Illustrator extraordinaire Greg Horn talks about his art and working in videogames
By Michael Lafferty

"There is the inspiration of the art itself, and the process of creativity, and there is the deadline - I pride myself on getting stuff done on time"

The images captivate and hold the attention; the eyes pulling in, revealing a wealth of emotion and telling tales beyond the stillness of the artwork. There is a sensual nature to the images of women, fantasy blended into reality, while the fury and raw power of their male counterparts fairly leaps off the prints, screens and posters.

Greg Horn is an amazingly talented individual whose illustrations and artwork have been inspiring dreams and visions for several years. From the coyness and innocence (and provocative beauty) of Emma Frost to a poster for the 2004 U.S. Olympic basketball team to the nightmares of undead come to life, his artwork has been appreciated in more venues than most casual observers probably know.

He has done superhero art, commercial art and is now working on the conceptual artwork for videogames. The volume of work - a lot of which can be found in his published art book, aptly named "The Art of Greg Horn" - is astounding. He has supplied Lord of the Rings cover art for PC Gamer magazine and was the regular cover artist for the Official XBOX magazine nearly two years running. His images of Elektra form the standard vision for that character, and inspired the costume design in the subsequent movie. He has done poster work for the Ringling Bros. Circus as well.

If you were looking for one word to describe the impact of his art, it would have to be 'unforgettable.'

So imagine the delight of sitting down and chatting with him at E3. He was found at the Hip Games booth, tucked away in a corner, game controller in hand, playing and looking more like a developer than a renowned artist (ok, what does a renowned artist look like? Certainly not like that image standing behind Lara Croft for the PlayStation Magazine cover - Yah, he embellished his physique a little, give the guy a break, it works in fantasy on occasion!).

Greg was gracious enough to spend some time chatting about his art, his career, and the segue into the gaming world for his illustrations.

The first thing that had to be asked was when did he know that his artwork would become his life's work?

Greg: "I don't know, it's always been something I just enjoyed doing - ever since the third grade I've been doing my own comic books. (I actually have examples of these in my art book). If I had known back then how hard it is to make a living doing art, I might have shied away from it. But these days things are going very well."

What kept fueling the drive to improve and achieve new things, and to push forward with this as a career?

Greg: "Reflecting on the past gives me a lot of drive. I look back on the early days of my career and I see points where I didn't get hired for certain jobs - like my dreams to become a penciler at Marvel comics. But because I could never break in as a penciler, I started trying my hand at painting, and now my career is miles better than if I was a penciler. I think I prefer being a  full-color illustrator now!  That's why I tell aspiring artists to never quit ... sometimes bad things turn out to be good things!"

The videogame media has blossomed graphically from where it was five years ago. As an illustrator and an artist, seeing his artwork and concepts come to life can be satisfying or chilling (in that he can see his own flaws) ...

Greg: "It is always fun to see my art published in game magazines like OXM and PSM. The City of the Dead piece in Game Informer was a total blast because all my neighbors posed as the zombies and I was able to give them all a copy of the mag. I think my magazine illustrations stand out most of the time, and of course that is the goal - to make people take notice of the game ad in a sea of distractions! It will be even better to finally see my art printed on some game boxes later this year. 

City of the Dead

"It's really great to see my art in the videogame realm - it's totally different from comics - and it brings back all those memories of playing games and being inspired by game makers. Now you are doing some inspiring too! ."

When you see your art in a game, do you ever begin to second-guess decisions you made in the design and look?

Greg: "When you are doing the actual art, you are looking at it for so long you start to lose perspective on it. That's why I have my wife edit just about everything I do - man, she is unmerciful, but hey, we all get better art thanks to her!  Even so,  when you do see the final art in a videogame or printed on a magazine cover, you start looking at it and say  'oh, I wish I had done this,' or 'I wish I had done that.' You always have that. And that's what my art book is for. In my art book, I am able to go back into the pieces of art and add details that I had been looking at for the past year and wishing I had done in the first place."

What is your favorite medium to work in?

Greg: "Right now I'm doing all of my artwork digitally, but I have a lot of background as a traditional airbrush artist. My goal with digital art is always trying to keep that organic, traditional look because I have found that with most digital art, art directors (and art lovers in general) tend to reject it. They look at the paintings and go 'oh, this looks digitized, like it was done on a computer.'  I'm very lucky to have a background of painting on paper - I think it helps my art stand out among a ton of digital artists out there.

What is your favorite media to work in - as in comics or what?

Greg: "That's a really tough question. I'm a big comic-book guy, so I love doing comic books, but I'm also a big videogame guy, so ... "

Ok, let's come back to that. There has been some transition between those working in the graphical novel area moving into other media. So transitioning from an illustrative background to other areas seems like a door that is swinging wide open. What are your career goals, both short-term and long-term?

