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Exclusive interview with an amazing artist – Daniel Eskridge

1. Introduction about yourself.

My Name is Daniel Eskridge.  I’m a classically trained artist living in the Atlanta Metro area.  I majored in art at the University of Georgia and have over 25 years of art experience.  I am well-known for scientific illustrations of prehistoric creatures, but am also accomplished in creating Wild West art, fantasy art, wildlife scenes, and horror illustrations. My works have appeared in magazines and newspapers; the covers of books, albums, and products; and even in a few science and natural history museums.

2.  What kind of art do you create? Do you create digitally or is it all traditional art?

I create genre art and illustration.  Most of my work is created digitally using a combination of 3D rendering and digital painting techniques, but I also work in traditional media primarily using oil pastels, though I’m also experienced with oil and acrylic paints. 

3. If using digital software, can you share what software you use? What kind of art you create mostly?

 Almost all of my 3D renders are done in Vue using models that I made in Sculptris, ZBrush, and Blender3d or off the shelf models from Daz Studio.  I use GIMP for all of my digital painting.  I mostly create art featuring organic forms, so, people, animals, prehistoric creatures and fantasy creatures.
dragon reading a book

4.  Can you tell us how you get ideas for your work? 

A lot of my ideas come from studying folklore, mythology, fairy tales and legends.  Also, for paleo art, I’m subscribed to a number of paleontology publications.

5. Since how long have you been working in this field?

I have been working in this field since 1997.

6.  Can you show us any favorite works from your portfolio? Can you share your story about creating these artworks? Any reason for creating them?

My personal favorite is a paleoart work featuring a wooly rhino facing off against a cave lion.
Daniel Eskridge woolly rhino and cave lion
Clash of The Ice Age Beasts
The story behind it is that I was looking for a pair of prehistoric animals that were less commonly depicted leaving me more room for interpretation.  What I really like about this piece is the sense of action and movement.
Another favorite of mine is Uktena.  This one is based on a story my grandfather told me about the horned serpent that was said to once live on a mountain nearby.  It’s probably the closest thing to a dragon in Native American folklore.
uktena
Uktena by Daniel Eskridge
Also among my favorites is Outfoxed. I like to occasionally inject a bit of humor into my works and I think this one accomplishes very well.
outfoxed
Outfoxed by Daniel Eskridge

7. Can you share few art tips with our readers? 

If you want to improve your art fast, try copying the works of the artists you love (but don’t try to sell them…unless you want to run afoul of copyright laws).  You can often find videos online describing the techniques of famous artists…I’m amazed by what one can learn on Youtube these days.
Study the masters, and try to learn why they were considered so…not just their techniques, but why they became so well known.  What was going on in their society and how did they respond to it so that they are remembered above the other artists of the day.  There is much more to art than just making it.  The real challenge is getting your art out there for the world to see.  I’m almost certain there are works of art made that surpassed any known to art history but rotted away in some attic because the artist did not know how to bring their works out into the public.
Any artwork has a chance of being successful, but if you want to increase those odds, understand the fundamentals of art and use them: line, shape, form, color, hue, light, depth, composition, perspective…none of these are strictly necessary to create a successful artwork, but those artists who do use them will find it that much easier to find an audience.
If you want to make a living as an artist, you also need to study marketing, and have a pretty good grasp of economics as well. Understanding copyright and trademark laws wouldn’t hurt either.
the garden of the soul

Exclusive Interview with Britta Jacobs

1. Introduction about yourself

 

My name is Britta Jacobs (aka mermaidine on DA) and I live in a village in the eastern part of Switzerland between the Lake of Constance to the north and the Alpstein mountains to the south. By now I am in my mid-sixties and retired, but I still love to create art in many ways, digital art, photography, ceramics and writing.

