Look ma – a tree!
I have been painting since my early childhood. It was easy to do, difficult to master, but still was fun and gave me a lot of positive feedback. Thus my family introduced me to the work of many classical painters, some of whom I still like, such as Adolph Menzel or Karl Hagemeister.
Later my future brother-in-law took me to the works of some really inspiring artists, like Bill Sienkiewics and Dave McKean. This lead me to other heroes such as Syd Mead or Ashley Wood.
What is a Wacom...?
In the late nineties, my friend and roommate Tom (Pixtur) bought a fancy new Wacom tablet. Although he had quite a record with pixel graphics, I never saw him as an artist before. So I was quite impressed with his progress in digital painting. He also showed me lots of works by digital artists such as Craig Mullins.
I was so hooked that I immediately bought one myself and started scribbling. I especially love it when the ideas come up while sketching. As usual, my first "use" of the results was the demoscene, my other long-term hobby.
Demos (2012-2015)
Illysium (for Analysis Musicdisk/Slideshow by Bitfellas 2015) – TrueColor 1920 x 1080 px
I scribble around a lot, but I don't "finish" things often. I have problems focusing the result and often find myself polishing details while the light or proportions are still off.
In this way, demos have helped me to strive for something: Making promises to others helps you stay focused and finish rather than repeat it over and over again.
In my opinion, modern PC demos do not need static paintings. They disrupt the flow, switch media, so to speak, and are difficult to control. The main content is 3D, procedurally created, based on complex node-based pipelines - and it shows.
Nevertheless, I am happy to contribute something from time to time and to forge my own skills by exercising them.
Earth Runs Red (for Square by STILL 2012) – TrueColor 2480 × 1280 px
You Should (2010)
This project, an invitation to the demo party Evoke 2010, is one of my favorite demo productions of all time: While it was released under the Haujobb label, it was the first, one and only demo of my group STILL, in which almost the entire crew was involved.
Everybody did what they liked, and I especially enjoyed working with Helge (Trickwelt), a digital painter and comic artist who had a strong influence on me.
Being an invitation, each part contained a punch line that started with "You should..." and joked about what people could do to produce something for the party. My part came out as a sci-fi painting, which was divided into billboards in 3D to fit into the mostly three-dimensional scenery.
Galaktiklops (layered image for You Should by Haujobb 2010) – TrueColor 3072 × 1685 px
Album Covers
Some of the composers of the tracks of the demos I contributed to also released albums from time to time. I never had done album covers before and experimented with paintings, 3D and mixed media. Here we have Epiphany (a drum'n'bass compilation by Drumhead) and Astral Equations (an EP by Kosmonaut aka my friend Mad).
Epiphany (2010) – TrueColor 900 × 900 px
Astral Equations (2013) – TrueColor 960 × 960 px
Above (2007)
Passing – True Color 1600 × 864
This was the second demo I made together with my long time friends Tom (Pixtur) and Stefan (Mad). Together with Trocken and Perfect Love this is the last part of the LKCC/Bauknecht trilogy so to speak.
I joined the project when it was somehow overdue after it was planned for summer 2006. Pixtur and Mad were busy to tweak all the 3D and timings in Mad's 3D engine, so I contributed some paintings and developed a calligraphic typography to show the lyrics by Pixtur.
Although we finished the demo under pressure at the party Breakpoint 2007, it came together quite nicely. We didn't reach one of the first three places because Farbrausch released their uber-demo Debris there, but we came in fifth place, and the demo is still remembered by lots of people today.
LKCC Loader – True Color 1024 × 420 px
Above Title – True Color 1024 × 420 px
Trocken (2005)
Geisterohr – True Color 11152 × 864 px
Inferior – True Color 11152 × 864 px
In the late 90s I somehow stopped making demos. This had its roots in my new relationship and the birth of my first daughter, the lack of motivation, the lack of time, but also: the lack of other people who needed my contribution at all. I was self-employed, was part of an architectural office and a family. Of course I still met my friends from time to time and saw what they were doing.
Until one fine day after Christmas 2004, when I suddenly had time and was asked by Pixtur, Sire and Mad if I wanted to join them “remixing” Zyprexa, a demo that was already released - so only direction and graphics needed my attention - so to speak: the fun part!
I was hooked and started to sketch ideas, not only for paintings but also for motion design compositions, mainly done by Pixtur. I liked the strange style and the lyrics in the original demo and the challenge to keep them while polishing the colors and the overall design together with Pixtur. Today I don't know how I found all this time, but at Easter 2005 we released Trocken at Breakpoint 2005 and even finished third!
Dämonen – True Color 11152 × 864 px
Zerrspiegellabyrinth – True Color 1200 × 900 px