Oh joy, another Art Attack Friday is here ready to attack your eyes. This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Weekly Geek, Chris Furniss. Hit the jump to find out all about Mr. Furnis, his works and be sure to check out the gallery of all of his stuff.
DESTRUCTOID
: It’s a pleasure to have you here Chris. Before we dive into the questions, please introduce yourself to the Destructoid community.
Chris Furniss: Hi! My name is Chris Furniss and I run a little podcast and blog called The Weekly Geek. I also do a Destructoid feature called Ask The Weekly Geek which is exactly how it sounds. I’ve been making art all my life, and since college I’ve been focusing on video game art.
Awesome. So what made you want to focus on videogaming for your art?
I’ve always been a gamer, and it’s something that I felt set me apart from my college classmates when we were making projects. After I got my art degree I just sort of kept creating video game related art, as I played a ton of games for The Weekly Geek and everything. At the time there was no i am 8 bit art show or Lifemeter comics or Art Attack Fridays. Old school Represent, etc.
I see you dabble in various forms of art from paintings to sculptures. Which ones do you enjoy working with more?
Well, my degree is in computer art, but I have really enjoyed my work with linoleum printmaking. It’s cathartic, carving a linoleum block. It also allows you to do this thing called multiple originals, where basically every piece in an edition counts as an original. I like to give away my art (and sell it of course!) and this is the best way I have found to share it with my friends and fans.
What’s your favorite piece you’ve done?
Right now I am working on a (non-video game related) show called A Variety of Robots, and I have really enjoyed the pieces I’ve done with that. But for the video game pieces, I really like my Moogle print. It was featured on Lifemeter comics and was actually printed (albeit teensy) in Nintendo Power once. I can die happy now.
Which one of your pieces took the longest to make? Of all your stuff, I keep staring at the Pikmin light.
Haha, the Pikmin light was an intense project, that took a lot of carving. I’d say the wood projects definitely took the longest, especially the Makar sculpture. That was hand carved out of African Padouk, which is an incredibly hard wood. Took me freaking forever. The oil paintings (like Death of Peach) take a while just by virtue of the fact that oils take so damned long to dry. But some stuff can take not very long at all, and they end up being my favorites, like most of the prints.
You’ve also dabbled in the comic scene before. How long did that last and was there a basic story or just random stuff every week?
Man. I was a webcomic artist doing an almost daily strip off and on for about 3 or 4 years. I have over 300 comics on my website onlinecomic.net which… is apparently down. But I am planning on republishing some of the better ones on The Weekly Geek here soon. There’s just so many, and a lot of the older ones are quite embarrassing. I was big into the webcomic scene back in the day, which is actually how I got hooked up with the Penny Arcade guys, and Scott from VGCats. I also did my college newspaper’s comic for a while, and a weekly comic in the local town paper.
Is there anyone that has really helped inspire you in your works?
Any one person specifically? Not really. I guess I could say my parents, since they were both artists and encouraged me as a kid and all. I bounce ideas off my friends sometimes, but I mainly get inspired by music and photography.
Can you elaborate more on the A Variety of Robots you’re working on? We love robots here on Dtoid as well.
So I hear! There are actually going to be a couple Mr. Destructoid pieces in the show. Basically I am just making as many paintings, prints, sculptures, etc I can until I feel satisfied I have drawn every robot I can muster. I haven’t planned a date or a venue yet, but I will let you guys know so that people can show up and check out some neat robots. A bunch of the Destructoid editors and community members who showed up at my house during PAX got a teensy sneak preview.
Do you do commission work at all?
Oh yeah. I’ve had some people commission some paintings, prints, drawings and websites. Any chance I get to create art for people, or branch out in my artistic abilities I take it. I haven’t been able to take any on recently, though, as I have about another billion projects to finish. Actually as we speak I am working on a costume piece resembling Retto’s shoulder pad feather thing from Eternal Sonata. It’s turning out really freaking cool.
If anyone was interested in contacting you to do a piece, what would be the best method?
Well, if anyone is interested in any of my stuff it’s pretty much all for sale. I have a bunch of really inexpensive prints on The Weekly Geek store page, but if someone wanted something specifically they can always email me (chrisfurniss@gmail.com). Like I said I am busy and can’t do any pro-bono stuff, but I enjoy this thing called American Currency, and one day I hope to make a hat made of money.
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Any parting words for the dear readers?
I’ve created a special print for readers of Art Attack Friday! It’s a brand new edition of 18 of my Metroid prints for $15 shipped. There are only 18! On the entire planet! Amazing! Also, cocks.
Sweet! Thanks for your time Chris!