 

2. Your art is so breathtaking. From how long have you been creating art?

 

Nearly all my life long, I have started creating when I was a kid about 6 years old with drawing and writing and with working with clay. Photography was my next love and I took thousands of slides which luckily are now all digitalized. From time to time on holidays I came back to drawing but than first work and later on the care for my parents over 14 years took most of my time.

 

3. What software do you use?

 

I started my “digital life” in photography as soon as this was possible. Working with digital computer programs began in 2005, when my sister recommended Vue to me, a 3d landscaping program. This was what I always wanted, because it opened the possibility to me to create landscapes, Sci-fi renders, surreal images and fantasy images.

 

I quite early started to create my 3d assets myself, be it architecture, animals, plants, sci-fi assets or everyday objects and parallel learned to work with new programs, like DAZ 3d, Poser, Sculptris, Zbrush,Blender, Incendia (a program for creating 3d fractals), Plantfactory. For post working my renders or photos I still use PaintShop Pro, because at the time this was needed, I did not have the money to buy Photoshop. For special painting techniques I use also Gimp.

 

When about 3 years ago the first programs for creating digital art based on a game engine like Flowscape and the first AI generated art programs came out, like Artbreeder, and Deep dream generator I ventured with curiosity into this new land to explore. Wombo.art, Disco diffusion, Nightcafe were those I tried in the recent time but my absolute favorite for the time being is MidJourney, which most of my recent work is created in. I still use postwork to fine tune what the AI is creating out of mere words, or I combine two or three different AI renders into a new image, or paint it over where something is missing.

 

For creating my Storybud books containing my images and short stories, I write little stories to go with some of my images, which are published by book on demand. I use also word for layout and creating the needed pdf out of it for printing. By now there are 3 books published, bilingual English and German, and the 4th and 5th are in the making.

 

4. Show us any favorite work from your portfolio. Any reason you created them?


Deep forest magic” was the first fantasy/magical render I did in Vue which came out absolute to my liking. It also was the first to start with my storybuds. It was the base of creating my books – something friends of mine suggested I should do.

Vintage” was created after a photo I saw somewhere, which I really liked and I wanted to recreate it. The thick tree is modeled in Sculptris and textured in Vue. As there was no vintage bicycle as object available at that time, I started to create the bicycle by modelling it only out of basic primitives with Boolean operations in Vue, which is by far no modelling program. But it was easier for me to have only very limited possibilities for modelling and to quite a degree it still is. Friends of mine were astonished one could do something like that in Vue and told me, that to them modelling like that would be like milking mice.

 

The portrait of “Pan” was created combining two AI machines, Artbreeder for creating the portrait and Deep Dream Generator for creating the extraordinary texture overlay. When the portrait came to life by just playing around in Artbreeder, it looked to me already like a picture of Pan. Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is a bit a wild one and at times mischievous too. And exactly that the look of this portrait seemed to express to me. Now a simple portrait would not do, there should be a connection to nature as it befits him. So I chose a style in Deep Dream Generator which would give him the wild nature appeal.

Nightwalk in the magical forest” is one of the first art in Midjourney, where I saw a possibility to create magic and beauty as a counterpart to all the bad and nasty which is constantly brought to us all day long. It is thought to give imagination and relaxation a place again in life too and to balance out. And apparently it is seen like this by others too, which makes me happy.

Menhir Guardian”, created in Disco Diffusion goes in the same direction of magic, this time combined with ancient history, as a visual reminder, that there is more to the world than the constant busy buzz of all day life.

The garden of the soul” is another one of my images created in Midjourney to give a visual possibility to relax and so I subtitled it accordingly: “Sometimes you just need a little rest. I offer you to go for a walk in my garden of the soul and let yourself unwind :)”

 

5. Do you use any stock images or do you paint everything from scratch?

 

I rarely use stock images I have to pay for, only when I have a very distinct part of a picture in mind. But I use the free images from Pixabay to combine with my renders.

Moonchild” is an example of it. A render in Vue for the landscape and the Moonchild is combined with a cloud photo from Pixabay and brought together by blending and adding other clouds in in postwork.

