otlgaming: ARTIST FOCUS: BARRETT BIGGERS With a bachelor’s degree in biology, and no formal training in art, Barrett Biggers’ choice to become a graphic designer may seem odd at first. But it would turn out that his scientific background, early exposure to graphic design at his father’s newspaper, and a fierce determination would be some of the best training he could ever receive, and incidentally, the same reasons that he ended up in our artist’s chair this week for our Artist Focus. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? Where do you live now? My name is Barrett Biggers. I call myself the Peoples’ Multimedia Artist. I work for you. My work is mainly of Geek Art in nature, that being a genre of art themed and inspired by classic film, gaming, anime, Japanese culture, and comics. I was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, United States, and still live here today with my lovely Japanese wife of 8 years, Emi. I studied Biology in college but after a few years in the field I decided my passion was art, so I made a career 180 and started graphic design. Now I’m the senior designer at an International beverage company and a freelance digital artist. Doing what I love. All that matters. How long have you been designing/illustrating? What got you interested in art? I’m all self-taught. Never went to a single art class in my life. I have a bachelor’s degree in Biology. laughs I have always been surrounded by graphic design because my father was an editor at a major newspaper. I grew up with Macs and Adobe products. I learned computers at an early age just playing around. However, my start in art was traditional pencil sketching, watercolors and ink in high school as a fun hobby. I focused on recreating Japanese anime since I was big into it at the time. I loved traditional art mediums but just didn’t have the time or space for all that painting required, so I went digital. I learned the basics and techniques much faster and more efficiently. I could practice countless times with no messy cleanup. Now that I have refined my style and have gotten better, I’ll get back into the traditional media in the future. Who/what influences your art? Is there a particular person’s style that has influenced you? My favorite inspirations and artists have to be Hayao Miyazaki, famous for his Studio Ghibli feature animated films; Yoshitaka Amano, famous for his Final Fantasy characters and lithography of macabre/dark themed art; and H.R. Geiger, famous for his highly mechanical symmetrical, sexual, and macabre/dark Alien work. I have to say I try to hybridize the styles of all three of these artists in my work. However some is distinctly my own take, like my Geek Line Artly. I also have a deep appreciation for Art Nouveau and Surrealism. I love the deep contrasts and
 gives us a glimpse of our old pal Mega Man after an all out fierce battle. Amazing detail work, without a doubt. He definitely got rocked… man… Related Rampages: Zombie Peach’s Lair (More) Battle Damaged Mega Man by Kodykoala (Flickr) (Facebook) (Twitter))
, Iron Man 2 NOTE : those artworks are all available to sell on line on Artoyz’ online shop, but careful, they are limited editions !)
 Life by Chow Hon Lam)
