LikeYTMND Thursdaylast week, I had to sacrifice Art Attack Friday because of the insanity that was E3. AAF is back this week, and I have to say this is my favorite edition yet. This week, I have the pleasure of presenting to you Marques Cannon, otherwise known as Guitar Atomik. You’ve probably seen him buzzing around theCommunity Blogsas well as seeing hisSTFUAJPG shirtgo on sale this past week.
Hit the jump to check out Guitar Atomik’s amazing art pieces as well as the interview I conducted with him where he talks about his art style, how he started, what to expect from him in the future and tons more information.
DESTRUCTOID:It’s a great pleasure to talk to you Marques. Before we dive into the questions, please introduce yourself to the Destructoid community.
GuitarAtomik: I amMarques Cannonotherwise known asGuitarAtomik. I draw stuff for a living. I am 24-years-old living in Sarasota, FL (Home of theGreybush) and I am a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design. I majored in Illustration (after quitting out of Computer Animation) and I now do freelance artwork for whoever will pay me. Whoever at all … exceptfurries.Awww,Nexwas going to hire you to draw a orgy furry painting. He’s going to be so disappointed now. So what made you want to become an artist?
Too badNex! I pretty much always wanted to be an artist since preschool. I was the only one in my class who would draw the 4 legged dinosaurs with foreshortening and that’s when my parents knew I was special. I flirted with the idea of becoming a paleontologist in 2ndgrade (see a trend here) but I always knew I’d end up drawing for a living
How did you come up with your unique art style?
I’m really into cartoons and comics so I’m all about capturing images in motion. A lot of the stylization I do is me trying to make something look like it could be in motion. Like right before or after someone gets punched or something. Dynamic pictures are just cooler to look at and they’re a hell of a lot more fun to draw.With your art style, I see that you love to take very well known malevideogameicons and turn them into females. Why is that?
It all started as my senior thesis at Ringling School of Art and Design. I couldn’t think of what to do and I had to get it approved before I could start. So I sat down and thought about what I love to do (videogames), and then an interesting twist to make it a cohesive set of pictures. I decided on turning popular male characters into females since I had just started getting into drawing pin up girls. It gave me a chance to redesign the costumes which I love doing for some reason, and I knew I could change up my art style for each one so I wouldn’t get bored of the idea.
What are you currently working on?Right now art wise, I’ve been working on aGitarooManpiece and I may or may not give him the Video Girl treatment too. I’ve also been working on some new Cyborg Dinosaur t-shirts, which I will get printed one way or another. I’ve been focusing a lot on t-shirt design lately since I would really like to start a line of my own someday. Also,PwnyBownz(ofDtoid) and I have been collaborating on a possible animated short about a half space dinosaur/half Henry Rollins character who comes to Earth to play a show and subsequently decimates the Earth in the process.
The Internets is patiently waiting forThreadlessto approve of theTriceratronshirt. What other types of dinosaurs do you want to use?
All of them! Well most. I did a sketch of a T-Rex the other day with a giant revolver strapped to his head which looks hilarious, and another one with a Stegosaurus that had these giant ridiculous Klingon style blades attached to each of it’s spikes. I really want to do a spacePlesiosaurtoo just so I can put the astronaut bubble on it’s head. Eventually I want to make just one shirt with like 10 dinosaurs battling their asses off for supremacy. There can be only one! It will be epic
Epic. I cannot wait. Sadly, I have to wait. Luckily, you do have other shirts on sale.The Destructoid store was just launchedand we have yourSTFUAJPGshirt. You also have a couple of other shirts onGlarkWare. Can you explain how you came up with the ideas behind these shirts?
Well the actual ideas were given to me so I can’t claim total credit for theawesomnessthat isNun-Chucks. BasicallyGlarkwaretold me the concept and then let me run wild with it. I based the Nun-Chucks a lot on Bruce Lee and then tried to make her in motion as much as possible because that’s how I roll. There’s a little bit of Frank Miller in there too. Also, all nuns should learn to battle. For discipline.
Indeed. What about the other two shirts?
