A Cat's Eye View

Still pleased with this piece I drew in good old fashioned ink & paper for a children's book, a few years back.

People, places...

There's a lot of digital art out there on the web. Too much you might say – as an artist it's very easy to feel swamped by competition or depressed when you realise everybody who is better than you is also younger! However, although I absolutely love looking through other artists' online portfolios – always a source of good inspiration – when it comes to science fiction and fantasy art, so much of it is very samey. 

Some of the recurring themes you find in science fiction and fantasy art are countless occurrences of scantily-clad women with large, bulging breasts, enigmatic, shadowy heroes boasting huge chunky blasters or all manner of winged beasts, fairies or angels. It is with this in mind that I have often avoided creating similar pieces – do we really need more of it? The irony is, that back in my days of self-produced graphic novels, the emphasis was always on the characters and character designs – and these are the elements which trigger the emotions and draw you in – the human factor. I suspect some folk simply aren't drawn in my a conceptual piece that doesn't have a character in it.

Maybe this is why – though possibly limiting my options in the process – I find it much more interesting to put the viewer in the heart of the scene, or to include the character in such a way that while they remain crucial to the image, they're not always the focal point. I've come to realise that this may well be what I can confidently call my 'style'.

It's funny how when I think back to my college years, the simple prospect of painting a landscape bored the hell out of me. Nowadays it is quite the opposite – the idea of creating a portal to other worlds; a window overlooking an alien terrain or dreamy landscape in which to escape, is the driving force behind so many pieces.

Synesthetic art

I've already written a blog entry on this, but today, I felt compelled to expand on it a little...

Last year, I posted a gallery of work from 2004, of my synesthesia-inspired art. Looking back on this, I really am quite proud of this work, not only because I love the music that inspired each piece, but because I managed to capture the abstract sensations and visions I experienced whilst playing the music and transpose them on to the screen.

Synesthesia takes many forms, from mild to extreme, each individual having a very specific experience. For me, the association of sounds/music, words and numbers with colours has always been there. I assumed everybody experienced the same. I didn't even know it had a name. Not until 1997 when I heard the term for the first time – which put a whole new slant on everything for me.

I'm lucky that for me the synesthesia isn't intrusive or disturbing in any way – it's an addition to my work and an extra facet of creativity. Sadly for some people the condition can be extremely distressing and problematic, especially in more severe cases.

As I first realised what synesthesia was in Peter Gabriel's CD-ROM project, Eve, it made perfect sense, as an ardent fan of Gabriel's music, to try and illustrate how several of his songs took form in my mind. I remember working through many different tracks – not necessarily my favourites – and not getting anywhere with some, and others came together instantly. "Come Talk to Me" was such an example – the colours, forms and textures that I achieved on screen (as these were digital pieces) were close to what I experienced when listening to the music. What is consistent through each piece I produced, over a series of days of listening to the songs, was the central "streak" of white or cream, which in most cases tears through the middle of the image. My ultimate conclusion was that this represented the vocals.

The result was an interesting suite of abstract images – which I would have been very satisfied with even had it not grown out of such an unusual matter. I've often wondered why I haven't tried it again on other artists' work and songs that I like. But actually I realise, that I have. Every time I paint, I listen to music – and this makes up a core element of any piece I produce.

Talk in Pictures gallery on The Light Dream

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...