 

6. How do you get inspired to create your art? Do you take any references from other artists?

There are many things inspiring me, for photography it is the beauty in nature, the little things along my walking way, which other would not realize and which are beautiful to look at and the light playing with the landscape or plants.

 

For my 3d renders it is mainly just experimenting with new objects or fractals I created and texturing them and out of this a new render is born.

Or it is a scene in a film or documentation I saw, that imprints in my mind because of its beauty and comes out as a render again.

 

For the AI programs it is playing around like I started with Artbreeder and suddenly seeing something in a landscape or portrait which can be further developed by combining, painting over or photo bashing. And lately with the AI machines based on words like Midjourney or Discodiffusion it is more and more the spiritual and soul nourishing part, which I feel is missing especially in our days. And yes, for the styles of an AI creation I sometimes take reference to other artists, and I also recreated paintings from other artists in 3d renders.

 

7. Anything else you want to share with the readers?

 

Just a wish, that they might be inspired or find a way to ease their mind in art or in simply walking outside in nature. I feel that this is highly needed in our time and we might find balance and rest and again the respect and affection which leads to a content and happy life for ourselves, no matter the external circumstances.
This is the main reason for me to create my art.

spaceship in the stone LordDoomhammer

Exclusive Interview with digital artist Elias Stern

1. Introduction about yourself.

spaceship in the stone LordDoomhammer


My name is Elias Stern and I am a freelance illustrator living and working in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. I earn my living by making art for a couple of years now. But I am a creator at heart, ever since I can remember.


2. Your space sci-fi images are so good. Any reason you create such particular kind of art?

realm wars eyes of the descendants


The first movie I ever watched was the Star Wars. Ever since then I had a keen interest in science fiction. I grew up watching the entire Star Wars series back and forth, as well as Star Trek and Battle-star Galactica and read the works of Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert and Robert A Heinlein amongst many others. In games as well, the SciFi-Genre was among my top contenders, from Halo, Home-world and Mass Effect amongst many others.
As such it was only natural that my artistic journey would take roots in space as well.


3. All your works are so movie like. They look great. What software are you using?

calm seas ship


Thank you very much, that is very kind of you to say. The backbone of my digital work are Blender and Photoshop. The latter was there almost from the beginning, ever since I was given a copy of Photoshop when I was around eleven years old. Blender came in much later, after having used Sketch-up for the longest of times, but is now doing a lot of the heavy lifting and the software where I want to grow the most (and where there are probably an infinite amount of possibilities.


4. How do you get inspired? Any favorite artists? Do you take inspiration from movie posters?

entering hostile waters

Yes, the many examples mentioned above inspire me to no end and fans of some of these franchises can surely see their influence in my work. Movie and game posters surely inspired me more than once.  When done well it can be an incredible combination of visual atmosphere, character and emotion, that I strife to achieve in my work as well. But my greatest source of inspiration comes from an old master. Having started my creative endeavor in traditional painting, that got kick-started by JMW Turner when I was around eleven years old, it has been my driving force ever since. Back then my visual arts were split in two. On one hand I had the colorful, more romantic way of painting, that focused on landscapes, everyday life and the surreal, whilst on the other, the digital realm was mainly occupied with exploration of space. At some point, those two fields started to overlap which eventually led to the colorful, vibrant scifi pieces you can find now. To me space needn’t be dark nor silent. Whenever I can, I put style over realism, however shallow some people might find that approach, but I slowly left behind any trepidation of using strong and powerful colors.

