Featured Artist – Christian Hecker

Name: Christian Hecker

Country of Residence: Germany

Website: tigaer-design.com

Portfolios: CGSociety :: Deviantart :: Shadowness :: CGHub :: GFXArtist

You were the featured artist in Ray Gun Revival magazine, Issue 46 in 2008.  It appears that you’re constantly trying new things, spreading your artistic wings. Your work, “Gates To Elysium,” was the winner of the CG Choice Award on CGTalk.com and took a Gold Award on CGHUB.com.  What’s the feedback been like from your fans?

Hi everyone, and thank you Johne for the chance to write a little bit about myself here. The feedback from people is generally positive and a nice motivation. Every now and then there is feedback mentioning things that are not so good and I take all that to upcoming projects. I always try to become more efficient in the work I do. And of course better.

There are many artists who only do Fantasy art. It’s really refreshing to see somebody active doing Science Fiction works. What is it about Science Fiction art that captures your imagination?

I wouldn’t say SciFi is getting less attention than fantasy. I guess it always depends what’s hip at the time. When Lord of the Rings came out it was of course fantasy. Now, Scifi is getting a little more attention again thanks to things like Avatar and District 9, as well as comics. I myself was always a big SciFi fan. Growing up in East Germany, there wasn’t a lot of inspiring stuff to see so I devoured everything that had a small hint of SciFi in it. I later had the chance to watch all the movies I missed, and my love for SciFi grew. All these alien worlds and landscape vistas in the movies (often realized by some amazing traditional matte painting) always got my imagination going. How great would it be to see all these places with your own eyes? And that’s what I try to do, creating all the places I would love to see with my own eyes.

Have you gotten any cool new tools this past year (hardware or software)? Has your equipment changed over the last year or two? Along the same lines, has your work changed as the result of faster hardware, different software?

My hardware is pretty much the same for almost three years now. I did build my machine completely from scratch. It took me weeks to carefully choose the right hardware components for it. It was worth it. It’s the most stable machine I ever had (and I’m thankful for that). Just recently, I had a few renders that took 40hrs and more. When it comes to software, yes, things became a little faster and more stable, especially when working with Vue (3d landscape creator).

Who are the most exciting digital artists you’ve seen lately? Are you following anyone new?

You mean beside me? Hah… kidding. There are a lot of people out there. I couldn’t mention anyone specific but I recently joined ‘The Luminarium‘. It’s an artgroup of sorts that features art from every kind of medium. Prominently SciFi work too. Their Exhibit releases got featured in several Advanced Photoshop issues and therefore get quite some attention. It’s always worth to risk a look at the work from these guys.

You have a high profile on DA. Do you do collaborations with other digital artists? If so, which have been your favorite, and why?

Actually I’m not a good collaboration artist. When it comes to personal projects I always like to have full control about what I’m doing. Sometimes, when fellow artists ask specifically me for feedback I take their picture and quickly paint something in that could give them a hint where to go with it. But I wouldn’t call that a collaboration I guess.

There’s art, and there’s business. How have the advances in one area affected advances for you in the other? Have you gotten any cool commissions that you’d like to share with us?

Beside smaller projects, there wasn’t anything big. I got a few interesting requests but nothing has come from them so far. I’m still open for everything that comes in.

Is your work featured exclusively at deviantART or are your works available on other sites? Where can people find / buy your work?

When it comes to buying Prints of my work then yes, it’s Deviantart, or me personally via my website. The advantage when buying from me personally is that all prints are signed. The disadvantage is that delivery could take a little longer.

But yes, for a while it was Deviantart alone, however, the community there became so big and such a monster that a lot of very good artists are drowning in the masses. Now I would suggest every digital artist, no matter what field, to spread your work across different sites. There is a little work involved but you have more chances of people actually seeing your work. Right now I’m constantly submitting my work to the ‘Shadowness’ community. It’s still a small site but the work they feature is amazing. For the professional approach I can only recommend CGTalk/CGSociety and their portfolio. That’s where the world’s best digital artists are. Other sites would be CGHub and GFXArtist.

If you had one tip for a new digital artist, what would it be?

Constantly work on your technique. Check out tutorials and how they can help you with your technique. Check out movies, books, and games for inspiration. Show your work wherever you can, and be open for criticism. Maybe even visit an art school to learn the basics. I did not visit any school but I can say that I had enough drive in myself to come far enough to create somewhat decent work.

Featured Artist - Christian Hecker, 4.6 out of 5 based on 8 ratings