MIKE BUTKUS
ILLUSTRATION
PROVIDING CONCEPTUAL SKETCHES, ILLUSTRATION AND ART DIRECTION FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.
Mike Butkus is an international, award-winning conceptual artist for the movie and gaming industry with over 30 years of experience. Known in the business as a consummate professional, his creativity and restless imagination has been sought after by clients such as Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Warner Bros., Showtime, Amazon Prime and many more. Mike has worked on more than 5000 movies, tv, gaming, books and toy-design projects. If you've seen it, he's probably worked on it.
His artistic abilities appeared early in life along with some savvy entrepreneurial instincts. At the age of eight, he was commissioned by fellow classmates for drawings of Annie Fanny, tanks and hotrods for 50¢ a pop. By the end of the year, Mike was able to save enough money to buy his very own bike. After high school, Mike bounced around college as a biochemistry major but the artistic bones in his body just wouldn't stop rattling. He decided to give Otis College of Art and Design a try then later transferred to the Art Center in Pasadena. Before graduating, Mike was offered a full-time position as an illustrator at a major movie agency. Being the stereotypical starving art student living off of beer and ramen, Mike quickly accepted. After a couple of years with the agency, Mike's restless nature was too much to ignore. He decided to set off on his own as a freelance artist, allowing himself the freedom to establish his own hours, travel and to later, spend more time with his amazing family. Mike has never looked back since.