Geek Culture Vector Art and Interview with Artist Justin Currie
Justin Currie is a phenomenal artist whose work has been featured many times here on GeekTyrant (that you can see more of here and here). His work has a unique and amazing feel that I have never seen anywhere else. His is a style that uses sharp, straight edges with bright colors, making his art feel industrial, yet alive. He has achieved this look by working in Vector, an art program that uses geometric shapes and is typically used to make company logos. Some of his more famous works are his reimaginings of the Avengers and Batman as robots. Justin attended SLCC Comic Con where I had the privilege to interview him and get to know him and his art.
First off, what is Vector?
"It is just a different format of computer graphics. Most people paint in Photoshop and that’s known as raster and with raster things can only get so big before they get pixelated. Vector is math based so you can make your image as big as you want and it will stay crystal clear and sharp because the image just recalculates to the size, which is why it’s used for logos. Not many artists use it because it is kind of a stiff program, but because I worked as a graphic designer for so long I got good at the program. I think I am one of the few artists that does everything in Vector."
Are the sharp angles and straight lines due to the program or is that just your style?
"It is the program, Vector is pretty stiff. You don't get the fluidity you would get out of photoshop, so I have a lot of sharp, jaggedy pieces, but when I pile them up enough it looks organic."
Are there any comics or video games you are a fan of that inspire what your next project will be?
"I’m always keeping on top of what is coming out. I love development diaries of the next big game. Probably Final Fantasy VII I quote as my biggest inspiration for getting into this in the first place, but Deviant Art and GeekTyrant and other daily inspiration sites are where I gather most of my inspiration along with movies, TV, games or anything I think is cool I just kind of lock it away for later."
I see some of your Ninja Turtle work, did you grow up watching Ninja Turtles?
"Huge Ninja Turtles fan!"
Do you have a Favorite Turtle?
"Michelangelo."
Yup, me to! *Hi Five*
So, why robots?
"So, I saw an animated short, I think its called Shanghai Batman, it was this ancient Shanghai Batman redesign that I loved. The redesigns of the characters I thought was the coolest thing ever. After seeing that short I really wanted to do a redesign of characters from the Batman universe. I've seen steampunk Batman and cyber Batman so playing out my strengths I decided to do a robot Batman. Once that got onto the Internet, it went everywhere, it’s one of my most viral pieces I’ve ever done. From there I got a flood of requests to do other character robot redesigns, so I did the Ninja Turtles, then I was hired to do the Avengers and the Pokemon starters. I love to build them and people love to see them."
Currie has become one of my favorite artists on the Internet. He also has a book coming out in November to look out for that you can purchase here. I love Justin’s imagination and style and I feel very lucky to have met him. You can check out more of his art on his Deviant Art page and at Chasing Artwork.