 

Also Read:
Exclusive Interview with a fabulous digital artist – Jackson Tjota


5. Share any of your favorite art from your gallery. Any special reason you created them?


It’s really hard to pick favorites, but since we are mostly focused on scifi for now, that makes things easier for me.
I’ll give you three (more or less), all of them commissioned by wonderful people, that allowed me a lot of creative freedom as we were developing these cover artworks. First up a series of covers, that together were meant to be a collection of shorter prequel stories to Eric Warrens Infnity’s End Series of novels, each of them focusing on a single character of the main series. The Trouble was, we also had to have the ship in focus as well, so it was quite difficult to find a suitable approach, until we settled on a simple setup: the characters looking out from a station towards the ship. To avoid repetition, each artwork would feature subtle (and not so subtle) differences, aside from the coloring. For example, Robeaux isn’t a guy that follows the rules and is
less levelheaded than the others. As such he got a warmer, more vibrant colour, was put off center and the camera was slightly angled.
Elias Stern wallpaper fates arrow robeaux
In contrast to that, the “military-man” Greene is in center, the camera is squarely behind him and the color not only fits his name, but is also a subtle hint to his military background. There were more considerations made in these four covers, as the foreground station that has different styles, that were meant to mirror each character.
Elias Stern fate's arrow green
Next I absolutely love working with Jamie McFarlane on his Junkyard Pirates series (as well as his other works), that lets me focus on something that’s not usually the focus in scifi: the junk that is left behind. It gives me an opportunity to add in tiny details here and there that remain unseen by most (the cranes in the back are piling up junk from a salvaged spaceship, whilst a small shuttle on the rightmost is strolling around with its price for example) and giving a wonderful sense of chaos, whilst not coming off as a hostile universe.

junkyard veterans wallpaper Elias Stern
Last is a piece made for a novel by M.G. Herron which is to me quintessentially Space Opera. He wanted a heavily industrialized world, our hero-Starfighter and some traffic in the background, but I got so captivated by my imagination, that I spent ages making more ships and stations to fill the background, that in the end came together with some unexpectedly beautiful colors, despite the more gritty world that was depicted. If I ever have space to print and hang this piece, I would, because it always inspires me to go back in, make even more models to fill the scene with many,many more ships, each of them telling a story of their own.

hidden relics space art Elias Stern


6. How much time does it take to create a single image? Do you work on multiple projects?


Its hard to give a number on that. Most personal work gets done rather quickly, since I usually don’t get to do that often. Mostly it’s me having an evening or afternoon off, so I have to do it in 3-4 hours. With commissions it highly depends on revisions and on how quickly the customer finds a direction they like. Sometimes the first round of sketches is enough to find something to pursue until completion, whilst with others it may take 20 (24 was my record!). Though that is luckily the exception.

YES, absolutely YES! I always work on multiple projects simultaneously. It gives me a chance to switch back and forth, should I ever lose my drive on one of them. Maybe another picks my interest more at the moment? I can always come back later. Also, I like to experiment and widen my horizons beyond
SciFi. At the moment I am working on some historical clothing for a client. Not something I’m good at and far away from my comfort zone, so I jumped at the chance.


7. Please share any tips on how you create such amazing art.

traveller of worlds dragon


Patience. For every artwork you see in my gallery, at least a dozen got left at the wayside. Some were simply bad, some were never even completed, some were just meant for me. There is no failure in art. You just got to follow your inner artist, get your energy out in whatever way you prefer, try new things, experiment. Each ‘failure’ is a step towards success, whatever that might be to you.
And also, when people ask about time, I am always hesitant, because it gives a fall impression. Now I might be able to do an acceptable piece of scifi art in a couple of hours.  I have got experience and I am comfortable in my workflow. I have a lot of things to use that I would have to make from ground up otherwise. When you start out, take your time. You learn much, much more from doing things in your own pace. What takes me an hour now, took me a day many years ago. But if I had strived to get it done in an hour back then as well, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now. These twenty-four hours taught me more, than an hour ever could. The process is just as important as the end result. Besides, if you are worried about taking long, that’s just a matter of time (bad pun intended). What took you 20 hours at first, might only take you 10 the second time around, and 8 the third and so forth. In the end it is only important that you enjoy what you do. If you can inspire others, that’s just a bonus.


