#shervinkiani

[prospectivepress]

Author + Artist = Interview...

Author Shervin Kiani sat down, metaphorically at least, with Award-winning artist Peter Hollinghurst for a chat about art, books, games, and life...

SK:  Hi Peter. We worked briefly together at Immanion Press, where you made that strikingly beautiful cover art for my first book. I began writing at an early age, around eight, but I didn’t consciously accept the ambition to become a writer until I was older. Were you an ambitious kid yourself, doodling in the margins of your notebooks? When did you decide to become a professional artist?

PH:  It was something I flirted with in my teens. I was always drawing as a child and I did my first piece of commissioned art at the age of fifteen (it was a painting of a racehorse). Later the person I sold it to was offered a fairly hefty sum to sell the painting. This made me realise people could be really interested in my artwork, but it was not until my twenties that I started to do more commissioned work. At that point I did a mix of paintings and design work and was lucky enough to get some work creating a logo for bassist Herbie Flowers (for his band Cloud Nine). Herbie had played bass for David Bowie, T-Rex, and Sky, amongst others, so I was pleasantly surprised to have got the commission.

It was then that I think I realised I could make a serious go of it professionally, but I still had not really found myself as an artist. It was discovering Photoshop that helped me to do that and to evolve the style of digital art that I do now.

SK:  Your work has a palpably haunting quality, and that gorgeous style keeps the eye lingering, taking in all the detail. Here I’m thinking of “The Lonely Dive,” “The Key,” “The Killer,” to name but a few. On your site you mention Sir Francis Galton and the digital technique that inspired you. How did you come to use this technique as your primary medium?

PH:  I had been cutting things up and repositioning them since childhood when I used to cutoff their arms, legs, and heads of my toy soldiers and then glue them back in different positions and combinations. It seems to be something that comes naturally to me. That led to me using montage techniques as an aid to composition in my oil paintings for some time—doing sketches and then cutting them and mixing them together, moving them around on the canvas till I got a result I liked.


Photoshop gave me an opportunity to explore new ways of doing that, but I was frustrated with the results. Reading about Francis Galton’s experiments with composite photographs (He was trying to create mug shots of the archetypal criminal) I was intrigued by the way he achieved a sort of average of several photographs by superimposing them and realized you could do the same sort of thing in Photoshop by simply changing the opacity of the layers. I did some ‘Alice in Wonderland’ illustrations using the techniques, taking small parts of images, often just textures and colours, overlaying them and blending them that way, and found it created a really haunting effect. Over time I learned to get a very precise control of the blending of layers so I can get exactly the sort of look I am after while still having an exciting aspect of chance combinations and effects that can inspire me as I work on an image.

SK:  As a creative individual there are a few questions that make me cringe, like that tired-old “Where do your ideas come from?” and “What books influenced you?”  Possibly because the answer for the former is “Everywhere” and the latter is simply unanswerable because I can’t distill all the great works and authors into a succinct answer. Nor would I want to prejudice the reader into thinking I’m borrowing from this or that style; I want the work to stand on its own, in my own style. So I won’t ask you either of those questions, but I will ask if you are inspired by things outside your field of art? For instance, do you listen to music while you work? I know Dave McKean said he’d listen to an album for which he was doing the artwork.

PH:  There are a few things I can point to as definite influences. Dada, Surrealism, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the artwork of Jim Burns all had a big influence on me. I love Dave McKean’s work as well. A bit of an odd mix perhaps but also a dynamic one.

Outside of art, Galton’s photographic experiments and—of all things—systems theory and fractals are a big inspiration. I rely on the way natural forms have a fractal aspect to them because it allows me to play with scale when I am blending textures. Music has always been a major influence for the mood as well, which carries into the art I am creating. I usually do listen to music when I create art but it is also not just mood that influences me with music; the creative approaches of musicians like Bowie and Eno have also been a great inspiration. It is an eclectic mix, I move around between various types of music depending on the image. If I am doing an illustration I also like to read the book I am illustrating as well if I can.

SK:  I know you’re currently working on a tarot-based RPG (role playing game)—Fortune’s Wheel—and what little I’ve seen of it has made me restless for its completion. What inspired this shift from illustrative work to such a wider, more challenging project?

PH:  Fortune’s Wheel is something I have been working on for around fifteen years but it is really the result of some thirty-eight years of playing RPGs. I started playing them when Dungeons and Dragons first became available in the UK. I actually created my first RPG for an art and design exam when I was eighteen. My teachers thought I would either get an A grade or fail and fortunately I got the A grade! I have been making my own games and game settings ever since, but Fortune’s Wheel is the first game I have felt is ready to be shared and published. It just felt like the right game at the right time.

While it is an opportunity for me to create art for my own project it is also one to work creatively with my wife, Suzette McGrath, who is an artist and designer as well and is contributing some of her own artwork and doing the layout for the books.

SK:  With both our separate lifestyles we have little time for leisure, but I still find some time to get out, hunt for books, or have a sushi meal. How do you relax and get your mind off work for a time?

PH:  At the moment most of my time when I am not doing my day job is being focused on getting Fortune’s Wheel into print. When I do take a break from being creative it is usually to find inspiration in the creative work of others and the energy they have to bring it to us. Sometimes the harsh reality of those creative energies is that they are restless, always on the move, always taking things in so there is something to give. Every now and again I do take a holiday though. My wife and I pick a magical city to visit and we breathe that in for a while – just being somewhere fresh, interesting and alive rejuvenates us.

SK:  Peter, it’s been a pleasure, thank you.

PH:  Thank you, Shervin. It was a pleasure creating the cover for Indigo Eyes with you as it was truly collaborative piece having your sketch to work from. I am looking forward to seeing what you have been writing!

Peter Hollinghurst is a freelance digital artist and illustrator living in the UK. In 2008 he won 1st Place in the Dulwich Picture Gallery “Age of Enchantment” fairytale illustration competition. His thoughts and art can be viewed on his site: www.hollinghurst.org.uk.

Shervin Kiani has been called a “Bewitching new voice for literary fantasy” by author Storm Constantine. He was recently published in the anthology Off the Beaten Path 2 from Prospective Press, which also published his second novel, Sati and Doghu, an all-ages adventure fantasy. His biography and work can be found at www.shervinkiani.com.