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Every two weeks I’ll be posting an email interview with someone involved in science fiction and science, art, writing, film-making and so on. Today I’m posting the first such interview I’ve done and it’s with prolific science fiction artist Alan Gutierrez.

 

What is your name and what is your connection to science fiction art and/or design?

I’m Alan Gutierrez, and have been a cover artist in SF since 1981. At this time, I’ve illustrated about 2000 books, magazine pages (interior art), game books, and toy boxes, as well as online (Kindle) books (recent).

What are some of your favorite science fiction artists or art pieces created by others?

Michael Whelan, David Hardy, Dean Ellis, Alex Stromberg, Boris Vallejo, and Kelly Freas are my inspirations.  I saw much of their works in Analog, and The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, in the late 1970’s.

What are your favorite pieces created by yourself?

“The Wooden Spaceships”, “Lagrange Point”, and “Space Viking” (professional). The Sailor Moon inspired “Sailor Ganymede and Calliso” and the “Zodiacs” series (fan art).

Do you see a change, small or large, in how outer space and science is being visually represented to the public as compared to say five, ten or more years ago?

What are these changes?

I’ll answer two questions here. Not much, as far a representation, as the advent of digital art has brought more talent to the genre. The problem as I see it, is there has been a major loss of interest in Astronomical and Space science related art. I see most of the interest in “science”, in Comic Book heroes, today. I think interest in real space science peaked between the Moon landings (70’s) and Star Wars (late 70’s early 80’s), and has been in decline since then. 

Do you have an opinion on why these artistic changes are occurring?  Do they represent a different approach to science and science fiction entertainment or understanding of the subjects or is it based on a change in art technology?

To put it bluntly, having seen the popularity of Science Fiction from the “Golden Age” in literature, (1940-50), the films of the 1950’s and 60’s, and the aforementioned interest in Space science in the Moon landing period, to today’s comic book inspired popular interests, it seems the mainstream is “dumbed down” today, by comparison.

Art technology is, on the other hand, far superior to what is was 30 years ago. I like art that makes you think as well as look good, but that’s just my take. Much of the popular art I see (mostly on Deviant Art) is based on popular characters, and little devotion to ideas, concepts and stories (literature).

Do these changes harken back to or mimic past images of science fiction?

I’m addressing the Comic Book genre here as Sci-Fi images have not changed much (my opinion).

Comic book ideas do have their roots in the 30’s and 40’s. But they were aimed at a more “general public” and not people interested in the “sense of wonder” of Sci-Fi and Astronomical ideas.

As an aside, I became interested in Japanese Anime in the early 2000’s and I found it more interesting than the western comic genre. Also, Anime conventions were far more popular than Sci-fi cons at that time (2000).  I was interested in the Japanese approach to Sci-Fi subjects, like in “Bubblegum Crisis” and “Gundam Wing”, the latter involved with “Mecha” or “Battledroid” technology. That’s a major interest of mine, having done the first western “Battletech” game cover art in the 1980’s. To me, most Sci-Fi has been mostly associated with western culture, and I’ve broken out of that mind-set…

What are some of the inspirations for your work?  How do you work with publishers to determine what look, images, event, colors, etc that a book cover should have?

I usually get “a vision” of what a cover should look like. The publisher may have an idea, and, after some verbal direction, I come up with the visual idea. Action art requires warm or hot colors (red or yellow tinted), and idea art requires some of the concepts I learned in Advertising, while studying at Art Center College of Design, back in the 80’s. Much of what I learned in Art School regarding cover design, is too lengthy to put down here…

I see on Deviant Art that much of your work is inspired by the books for whom you’re doing the work.  I’d like to know a little more about the work you do for non-writing related projects such as “Into the Ultraviolence”.

That work was based on the Sci-Fi concept thinking I used for scores of book covers before and after, which I’ve touched on in the last question. I just “summed up” Anthony Burgess’ idea in one image, but that is my own interpretation. So the approach is what I would have done if I’d been commissioned to do the book…

What are some of your future projects?

Right now, I’m doing 3 illustrations for Critical Snail’s “Aggressor Recon” which will come out Aug. 15. After that, I’ll be working with my long-time client John F. Carr, on more H. Beam Piper inspired books.

Do you have any additional comments related to science fiction art and design?

Only that, based on the trends I’ve seen in my commissions, the Anime fan art works of the 2000-2010 period are fading. I’m returning to Sci-Fi “hardware” art which has been my main source of income, and popularity, since 1983, when I did my first cover from Tor Books “Lagrange Point” by Mack Reynolds.

Thanks to Alan Gutierrez for being gracious enough to answer these questions. You can find his artwork on Deviant Art here: http://alangutierrezart.deviantart.com/ All social media shares and comments are appreciated. Thanks for stopping by.