TheDouble F Ranchis actually a remake of anotherGlarkwareshirt that they wanted me to make cooler.TheSTFUAJPGshirtis based on Phoenix Wright and his famous “OBJECTION!” pose. I thought if theDtoidrobot ever yelled that to someone, that’s how he’d do it. And then he’d find a way to Rick Roll them somehow.
Yeah, we’rereally goodatRick Rollingpeople.Do you have any othermerchyou’d like to force down our wallets?
Well, I have prints for sale on myDeviantArtof the entire Video Girls series. You know you want 5! Other than that, I’m working on aCDbased on video games but that probably won’t be out for a while. I’m doing all the art for that too of course cause it’s free to hire myself.
That’s right, you’realso a musician. What made you get into the music scene?
I’m about as obsessed with music as I am art so I’ve always kind of wanted to get into making it. WhenMTV Music Generatorcame out for PS1, I really got into it and made an album worth of stuff. Ever since then I’ve been working on music about as much as my art and I’ve been trying to converge the two.
How many songs have you released? Are all your songs mostly related tovideogames?
UnderI KILLPXLS, I’ve only released about 6 songs to listen to on MySpace, but I have at least 10 pretty much done for the album I’m working on. It’s all based on videogames though, sometimes more loosely than others. I should have aDestructoid theme song up soonfor the contest. JessicaChobothad one of them up on her MySpace for a while.
So this is a one man band right? What do you use to make the songs? (If you say avideogamelikeMTV Music Generator, then I’m going to have to jump off a bridge because I wouldn’t be able to handle your awesomeness levels).
It’s a one-man band thing. I’ve moved up fromMTV Music Generatorand graduated into this program calledReason. You can make some awesomevocodedrobot voices in that program. There used to be this brother sister band that exclusively usedMTV Music Generatorfor their beats but I don’t remember them being very good actually.
What are some of your favorite pieces you’ve done, both in music anddrawings.
My favorite drawings are probably theDevil May Cryone since the jacket and pose turned out cooler than planned, and theOkamione since I feel like it’s an awesome visual image. Music wise, I’d have to say the song “What Would Jack Thompson Do?” abouteveryone’sfavorite lawyer, and “These Streets of Rage” sinceYuzoKoshiro(composer forStreets of Rage) is my hero and I think that song was a fitting tribute.
Awesome. Is there anyone that really helped inspire you with your art and music?
Yeah! Just about every comic book artist I’ve ever liked growing up were tremendous influences on me. I use to steal parts of styles from different artists like MikeMignola, Jim Lee and Jack Kirby and twist them and adapt them into my own. There’s a lot ofmanga/animeinfluence too fromMasamuneShirow,AkiraToriyama, and then more indie artists likeIppeiGyoubu. I think that’s why I can do so many different styles now since I never stuck to any one for too long. Musically, it comes from everywhere since I’m pretty much into anything as long as it sounds good. I’ve been influenced a lot lately from dance/electroacts likeMSTRKRFTand Goose. Of coursevideogamemusic plays a lot into that as well.
Alright, to wrap things up what, does GuitarAtomikmean?
GuitarAtomikcame from this comic I was creating a long time ago that I never finished. It was going to be about these guys who had powers and fought with weapons based on musical instruments like an Ax Bass, or Sword Guitar, or some other ridiculous shit like that. I was very intoFoolyCoolyat the time so it was going to be in that vein, and part of my plan was to release a soundtrack alongside it. So thinking along the lines of ridiculousmanganames, I came up with GuitarAtomikbased on that.
Wow, it’s a shame you stopped working on it.
Yeah, I still might finish it up some day. I really want to make it into an animation whenever I learn how too.
I’ll be looking forward to it then. You said you’d like to do work from anyone who can pay. How would the readers go about contacting you?
You can just e-mail me at[email protected]. That’s my strictlyBiznassmail. Daddy needs a new HDTV.
Any advice you’d like to give to the readers who want to do something with art, music and life in general?
Yeah, just do what you like and have fun with it. If you want to turn it into a career, learn the business side of it all since that will be invaluable to you. Also, put yourself out there as much as possible and be relentless about it. Someone will take notice. Also, cocks.
