I will be exhibiting/selling some art prints at this year’s Fan Expo (comic con) which takes place here in Toronto at the end of august. For this event I’m creating a few new pieces inspired by video games and other awesome nerdish things. Below is my first go—something which may or may not appeal to everybody but considering that what seems like half the planet is playing these games I was inspired. I actually really enjoyed painting all the military details and using a very grimy, desaturated colour scheme. My reference for the buildings in the background came from my recent trip to Granada in Nicaragua, a country that has seen its own share of bullets. For those who want to know, the painting was executed using my usual combination of watercolour and pencil on paper. I used watered-down acrylic for the splatters.
Oh yeah! and the original painting will be for sale at Fan Expo as well!
Hi Gillian,
You may not remember me, but I saw your art at FanExpo and was instantly blown away by your talent and your uncanny ability to put on canvass these beautiful images.
As a member of the military, I am especially thankful for artists like you to capture a slice, or moment, of this discourse of war in which we are engaged. It’s through artists like you that we engage in these types of dialogues, and we get a window through which we can gaze into ourselves. Regardless of your political leaning, what you feel the role of the military in society is, it’s more important that you kept this discourse going. The fact that you’re able to do so in such a way that captures what I would describe as haunting beauty, is a testament to the necessity of artists such as yourself, in our society today.
You mentioned that video games (Modern Warfare is what I assume your painting is based upon) are prolific in our society, and I personally believe that this makes it doubly important that you reinterpret through another medium the narrative that is presented. Video games dealing with war are interesting, we take cues from real conflicts between real people and translate them on a digital medium to present to the general masses who are removed from war. Linear shooters are objective oriented, reward-based systems. But someone looking at your art can have multiple interpretations. Whether they’re pro-war and admire the “badassery” of the soldiers in your painting, or they’re anti-war and ponder upon the war-torn setting in the background, they are no doubt questioning, what we really talk about, when we talk about war.
Anyways, this is just a long winded way for me to say thank you, and offer you my humble words of encouragement. Keep it up, and you have yourself a loyal fan in the armed forces.
Best,
Cheng
Hi Cheng,
Thank you so very much for leaving such a beautiful comment. It means a great deal to me as an artist to have someone like yourself respond to my work in this way and I’m very humbled by your sincere appreciation. I’m so very glad too that the subtleties I try hard to include in my work through mood, atmosphere, and detail, are indeed apparent to those who they would speak to most. This gives me an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and success as an artist so many thanks to you! Your comment is very encouraging and I’m very grateful to have such thoughtful and insightful people appreciate my work.
Many thanks Cheng, and all the best to you:)
Gillian
Hey Gillian,
I also saw your work for the first time at Fan Expo – Just wanted to say how memorable your illustrations are, some absolutely stunning pieces. My favorite illustrator & there was some competition!
Needless to say I will be following your future work. Look forward to what comes next…
Thanks
Thanks Kris! That is quite a compliment:)
Hi Gillian,
I just wanted to say again how excited I am about my Bioshock piece. I’ve already gotten a ton of admiring comments and I’ve passed your website address around for others to see your work. I hope that you post more of what you’ve done and I look forward to seeing you at either ComicCon or FanExpo next year. Thank you so much for what you do; those of us who don’t have talents which extend to painting and drawing take great joy in your ability to capture the essence and feel of things we already loved so much.
With lots of geek love,
Meg Young
Aww thank you Meg! I’m so glad you think that because thats really what I was trying to do with those fan pieces! Put my own spin on them but still respect what it is about them that people (including myself) really love. I’m so glad you like, and I’ll be at Fan Expo next year. Look forward to seeing you again:)