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Christian “Tigaer” Hecker Interview

Christian “Tigaer” Hecker is a digital artist, brilliant matte painter and awesome concept artist from Germany with a true love for what he does. His passion and dedication for his art shines through in all of his work and adds a depth beyond that which can be visually seen. I feel honored to be able to kick off my “Interviews” section of this site with an interview from such a great artist. Hope you all enjoy and be sure to check out Christians site to view more of his great work or even purchase a piece for yourself.

WWW.TIGAER-DESIGN.COM

KDS::

The first 19 years of your life was spent in Bitterfeld, Germany, which was most important industrial city in the former “East Germany”. Germany has been the home of many great painters, sculptors, architects and designers. Who or what would you say has been the greatest influence that really inspired your painting while in living in Bitterfeld?

TIGAER::

Nice question but the answer is that seriously nothing inspired me in that small city. Right now it’s a small town fighting for its existence. After the fall of the wall everything pretty much fell apart and fixing all these things took forever. Just now the city is slowly recovering but still makes some crazy political decisions. But to stay on topic… no Bitterfeld or the places I lived in did not influence me at all. It was more the movies I watched and the games I played. Most importantly Star Wars and the old Wing Commander games. I always was a big SciFi fan and that’s basically where I draw my inspiration from.

Gates To Elysium

KDS::

Who would be an artist that you currently still admire to this day and why?

TIGAER::

There never really was an artist I looked up to. First when I started to seriously play around with Photoshop, Digital Painting and dug myself deeper into the matter of that field I discovered quite a few artists that were just amazing. Gary Tonge, Dylan Cole, Ryan Church to name a few. Last but not least Syd Mead for his contributions to movies like TRON and Blade Runner.

Citizen Erazed

KDS::

Did you ever have any formal schooling or is your work the result of good old fashion grit and determination?

TIGAER::

I never attended any art school. I tried to apply for one in my very early Photoshop days but they actually weren’t teaching what I was looking for. And that was to work digital. That must have been 2002 or so. Later on I made an internship in a Webdesign company and figured that it’s not so much fun too. The time there felt too much like plain ‘work’. So I kept doing my own thing and started to seriously invest my time into Digital Painting in 2005. I had success with some of my early work which kept me going and got me my first chance to write a Workshop for a magazine. Motivation is everything.

WOLF

KDS::

Matte painting has been around for a long time, since about the time motion pictures began. Are you aware of any techniques used today as back then and if so which of those do you find yourself drawn to using the most in your work?

TIGAER::

Matte Painting drastically changed in the early 90s when computers became more handy, flexible and of course faster. With Photoshop and the first graphic tablets and compositing programs it took only a few years before the whole industry migrated to digital. Today you pretty much have to work digital because all the HD literally makes it impossible to work with pure paintings. So it’s best to use photo references as often as possible to give it all a realistic look.

City View

KDS::

Have you yourself had the honor of working on any motion pictures or do you aspire to in the future. And if so what would be your ideal dream film to work on?

TIGAER::

I would love to work on a bigger movie project. I would love to see how they bring together all the different elements. Mixing 2d with 3d. Animating paintings and scenes. All that is surely very fascinating stuff. So far did not work on a big project but it’s definitely on my list and I hope to scratch it off there sooner than later. The ideal movie would be a Sci-Fi one of course.

The Chase

KDS::

What aspects does a matte painting have to possess in order for you to feel it is a great piece of work?

TIGAER::

That depends if it’s made just for fun or for a movie. In a movie it just has to work and it must look pretty much photo realistic. There it doesn’t matter what you see in it. It just must work. When it’s a just for fun painting then the most important thing would be the atmosphere, lighting, composition and detail. A lot of things have to come together and that’s why there is more room for errors. There’s hardly a piece that I love to 100%. That’s why Concept Art is very interesting. It’s very rough and leaves a lot to your own interpretation. That stuff is easier to love.

KDS::

At one point in your career even you were a novice. What was the defining moment in your career that made you feel that you had finally entered into the circle of the professionals?

TIGAER::

That must have been the moment when I held the 3DWorld Issue in my hands that had the first workshop in it I ever wrote. I was very proud of that and still am. Even if some more workshops for different magazines followed since then. Also the inclusion of my work into the Expose artbook series was great. To have your work amongst all the most amazing digital art of the planet. That’s a cool thing.

The Gates

KDS::

When you were first starting out, what did you do for a living?

TIGAER::

I’m the perfect example of the poor artist trying to find his way to the top. Basically smaller jobs to get at least some basic income. Small commissions for digital art work. When it comes to that I’m still not where I want to be… but it’s slowly building up.

The Expedition

KDS::

When your not working on a painting, how do you like to spend your time?

TIGAER::

There is hardly a minute I’m not thinking about what I could do in Photoshop or Vue that could bring me another nice and big painting. Beside of that I love movies so I try to go to see them as often as possible. I also have a guitar that screams to be learned more. There are also five birds that keep me busy at home. One Parakeet and 4 Zebra finches. Photography is a nice thing too. But that’s a bit on halt right now. Waiting for the summer I guess.

Future City

KDS::

What resources would you recommend for those digital artists who are just starting out down the road of matte painting?

TIGAER::

Mattepainting.org should be a nice start. The rest is not easy. First of all it is not wrong to have some basic understanding about lighting and painting in general. Granted that I haven’t had any knowledge about painting when I started, it should be possible for everyone who is willing enough to put the right time and effort into it. It’s a long road and takes a lot of passion for the matter. Even I would not say that I am where I want to be on that long road. There is always something to learn. It’s also a good thing to get yourself into an art community where you have a chance of getting feedback on your work. Sometimes it’s not easy to motivate yourself but you have to overcome that sometimes. Keep trying to get better and sooner or later you will get somewhere.

Epica

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