My Favorite Artists - Peter Mullen

 

Heya folks!  I'm back with another artist interview, this time with the amazing Peter Mullen!  His strong black and white and colored pencil work has been included in multiple gaming systems, including DCC RPG and Swords & Wizardry.  He's an amazingly talented artist that has been a big inspiration to me, I'm very proud to introduce to you, Peter Mullen!  More after the break!

My Favorite Artists - Michael Prescott

I would like to introduce you all Michael Prescott, he's an RPG artist that runs the I'll See It When I Believe It blog and Trilemma Adventures.  He self publishes one, two and three page system agnostic adventures that he beautifully illustrates himself.  His style is clean and sharp and he has a fantastic sense of perspective.  He runs a Patreon campaign here: Michael Prescott is creating adventures!  Head on over and support him for as little as $1.00 per adventure! I really appreciate Michael doing this interview, to learn more about him read on after the break!

My Favorite Artists - Skinner

 

I'm very excited to introduce today's featured artist!  Known as Skinner he is a full time artist that creates some of the most imaginative, interesting and bizarre art I've ever seen.  He has pieces inspired by Lovecraft and D&D and works in multiple mediums including print, sculpture, painting and many others.  You might have seen his work on Adult Swim or if you live in the San Francisco/Oakland CA areas you may have seen one of his many shows there.  I'm very happy to introduce you my readers to a true original and a very talented man, Skinner! 

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with me, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio:

My name is Skinner and I make art for a living. I do a bunch of different stuff. I write stories and paint and make music videos and conceptualize shit and theorize about life and stuff.

• When did you first discover your creative talents?

When I was a little ass kid trying to figure out how to draw monsters and dinosaurs. I wasn't conscious of it being anything other then an interest in trying to emulate stuff that a little ass kid likes. You just draw sharks and hulk hogans and enjoy it. No one thinks it's art really.

• How would you describe your style and where do you draw your inspiration from?

Describing my style is weird because I do so many different kinds. Illustrative comic book style or fantasy paintings but mostly my style is just little kid trying to make something look good. My inspiration comes from fantasy artists and comic book artists and old illustrators. Marvel comics back in the day. Stuff like that. Jack Kirby.

• Who is your favorite artist? What draws you towards his or her artwork?

One of my favorite artists is Louie Cordero from the Philippines. I love a ton of artists but he's alive and still doing stuff and since my favorite artists are dead I thought I'd mention him. His shit is so fucking weird and great! It's like a surreal Ghana movie poster mixed with Japanese vibes and Satan.

• Is art a full time occupation for you, if not what do you do for a living?

I do art full time. Always on the grind!

 

• What projects are you currently working on?

 

Finishing an animated music video for high on fire. Commercials for adult swim and my own illustrations and paintings. I have been writing a lot of stories and show pitches these days. 

• What type of work do you enjoy doing most?

 

My own weird fantasy paintings or inking. Writing is fun as fuck too but painting lovecraftian fantasy shit is probably the best.

• You've created art inspired by D&D, are you yourself a gamer and if so what are your favorite games?  How did being a gamer influence your style? 

I wish I had time. I grew up memorizing every little detail of my monster manuals and fiend folios and shit. I loved it so much. Now I just kinda honor it in my work! Old AD&D art was so crazy. Trampier was a standout and Errol Otus. I got to hang with Larry Elmore at comic con! He's great!

• Who is your favorite musical artist and why?

I'm into Melvins! Always pushing subversive rock and fuck it attitude in the face of a world that wants to contrive everything and make a buck. Melvins make art not products.

• What was the last book you read?

Alan Moore biography and some Clark Ashton smith. Just finished Mezolith which is an amazing book full of prehistoric folk tale stuff! 

• What is your favorite place that you have traveled to?

 

Cuba hands down. 

• What superpower would you have and why?

 

The power to make people shit their pants at my behest. Whenever I want. Any distance. Don't cross me. 

• Where can the readers go to see your art?

http://www.theartofskinner.com/ or http://shopcriticalhit.com/

• Are there any books, videos, or other forms of media that you would recommend to new artists to help them learn? 

Oh shit man everything's so available now. I wouldn't know where to start. Shit I don't know. How bout anatomy by Burne Hogarth, Frazetta paintings and drawings and maybe " How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way".

• Lastly, any words of advice for aspiring artists?

 

Well, don't get lured in by the validation that comes from people liking your stuff on the Internet. You can't base your growth on that. You have to put in an insane amount of work before you don't even kinda not suck let alone before you've developed an even small level of your own style. Just don't be lazy about putting in work. Put your heart into it ya lazy bum! It's the best!

My Favorite Artists - Zhu Bajiee

I am very excited to announce that for today's Our Favorite Artists post I had the pleasure of interviewing none other than Zhu Bajiee.  Zhu has been involved with both Barrowmaze I and II and has also done work for Red Box Games. Zhu took a few minutes out of his schedule to answer some questions for me back in 2012, and now in 2014 I present to you dear readers his interview!

