(The full-length chat can be heard on episode 70 of 'The Creative Condition'.)
Illustrator and artist Stephen Bliss moved to America to take on a job with Rockstar Games. Nobody could have envisioned the explosion of controversy that was the Grand Theft Auto video game series.
I met Stephen in Brooklyn to talk about his journey pre-Rockstar, how it felt to be the man behind the cult video game artwork, and his fascinating new direction since leaving the company.
New York City and its wealth of ripped subway posters have provided the basis for his stunning new large-scale originals and we talk about what it means to feed off the environment around you and why New York is so unique. Creating large-scale street art is something new to Stephen and we talk about breaking away from screens and how he's successfully transitioned to work on buildings. These are fascinating insights from a man who continues to set trends and move forward fast.
'Thumper' is out now on Scout Comics:
https://www.scoutcomics.com/collections/fear-city-thumper
https://www.stephenbliss.com/
Sponsored as ever by https://illustrationx.com who have a superb new quarterly illustration trends report here: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/news/5992/trendx_-_april_2024
and the Ukrainian Institute https://ui.org.ua
Hosted by Ben Tallon https://bentallon.com
https://bentallonwriter.com/shop for The Creative Condition book
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-tallon-a822a725/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28rwnz18j4