The Art of Steve Firchow

Steve Firchow was born in 1966 in La, New Guinea. He moved to the USA at the age of 16, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration in 1991, although many people would never thought him capable of doing so. However, he was unable to make a living based on his bachelor title. Therefore, he took on a job in the sanitary business and continued working on his art in his leisure time - with much fervor and little success.

1995, Firchow finally managed to land a job as a cartoon color guy at "Homage Studios".  Some years later, he probably offered a huge amount of money to Brian Haberlin or threatened him with repressive measures of any kind to get a job at "Top Cow". From that moment on, everything went...downhill and the nice and friendly crew at "Top Cow" probably still does not know that Steve has no clue whatsoever of the things he is doing...

Okay, okay, before Steve really sends some "good friends" to pay us a visit, we must admit that he does indeed know very well what he is doing - in a practically perfect way. After all, the list of his customer references so far is quite impressive, as it contains (among others) companies like Cactus Games, Frontline Music Group, Ace Books, Image, Marvel, DC and Dark Horse Comics, Mattel ToysTSR.Inc., Wizards of the Coast, Hanna Barbera, Sega and many other advertising agencies and design companies in the USA.

At present, Steve - who lives in Altadena, California with his wife - pays his bills by creating digital characters, creatures and weapons for "Spark Unlimited". In his leisure time, he also colors the drawings of Marc Silvestri and still works as a freelance artist for "Top Cow" (a fact that will probably change after this contribution!).

Art Scene:
Well - do you still want to talk to us? It was all just a joke....

Steve:
I will pay you back in spades, just you wait!

Art Scene:
Okay, tit for tat... Lets just talk about your profession first. You work in 2D and 3D and you have more than 15 years of experience in commercial illustration and coloring. Moreover, you have also been working in the field of games for consoles for 5 years. At the moment, you earn a living as an art director at "Spark Unlimited".

You did use conventional methods during your not so successful beginner's period, didn't you?

Steve:
Yes, of course. I started doing oil paintings - in fact; it is still my favorite medium.  Then I switched to acrylics and finally to the digital medium.

My first professional work was some kind of acrylic mixed technique I applied on top of an airbrushed artwork. Back then, I always started with pencils, transferred this sketch to some very thick, cold pressed illustration board which is an ideal support, especially for people who like working with very wet paint. I used to work with an Iwata HP-B and my brushes were from Winsor & Newton.

Read the whole article in issue 79.

www.stevefirchow.com