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with me, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio:

Hi! I'm Zhu, which is my artist name. I have  a real one too.

• When did you first discover your creative talents?

All my mates in school said I was better at drawing than them. Then  I went to art college, which was full of people in the same position, and realized that being the best isn't what it's about.

• How would you describe your style and where do you draw your inspiration from?  Do you have a favorite piece you have created?

Black and white, grimy, graphic fantasy. The things that make me most want to draw stem from history and folklore mixed together into modern sensibilities. The writings of Tolkien and Gygax are very inspiring, then so is nature, walking though the wilder, green, growing places of the countryside, and I generate have half a hundred ideas for drawings.  I couldn't choose a favorite piece, it would be unfair to the others.

• Who is your favorite artist? What draws you towards his or her artwork?

There's a whole bunch of people whose work I admire. It's difficult to pick one. If I were to say one that has direct influence on my artwork, it's Aubrey Beardsley, his command of line and space is beyond genius. It's really his craft that gets me - the penmanship, something I've always eschewed in my own art, is exquisite. I generally prefer his more tame pieces (Morte D'Arthur) to his erotic stuff.

• Is art a full time occupation for you?

In the sense that I'm thinking about it when I should be doing other things, yes.

• What projects are you currently working on?

I've got a lot of stuff for Barrowmaze 2 to do for Greg, I'm loving the dungeon-crawl aspects and all the strange archeological references.   I've also got some character designs I'm working on that are at sketches at the moment.  Right now I've got a drawing of a Red Box Games Helsvakt underway, and am just taking a break before doing some more tweaks.

• You've created art for a number of gaming products, are you yourself a gamer and if so what are your favorite games?

Yes, I play games. I really like early editions of Warhammer (more strategic and complex than of late) and AD&D, which is the daddy of them all. The board-game Talisman is fantastic, and I'm also guilty of Fighting Fantasy.

• Who is your favorite musical artist and why?

I listen to a lot of music.  It's a bit cheesy, but music is about setting the mood, staying motivated to work. I've just finished a private commission for a collector, based on early TSR D&D, whilst doing that I almost exclusively listened to folk and electronica - bands like Pentangle, Espers, Goblin, The Advisory Circle. The stuff being put out by Ghostbox records, for me it's very D&D. Today I've been drawing a messed-up psychopathic norse warrior, so I've been listening to 90s grindcore bands like Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Carcass.

• What was the last book you read?

Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

• Where can the readers go to see your art?

http://realmofzhu.blogspot.co.uk/p/art-of-zhu.html

I've recently set up a deviant art account as well,

http://zhu-bajiee.deviantart.com/

• Lastly, any words of advice for aspiring artists?

I'm not really qualified to offer advice. There are a lot more opportunities to get your work seen by the right people now than ever before, and you can probably find an audience for your work much easier today than 20 years ago.  I've been very fortunate to find people who like what I'm doing enough to commission it, so a big thanks to them.

My Favorite Artists - Stephen Fabian

I am a long time fan of today's feature artist, Stephen Fabian.  I was first introduced to his work in the Manual of the Planes, as I'm sure many of you were.  His pieces for the Fire and Earth Planes were personal favorites. He's also created much of the art in the Ravenloft line, with his gothic pieces beautifully illustrating the dark, somber setting.  

Finding my muse

Once upon a time, many years ago in a galaxy far far.....OK, let me start again.  A long time ago I used to create art.  I say I USED to create art because I have not done anything artistic since I left college in the late 1990's.  Even during my college years I really was much more interested in friends, drinking, parties and pretty much anything besides my major, which was Graphic Design.  Needless to say my first attempt at college was not super successful.  I am currently back at school part time and am enrolled in an Architecture Drafting program and am enjoying it greatly.

Being back at school in a drafting program has pulled me back into the creative/artistic world that I left behind so many years ago and I have to say that I am completely loving it.  Over the years I have felt the lack of art in my life but have never really done anything about it, I was always busy with work or other projects.  Since starting this blog I have been involved with interviewing some great artists (with more on the way) and I have become inspired to start creating again.  I dabbled in pen and ink, watercolors, acrylic and oil painting when I was younger and am going to start back with pencil and pen and ink.  At the top of this post is a small piece I did back in early high school, my parents dropped it off at my house a few weeks back when they came to visit.

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the great artists that I have interviewed so far for the inspiration.  I'm on the lookout for other RPG artists to interview, so if anyone has suggestions please feel free to contact me via email or just post in the comments section!

My Favorite Artists - Jeff Dee

Today I have a very special guest for our favorite artist post.  None other than the great Jeff Dee!  Many of you will know Jeff from his early work with TSR, some of his work includes the Norse and Egyptian gods in the Deities and Demigods handbook as well as the cover of the Isle of Dread (one of my favorites)!  Jeff is a busy many with many ongoing projects but he was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.  Take it away Jeff!

