Interview with Green 7 / UniVerse

Nevidimka

OK. Let's start traditionally. Tell us about yourself briefly. What is your name, how old are you, etc.

My real name is Pavel, I have been living for 22 years. In case you wanna greet me or make a present then it would better to do that on February 22 (birthday). Have been working as an sf&f illustrator till now but I'll give up this affair due to the publisher's stinginess although this job is quite perfect for me.

Taken into account. :) Maybe we'll talk about your job a little later. At first let's go deep into the past. Tell how you met demoscene and became a scener.

I got a Spectrum in 1993. In the beginning it was for gaming and programming purposes, I started to draw later using an editor I had coded myself. I made an 'upgrade' :) after one year: from 48 up to 128. It was an event: AY and FDD, so I began to buy disks. Of course, they had a lot of cracktros, lame stuff like scrollers and tiny effects. The people who made them often left their phone numbers, so one day I called and said I wanna make something in cooperation.

That is you started from ZX? Being a member of any group? By the way, were you drawing before you started to play with computers, I mean usual paper drawings?

Yeah, of course. I was solely drawing cartoons at school, therefore each exercise-book was like a sketch-book. Sometimes I was drawing what the teacher was talking about, e.g. the phrase "the sun is shining" was drawn like a shining sun with the rest syntax. The whole sentence was drawn in the same manner, I was having fun as well as bad marks. :))

I've remembered funtros by Universe and understood what suns you are talking about. Cool! Tell us about Universe and your progress for that time.

Universe was blown in the last years, there stayed only me and Programmer (lazy-bones, heh). But I improved my art skills at the same time and stopped making music and code now. Currently I've been in Sands ensemble for one year approximately.

I didn't know you were coding or composing something! Surprise. You have great results for that year. You seem to be almost the only Russian graphician recognized by the world scene. Could you rate the Russian scene, its art-division particulary?

I don't watch it specially. I think there should be good artists. 1000Faces gladed me at CC'00.

Mmm... Haven't seen unfortunately. I saw releases from CC'01. My opinion is that over the half of artworks are non-art-valuable. Pretty nice shit. Have you seen the results? How do you like them?

I haven't.

If we are talking about parties... What was the story with your artwork at Asm'98 that was disqualified there and got four Hornet's stars later?

It is simple, I brought the artwork without any sketch. That was a break of the rule.

And missed the first place. :) OK, proceed with one very interesting thing: your cooperative work with Visualice at Coop Compo 1. How that was done, I mean the process? In details...

Easy again. I gave a b/w sketch, there was painting/shading later. All was very smooth, we made it without any conflicts. I've heard other teams were ready to beat each other's faces to prove one's case.

I see, your part there was the sketch. And Visu painted the rest just like those children in their painting albums, right? Although it certainly has Visu-style color gamma, pretty cold, Finnish. :)

We both were painting it, the most done by Visu, of course. And something arrived right at the process of creation. E.g. an imp sticked out from the house. Visu made a couple of spots over there, he wanted some abstraction probably, but I confused his plans putting that character.

I'm looking at this artwork now. And each time I watch it I think of the "Scarlet flower" fairy-tail (a Russian tail, somewhat like "Beauty and the Beast"). What idea did you want to express with this artwork? I guess there was kinda "topic", autumn if I remember it right.

Ideas grow spontaneously. What matters most is to be interested either in the creative process and the result.

Well, do you remember some other artworks from Coop Compo?

Don't. :)

Pretty good. :) I don't remember any other artworks from this compo either, actually. I remember only one with a plush Teddy bear totally covered with TNT. There was a girl like a spitting image of that from Pulp Fiction. Well, you know...

Aaah, we call it "I want Barby" :)

:)) Superb! Who do you mean "we"?

At my job.

I see. By the way, Barby. Why do your artworks contain so many nude bodies? Do you want Cindy? :)

Not so much. Kinda attempt to interest and nothing more.

To interest? Interesting, I remember one interview with Lazur where he was talking about "special" gfx for compo. By his opinion, you don't have to concentrate on details but draw a monster or nude woman if you wanna get some points. Do you have any related ideas? Is it worth to make such pop-graphics?

We're all tired of portraits and abstract backgrounds. Scene art has stayed the same ground for many years. Really interesting artworks are very, very rare.

OK, point some, those that staggered you.

I could collapse my mouth wondering on just five years ago. And now watch them with smile.

So, won't you point one? I can't believe there is nothing. What about favourite graphicians, if there are some who influenced the style and technique of your art?

There is nobody in the scene. Fadeone and Louie affected my technique though, I was learning pixel-art from these guys.

Can you teach a beginner with something? Maybe me. What should I take at first?

I'm not going to teach somebody. There is a lot of literature sold everywhere.

Photoshop 6.0 within 5 minutes? Good. I'm serious, where do you get inspiration for your artworks?

I mean specific knowledge an artist "must have" which are ignored by many sceners (composition, perspective, anatomy, coloristic, etc.). Inspiration is a rare thing, moreover it is not much needed. :) The idea and its realization are the main goals.

Ideas ultimately expressed in design-works. Do you have such pieces? Were you ill with the web-plague?

I hate web and polygraphy. Maybe it's good but I absolutely don't want to deal with it.

What about 3D? Have you tried to play with it? Were you concerned with the game industry?

I have been working as modeler for sometime.

At Snowball? What were you modeling?

Nope Snowball. I was modeling billiard tables and other misc shit.

So you stopped that?

Yes.

Close to the final. Tell us about current affairs, projects and plans. Things you want to say something about.

The current deals are average, I was working as an illustrator - gave up (misers), I'm gonna find a new job now. I made a small portfolio, it's at http://green7.pisem.net.

I should recall the next couple of stupid questions. Do you have some more interests out of art and computers?

Of course. I like beautiful girls and a good company. :)

Who could think! :) What music do you listen to, what are your favourite books/movies?

Movies: "Caucasian captive", "Brilliant hand", "Operation U" (non-Russians, don't try to understand it, these are original classic Russian comedies), Leon. Music: very different which hasn't wind-instruments. Different books from classics to fantastic.

Do you respect sport?

Yeah, runs to the subway when I'm late.

Favourite color? (Good question for artist. :) )

I don't have that. There are some favourite combinations.

:) When will we see your next art-release?

Visit my page, it'll be updated quite often.

I'll do certainly. That's it, say what you want, give a credits to beautiful girls, favourite canary, etc. It is desirable not to forget Hugi readers... :)

Well, greets go to all people I know and those who know me personally and in the net. :)

So what, the only thing left is to wish you success and good job. Wish you luck!

Thanks, bye. I'm going to get warm now.

Move on! Hope I wasn't a "big pain in your ass". Bye! :)

Note: Cindy is the registered trademark of Cynthia Ann Crawford (TM-TopModel). All possible naming coincidences in the above text are random thus cannot be assumed as sexual exaction of any kind.

Nevidimka