Eric Petersen

  1. conceptual
  2. bio
  3. work process

Eric Petersen was born in Santa Monica, California in 1973 and currently based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.  He received a BA in Art from California State University, Northridge and has taken continuing education courses at Art Center College of Design, The Cooper Union, and School of Visual Arts. Eric’s work is inspired by instructional graphics, video games and the look of vintage comics of the 1940s. His technical use of uniform lines , perspective and unnatural colors set up a voyeuristic atmosphere and an ambiguous narrative in his illustrations.

Client List

Apple
Baffler
Barnard
Boston Globe
BuzzFeed
Chronicle of Higher Education
Contagious
DB Mobil
Fortune
GQ France
Guardian
Hohe Luft magazine

John Hopkins University
L’actualite
Les Echos
Longreads
M Le magazine du Monde
MIT Technology Review
Medium
NEO.LIFE
Neon
New Republic
New York Times
Politico
Quanta

Quebéc Science
Scientific American

Télérama
Texas Monthly
Verge
Victory Journal
Washington Post
Wired

I begin a project with the idea. Once I have something visualized in a general way, I build it in 3D software and explore camera angles and perspectives. This is an important part of my process as it allows me to explore options I would not have necessarily come up with at first thought. I use this as drawing reference. It is not shown to the client as it is often missing clothing items and other elements and is not representative of what the client will receive. I draw over the 3D render in Photoshop to create the sketches. These sketches are tight and come very close to the final line art. When the sketch is approved, I draw over the line work from the sketch in Adobe Illustrator using BÈzier curves with a single line weight. I set up vanishing points here for perspective to make sure all lines are on point. I add simple color blocks in Illustrator and then move to Photoshop to finalize the color and add texture.

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