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with us here at The Drunk Umber Hulk, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio: 

I'm Jeff Dee; I was an artist at TSR Hobbies in the early AD&D days. Since then, I've done art for several different game publishers, a little comic book work, and artwork on a number of computer games - most notably Richard Garriot's Ultima series from Origin Systems. I'm also a game designer; I co-created the Villains and Vigilantes tabletop superhero RPG with Jack Herman in 1979, and I've published several other games through my own small company 'UNIgames' (http://www.prismnet.com/unigames/) since then. I've also done computer game design work; I was the lead designer of The Sims Castaway Stories in 2009.

My Favorite Artists - Steve Zieser

I am pleased to announce that for today's Our Favorite Artists post I had the pleasure of interviewing none other than Steve Zieser.  Steve has created most of the art for the Labyrinth Lord books, including the covers of the main rule-book, the Advanced Edition Companion and my personal favorite the LL Referee Screen.  Steve was nice enough to take a few minutes out of his busy day to answer a few questions for us at The Drunk Umber Hulk.  Without further delay here is the man that illustrated my favorite retro clone, Steve Zieser!

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with me, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio:  

Thanks, Jason. I grew up on a farm outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa and was the middle of 5 kids. Growing up on a farm, there wasn't a lot to do other than farm work, so I had time to do a lot of reading and doodling. I was an okay student, but would rather have been drawing or reading fiction than doing schoolwork. I loved art classes, and would have rather stayed there all day than work on other subjects. My father fully supported my artistic endeavors, and encouraged me to go to art school. I , however, was young and decided to go to tech school for Radio/TV Broadcasting instead. Afterwards, I worked at a tiny country/western station in southern Iowa for a few years and learned exactly how poorly paid people in the radio business could be. So, I decided to go back to school, and ended up at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and entered the Roman Catholic Seminary program there. (Can you tell I can't do things the easy way??) However, since I kept dating girls the whole time, I had to make a choice and I ended up transferring to Clarke College, where I majored in Studio Arts focused on Printmaking and minored in Religion. I spent a number of years kicking around after college, doing a lot of odd jobs such as working record stores, photo labs, and even selling knives door to door. I eventually settled down building furniture with my Dad for a few years, getting married to my lovely wife in the meantime. Eventually, my Dad decided to retire and I needed a more steady job, and I ended up working for Van Meter Inc, where I have been working happily for the past 7 years.

My Favorite Artists - Stefan Poag

Our Favorite Artists is going to be a recurring interview with some of the best and brightest RPG artists out there.  To start things off we are speaking to artist Stefan Poag, you may have seen some of his recent work in the fantastic Labyrinth Lord mega-dungeon, Barrowmaze.  Stefan has also done work for a number of other projects including books and magazines published by Kenzer & Company, Goodman Games and Expeditious Retreat Press.  His artwork has a great retro style that brings me back to my younger years.  I'm glad he was able to take some time to speak with us!  Without further ado, here is the man himself!

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with me, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio:

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, after a childhood in (what was then) West Germany. My mother is German and my father was a teacher of German and a Medievalist, so we always had lots of books of medieval art around the house. At some point, I think my mother started buying a series of illustrated Time-Life books through the mail on different cultures through history --- 'The Neanderthals,' 'The Norsemen,' 'The Byzantines,' etc., and I spent a lot of time looking at those as well as the books of medieval illustrations, plus I loved the Japanese monster movies and TV shows like "Johnny Socko" and "Ultraman" that they used to show on the local UHF channel. A grade school friend of mine, Eric Piccione, and I used to draw our own 'comic books;' his favorite subject was "The Pirate" (a swashbuckling superhero with a cutlass). I don't think the Pirate had any special powers; I think he was just really bad-ass and would swing around on ropes, dodge bullets, etc. My favorite was a hero called (cough) "Ivanhoe." Ivanhoe was secretly an ordinary dude who worked in an office, but he had a special ring with a secret compartment in it that contained a button. When things went bad, the office guy pressed the button and thunder struck and he turned into a guy with a cape and a weird-looking octagonal helmet and a sword and a big "I" on his chest who could fly through the air and shoot bolts of lightning from his eyes. I don't think I had any explanation as to why he was called 'Ivanhoe' or where the powers came from --- my friend Eric, however, was having a great time drawing "The Pirate" and I wanted to do it, too. I barely graduated high school and slacked my way through college and have worked a series of menial jobs, usually doing some kind of creative thing on the side, then got into doing commercial photography (mostly shooting pictures of stuff for newspaper advertisements). My significant other, Annie, got a teaching job in Michigan and we have been up here for years. The bottom fell out of the local commercial photography scene and I got burned out on that, after doing a few other things I am now a literacy tutor in Detroit Public Schools, trying to help high school kids improve their reading skills. Given what a bad student I was, this is kind of ironic, but I always enjoyed reading so this is a good fit for me.