Forgotten pieces

In every artist's studio or computer archive lurk those old abandoned pieces; rough starting points for new pieces of art which never got off the ground, or simple quick sketches to capture a spontaneous idea. All abandoned and unfinished. So most of the time, these pieces simply gather virtual dust, in the darkest corners of the hard drive, but sometimes the discovery of a long-forgotten piece can spark a new idea or the impetus to finish it off.

Either way, good or bad, I believe in saving all these rough ideas. You never know when they might come in handy. Here is a selection of some of my 'forgotten pieces'...

Clockwise from top left: Future Perfect, Assassin, Sunstorm, Kingdom and When it Rains.

Hipgnotised

Although a plethora of artists influence my work, ranging from classic sci-fi and fantasy artists to the old masters of surrealism, one of the biggest artistic influences for me has been that of musician Peter Gabriel.

Not only does Gabriel's music inspire me artistically, but it was the accompanying visuals to his work that originally caught my eye. The images are always a perfect match for the music. His groundbreaking videos to tracks such as "Steam" and "Digging in the Dirt" absolutely blew me away, but it was really his early album covers by design company Hipgnosis which really inspired me to become a graphic designer. The raindrops on the car bonnet of his debut album; the torn away scratch marks on the second release and the iconic melted face of his third album all made a significant and lasting impression on me.

I remember at the age of 15, when I first discovered his music and started buying up his back catalogue with what little spending money I had – back then, CDs cost no less than £15 a piece, so I'd find myself doing odd jobs for my grandmother and babysitting for the family across the street, in order to save up enough to buy these sacred albums! The first Gabriel album I bought was 1992's Us, just after it's release, followed by his best-of compilation, Shaking the Tree (on cassette – remember those?!), and in the fold-out inlay card, there was a series of tiny thumbnails of his album covers, and these absolutely fascinated me. I'd walk into HMV and find the albums and stare longingly at the full-size covers, quite often earmarking the next album on my purchase list by cover preference!

During my GCSE year at school, I drew an A2-size version of Gabriel's classic So album cover in my art class – my art teacher went on to tell me how he had seen him performing with Genesis at Sheffield City Hall in the early 70s. That same piece of artwork was presented as part of my portfolio when I was interviewed for art college, and to my delight, the lecturer interviewing me, instantly recognised it.

If I ever get the chance to meet Gabriel (it's high on my list of ambitions!), I'd want to thank him not only for providing a soundtrack to my life, but for inspiring my entire career in design and art. Even his work ethic (decade-long gaps between albums aside) is an inspiration, and I would just love to visit his Real World Studios and feel the creative buzz in the atmosphere. I've always been a believer that places, rooms or buildings can have certain creative vibes, and that place must be bursting with them!

ArtWeb interview

Here's an interview I gave to ArtWeb recently:
Enter-the-sci-fi-fantasy-world-of-artist-alex-storer

A year of hope and awakening...

Well, December already. This time last year, I was working on my painting Hope, and thinking it was the best thing I'd done to date, which at the time, it was. Every new painting often feels like your best to date, and with each one, you also learn something new, whether it be a painting technique or the discovery of a Photoshop brush – something more often than not, you wish you'd used on your previous work!

Since early 2010, it's safe to say I've been "unbottling" - picking up where I'd left off in fine art over a decade earlier, with a relentless artistic outpouring which I'm now proud to call my portfolio. I've learned a lot in a short space of time, and I have produced well over 20 digital paintings; over half of which this year alone, including Awakening, which is the one piece I'm the most proud of, being my first to go on public display at the Brave New Worlds exhibition in Richmond Upon Thames in September. Awakening is now safely back with me, and I'm looking forward to finding more opportunities to showcase it, among others.

I'm also looking forward to producing more art and hopefully experimenting with some new subject matters, as well as continuing my current series of Hibernus paintings.

Onwards and upwards...

New artwork - "Hibernus" series

I'm currently working on a series of pieces which I have given the seasonal title of Hibernus.

What started out initially as an exercise in painting snow and ice has evolved into this suite of artworks exploring the snow-covered planet of Hibernus, with your subtle hints of other-worldliness along the way. Three pieces are currently in production, with two of them possibly completed with a fourth to follow. Maybe even a fifth. In the meantime, here's a preview...

What makes somebody buy a painting? (Poll results)

What makes somebody buy a painting? (Poll results)

Last Patrol

I thought I'd go into a little more detail into the making of my most recent painting, Last Patrol. I began with a digital sketch, under the working title "Grounded", continuing the theme of space exploration and the fear of being stranded on alien worlds.

This was the first sketch, which I did using the Intuos tablet (my initial sketches are usually pencil on paper):

Happy with the general composition, I opened a new canvas with the sketch as a layer which I could work over and continually refer to. I started off by blocking in the snowy background.

The next step was to create the half-submerged crashed spaceship. I wanted to give the impression that the viewer could only see a portion of what was clearly a bigger ship, so it's mainly the booster section that is on show, but with a conveniently located escape hatch!

Following this, I worked on some of the atmosphere; snow and cloud, and began to paint in the main astronaut's figure.

The final stage was the addition of the silhouetted opening which frames the image – this could be a nearby cave. I wanted to create a tension and feeling of apprehension as the figure gazes into the unknown.

Finally, details like astronaut's reflective visor, the planet's outer rings and various shadows and ice are added, and here is the end result!