innovative spirit knows no bounds. She is electrifying in every sense of the word. There is a part of Boros that resonates with this character.
Boros’ Message to the Sci-fi Lovers in the GRD Community
Boros values quality in every endeavor, even in the world of NFTs. There has been an abundance, an overload of NFTs in the market, and that has made people question their relevance. Some have also been heavily criticized in the NFT communities. This inspired them to come up with an NFT project with an obvious high quality, and GRD was born. Almost 95% of the GRD characters were hand drawn.
His only advice is to always look out for quality.
Conclusion
The duo, Boros-Szikszai, have created nothing short of magic in the digital art world, and their contributions will not be forgotten in a hurry.
The GRD game collection is one you should not ignore. You can check out the entire collection at https://grd.fan/#/.
Written by Olasoji Amujo, Business Analyst & Crypto Writer
Contributions made by Dona Varghese, Orsolya Szlahotka-Godri, Seth Carrig & Turcsán Tamás Péter
