I do a fair number of posts promoting Kickstarters that catch my eye. Usually it’s about looking for value and quality among the many offerings. I can easily say the artwork for Grinidon caught my eye. It turned my head. It was magnificent. Get the picture?
I had no idea if it was digital or hand-done, and frankly for the first time in forever I did not care, it was…magnificent. And, I was lucky because the Kickstarter was a value too. I bought two copies.
I reached out to artist Erwin J. Arroza for an interview, and thankfully he was most gracious in accepting the invitation. Erwin shared a great amount of his work on various projects, with permission from the various owners. You can click on any image to view a larger version.
I cannot thank Mr. Arroza enough for this interview. The honor, sir, is entirely my own.
Moby’s! – You’ve been working on this book for a while, how does it feel to have finished the artwork for it?
Erwin – Finishing Grinidon is somewhat a bitter sweet experience. I just wrapped up all the artwork last week and I’m already missing the late nights and the early morning work. Grinidon has been such a positive experience for me as an artist who has been striving to break through the industry. Jeremy has been an inspiration and a huge blessing. It has been a privilege being part of such a wonderful vision.
The artwork for Grinidon is stunning. Is this your usual style and how did you develop it?
I’m still new at this. I still think that I’m in the process of finding that right kind of ‘style’. However, there is something organic about rough pencils and grey tints that goes together with the sepia look. Grinidon is raw and I personally believe it’s one of its strong points….I thought the look should complement it.
The look certainly does go well with the genre. Will you continue to develop this style on more projects in the future?
I guess it just depends on the project or genre.
How challenging is creating the look for the book you are working on?
I think one of the best and most challenging parts of production, developing the whole look for the book. At this point I’m still very much flexible in terms of style. I have only started doing comic book illustrations fulltime recently. Most of the other projects are either been shelved or have not been released yet. Continue reading »