Greg: "That's an interesting question because a lot of the guys that are crossing over from comics to other things, have been prominent in the industry a lot longer than I have. A lot of these guys lived through the speculator market, which was in the early 90s and I wasn't able to benefit from that at all. Pretty much all my painted work has only been known for the last four years or so. So it's a little tougher for me to get the same notoriety as the legends. But at the same time I have noticed that my artwork must appeal to somebody, because the stuff I have been commissioned for lately has been mind-blowing. I was hired to paint the 2004 Olympic basketball poster, which is a huge job. That gig usually goes to a  photographer, and somehow they called me up and said 'hey, you wanna do the Olympic poster?'

"As far as a career goal goes ... honestly I just enjoy making art that people enjoy, putting it all into one place." He holds up a copy of his art book and says "this is my proudest moment right here. I would really love to do a major movie poster, but I won't feel like a failure if it never happens!"

What inspires you as an artist? 

Greg: "I'm inspired by many things like music, movies, etc. But one of the most inspiring things to me as an artist is the mystery of the art itself - I mean, not knowing what the final painting is going to look like, and building the thing up until you finally get to the place where you say "all right!  This is looking good!"  It's the old adage of the artist looking at a blank piece of paper and thinking "What am I going to create today?" Some people are inspired by this thought, and others are totally intimidated! The only thing I'm sure of when I start a painting is the pose. ...  I have a preconceived idea in my head what I want the figure to look like but the background is usually an afterthought. There is a whole different mental process that goes on in here when I'm doing the background, or the lighting or the ambience of the scene. I don't 100% know what the art is going to look like until I finish it. Other artists I talk to know immediately what their final will look like. They've got this idea, they know the colors, they see the lighting, they know everything. Personally, I think that's weird."

The subject was brought up about the length of time it takes to create an image. The cover of his art book features a blond female angelic character, which took several weeks, because he tried several different things, including detailed work on the hair.

Greg: "Most stuff I try to get done between 4-5 days, but one of my claims to fame right now is if you need the job done tomorrow, I can do it. ... I'm serious! The latest PSM cover has Darth Vader on it, I completed it in eight hours. They called me in the afternoon and said 'hey, we need this picture of Darth Vader tomorrow!  ' "

Another example of his fast turnaround came with a series of three covers for the Lord of the Rings ROTK  games. Greg painted the covers of Gandalf, Aragorn and Legolas in six days. He does work about 16 hours a day.

Greg: "There is the inspiration of the art itself, and the process of creativity, and there is the deadline - I pride myself on getting stuff done on time. And there is a little bit of the fear factor involved. Technically that is not inspiration, I just have an abject fear of being late!" 

What have you got coming up?

Greg: "Right now I'm working with Hip Games on City of the Dead, which is filmmaker George Romero's FPS videogame set in a zombie world. I'm also working on Ghost Wars, which is a cool military RTS  game, with covert themes blended in. That one is a lot of fun because in the past I've done military themes with OXM, and back then my military knowledge was total crap!  When you don't give the soldiers the proper guns or gear, people will be more than happy to write into the magazine and say what a horrible job you did. So now I know all the guns backwards and forwards and all the guns are extremely accurate. When you blow up the image, you can actually read the text on the gun - I'm not playing around anymore, man.

Ghost Wars

"Another big thing I'll be working on is the Superman Returns project, but for now it is only the style guide art. Pretty much spot illustrations of Brandon Routh as Superman flying in different ways and angles. I was offered to fly out to Australia (to edit previous style guide artwork I believe) by WB's marketing crew, but I couldn't go because I had already committed to attend E3. Hip Games had arranged for me to come out to the convention and there was no way I was going to miss my GameZone interview, damnit!  Anyway, I wanted to go badly to the set, but it was just bad timing."

And there was a game that he is working on that he can't mention yet, working from the ground up working on the logo, box art, all the ads, the character spots. There is a real sense of excitement when Greg talks about this. 

Greg: "Actually, after E3, I got word that I CAN mention it.  The game in question is called PREY from 3D Realms (makers of Duke Nukem & Max Payne). This project is something I'm extremely excited about - a chance to be involved in all the facets of marketing. The fact that I'm moving from something I know very well - comic books - to this new industry ... is a great experience that any artist would kill for . People are giving you a chance, and all you have to do is come through on it."

Ok, back to the question, what media do you like to work?

Greg: "I have a lot more history in comic books, but  I guess the best way to answer is what am I enjoying the most right now. At the moment, I would definitely say videogames ....  Of course, most of my art IS videogames right now (about 90%) so maybe that's not fair . I just enjoy the variety of subjects. Like one day I'm working on the hideous zombies, the next day I'm working on a military strategy game, and the next I'm working on a lead character and his trusty killer hawk!  It's just a total difference, more challenging, pushing you to be better and better  - and try harder and harder!"

For all of Greg's artwork check out his website -  at www.greghornjudge.com

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