8. It’s not easy to create a particular kind of art continuously. Every artist goes through an art block. You might be aware of it. How do you get ideas to work with?


Most of the things were already mentioned before. Repetition is indeed a challenge, as such it is important to vary wherever possible.
I try to mix up the colors I use (the reason why my gallery looks like someone puked a rainbow all over), but without losing all the harsh contrast I usually use. As said before, having a couple of projects at the same time also helps with that, since it allows you to do something else, if you lose steam on one of them.
Trying out new things also helps immensely. There are many more things I’d like to create, but due to a lack of time and urgency they tend to remain on the back-burner. I nonetheless try to make something different whenever I get the chance, whether it’s doing some traditional paintings or drawings, or try something entirely different and new – I wanted to do a huge crowd scene for ages but didn’t get to it yet. Maybe 2022 is the year for that?
And lastly, probably most importantly: it is alright not do be creative 24/7 and to take a break. There are days where I just cannot get into the mood to do something artistic. Rather than force yourself, go outside! Meet up with friends, do something else. The spark isn’t lost, it just needs a pause. Give it some time to rest and it will come back in force.


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broken mirror faestock corvinerium Gaetano

Exclusive Interview with a digital artist – Gaetano

Introduce yourself

My name is Gaetano, I’m from Naples, Italy and I’m 35 years old.

From how long have you been into this digital art. Is it a hobby or do you work professionally as an artist?

I think I started my first experiments with photo manipulation in 2008, and for a couple of years I made a few pieces that were basically ignored by everyone – they weren’t that great, to be completely honest 😅 So I took a little time off and then came back to it in 2010, trying to develop a more personal style with a little bit of technical improvements. It is mostly a hobby for me, because creating art just gives me joy and it’s often a way to express my feelings, to exorcise my fears, or simply to tell a story. That said, I also work as a freelance artist – mostly for writers in need of a cover for their books and musicians who search for an album cover.

fantasy faestock corvinerium digital artist deviantart shattered glass white hair

What software do you use?

My one and only software choice to make art has always been Photoshop, it’s just the easiest tool for me and I think being comfortable with your tools is crucial when it comes to creativity.

How do you get inspired? Any favorite artists ?

A big part of inspiration comes basically from every other form of art: it can be a song or an opera aria, it can be a fairy-tale or a novel, or a movie. Anything with a story, I would say, no matter the genre. The other big part comes from the inside. Many of my pieces are expressions of my feelings, experiences, dreams, nightmares, and so on. It’s almost a sort of therapy and it helped me so much.

 

Also Read : Exclusive interview with a fabulous artist Erik

 

Share your favorite works from your portfolio. Any special reason you created them?

fairy tale fantasy mjranum stock dragonfly mushroom corvinerium

A place no one knows” shows my passion for fairy-tales and fantasy in general, but also my love for nature. I love to take long walks in the woods, trying to commune with all the energies of the place. Maybe they don’t appear as little fairies. But I firmly believe that these places are full of little spirits who maintain the delicate balance of nature.

Shattered sight” is perhaps one of the simplest works I’ve made. But a lot of people appreciated it and I think it’s because they got the overall message. It speaks of those moments when we cannot recognize ourselves. The mirror is broken, but even if it wasn’t, still there’s no reflection in it. It’s that sense of losing our identity for a while.

fantasy magic men surreal corvinerium dark fear flames blue
“Wise men” is one my latest works and probably one of the creepiest. I wanted to create a twisted version of the biblical Magi, the mysterious three Kings from the East. What if they were a trio of evil sorcerers whose intention was not to pay homage? I think re-imagining characters is a great and fun exercise.

You can follow me on my Facebook page “Corvinerium Digital Artist” and on DeviantArt at – where I post all my works. Or, if you wish to contact me, my email address – gaetano.pezzillo@live.it