Stephen Bliss was born in Trowbridge Wiltshire England in and is now New York based. He wanted to escape that area and he saw art as his way to make a living after his art teacher told his parents he was good enough. He was into punk rock and realised he could do something with his art within that genre. In 2001 he went to NY to work for Rockstar games. He is now associated with Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar games. He is known massively worldwide doing cover art for them.
He started off by ripping down posters from NY walls and making artworks pasted together from this. He now sometimes uses a grid system where he can have a contrast of line and circular movement. He says there isn’t any conscious story that he set out to create when he began his art. The work makes him feel alive and passionate. He doesn’t know what else he could do so he keeps doing art. Some themes he explores are sex, love, misery and humour, according to a May 2016 article in “Don’t say it. Spray it. “ which is on www.stephenbliss.com in the press section.
I couldn’t find many articles about his background but this short you tube video was really helpful to learn about him. https://youtu.be/9HzwOYsWWRI
I would describe Stephens work as good skilful drawings with clean lines and nice to look at. It has great shading and dynamic colours with simple yet effective shading which gives it a shiny polished look. He explores themes of Grand Theft auto game characters and lots of portraits of other people. He does cover art. The inspiration seems to be that he felt he could make a living out of doing art, something he is good at.
As above, the colour scheme and shading is very dynamic with very high contrasting colours. Stephen likely draws and uses a digital platform as well. Cover art is the creative activity included in his work. Skills he needs is ability to draw and use digital art software, which is just his method and not his inspiration.
His work communicates a mood or feeling of being a tough guy, darkness, power, boldness, etc. the work is loud, invigorating, ordered images but a chaotic feel.
Most of his work is made for GTA and other cover art and for the people who use the game. Lots of his images include cars, so that gives clues to the time period of his art being in the 1900s and onward when cars are invented. I don’t think he has a political message.
I like the style of artwork but not so much the content of the art itself. The characters don’t look very cool and I don’t like the way he portrays women. But it is very skilled artwork. It doesn’t inspire me much and it doesn’t seem to affect my mood other than it doesn’t cheer me up in any way.
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