“An Interview with artist Mike Winterbauer”

I’m delighted to announce a new interview series here at The Pixels! As always, we plan to put variety front and center, seeking out artists, developers, designers, fans, creators, and collectors across the world of gaming. The following interview was conducted by 8-bit Steve and it features Mike Winterbauer, the iconic artist of several classic game covers including Might and Magic, Power Blade, Solstice, and more!

-Red

Steve: After graduation, did you target the video game industry specifically, or was there an industry that you envisioned creating art in for the long term? Also, can you tell our readers what the process of finding work was like in those days and how you came to be involved with your first artwork commission in the gaming industry? 

Mike: After graduating from the Art Center, I was really interested in doing posters and covers for the movie industry. Getting your art on movie posters and VHS covers was a great way in the ‘80s to get your art seen worldwide. This was before desktop publishing became available in the mid ‘90s and film advertising relied on the traditional artist for cover art. It was important to me to find a way to have my art remembered long after it was painted. The whole point of making a painting is that people will hopefully appreciate it in the years to come. It’s like hearing your favorite song many years after it first came out. The great thing about games and movies is that if they become very popular, the cover art will be remembered. Also, games and movies are well documented, and this is a great way to have your cover art recorded for posterity.

Realizing the wide appeal and staying power of games and movies, I became driven to seek out these highly competitive cover art commissions. I wasn’t interested in painting great pictures that only a small audience would see and soon be forgotten. Looking back, I am happy that my art achieved popularity and staying power with this strategy.My first cover art jobs were for B movie posters and VHS covers. I did the VHS cover art for cult classics like The Brain (1988), The Cars That Ate Paris (1988), The Real Bruce Lee (1988), and many others. I remember ushering friends and family into the video store horror section and proudly showing them the videos that I did cover art for. The cool thing is that many of these videos are considered cult classics and are collectible, so the art continues to attract attention to this day. My VHS cover work provided me with a solid background to paint game covers.

In 1989, I got a commission to do my first video game box cover. It was for a game called War Eagles, an early World War I flight simulator. I got the job through a referral or showing my portfolio in person to art directors. I was living in Pasadena at the time and started thinking there must be many of these new game companies all around the Los Angeles area. I started researching and making lists of these new game companies. Then I would call the owner or art director on the telephone and request to meet in person so I could show my portfolio of 8×10 color transparencies. The telephone was my best friend when I needed to get work. In the ‘80s there was no internet or cell phone. Art directors did business on the telephone and were reasonably approachable. I would make hundreds of cold calls weekly in hope of showing my portfolio in person. Some days, I would have the good fortune to show my portfolio to three prospective clients. My little red Mazda hatchback and I became very familiar with Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.

In your book, you talk about using yourself as a model for a lot of your paintings, Power Blade included. Is that something that was common in that era? I had never heard of this before and found it fascinating to see the reference images in comparison to the finished paintings.

 I do appear in many of my paintings, most notably the cover of Power Blade. I would say it was uncommon for an artist to model for their paintings, but not unheard of during this time frame. I worked out regularly at the YMCA down the street, and was able to save money by posing for many of my paintings. I understood the characters and attitudes I was going to illustrate, and felt comfortable modeling for many of my paintings. Furthermore, I understood the pose, camera angle, and lighting I was setting up, so it was easier to use myself as the model and have friends photograph me. This was also a lot of fun, and I got very good at setting up cool photoshoots to get great pictures quickly. I also appear in many of the Might and Magic manual drawings and as the character in the lower right-hand corner of my WolfChild cover and as all the characters in my Smash TV illustration for Nintendo Power magazine.

You mentioned in your book that you believe your Might and Magic: Clouds of Xeen paintings are your most well known works. I bet a lot of my friends and the readers of this article would disagree. Power Blade, Solstice, and Double Strike are all very memorable to me. What is your personal favorite gaming piece that you have done?

I would have to say Power Blade is my personal favorite. I am partial to the box art as I am the model for it! The painting is a self-portrait, and the cool thing is that the game and box cover are still very popular. The art is very ‘90s and full of attitude, bravado, and nostalgia.

I read that you only made $6,700 during your first year as an illustrator, and you were somehow able to live off of that. How did you even do that? What was driving you to continue down that path after making so little in your first year?

The key to living off $6,700 is having minimal overhead, no large expenses, no wife or kids, and some money saved for a rainy day. Also, it was 1985 in Pasadena, and life was a lot simpler and considerably cheaper than today. I admit it was challenging, but I was 25, and full of vigor and determination to get my art published and seen in the world. I had dreamed all my life about becoming a successful artist. The time was then and the opportunities were there. I knew it was a now or never situation, so I dove in headfirst. “Publish or Perish” has been my call to action ever since I graduated from Art Center in 1985. The day I graduated from Art Center was a sobering experience as I realized it was going to be a difficult path to make a living as a freelance illustrator. All responsibility was on my shoulders to get great commissions, create great art, and get paid to make a living. I felt overwhelmed, but very excited to start my journey as an artist and get my art published worldwide! I realized that the success rate for art graduates was slim and very few of us would actually make a living with our art, but my destiny was chosen and I was determined to succeed.

When companies hired you for an art piece, would they give you specific instructions on how they wanted it to look, or did you have to pitch them concept ideas? Additionally, was there a lot of back-and-forth dialogue when making changes? What was the typical process when creating one of your pieces during that era?

 This was the Wild West of design and illustration. I had tremendous pull in the concept and design of the cover art. This is before large design teams and marketing analytics controlled most of the creativity. Computer game cover art was a new creative medium that was fresh and unknown territory. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to create box art from concept to completion and use all the skills I had been taught. I presented myself as an artist who could create awesome cover art from concept to completion, and this could include title art. I was asked many times to create a title for the game. This was great because I could design the title to work well with my box illustration. Trouble Shooter and WolfChild are some of the boxes that I created the title art for. It was a lot of fun to have that much creative input into these highly visible projects.

Typically, I was asked to come up with a concept based on the art director’s or owner’s suggestions. Coming up with a concept was very important because it would need to have a “WOW” factor. The concept had to appeal to the consumer and be visually stunning. The box art was the first point of contact with the consumer in stores or magazines. There was no internet or mobile phones, and print was king. I always tried to come up with concepts that would separate the box from the many other boxes on the shelves in the store. I wanted my box art to entice the gamers to pick the box up off the shelf and try the game.After a concept was decided upon, I would submit rough sketches showing the concept in different ways. It was important to engage the client in the process of creating the cover art, so they knew exactly what they were getting and were involved, giving feedback and approval at each stage. I received feedback and approval for concept drawings, comp drawings of chosen concept, final drawing of concept, color comps, and the final painting. Changes could be made all through the creative process, but drastic changes to the final painting were not a good idea and avoided as this was considered a redo work.

When dropping off the final painting, clients would many times request a minor touchup. This was frustrating because I would have to take the painting back to the studio, retouch it, and redeliver the painting. In order to get the job done faster and get paid quicker, I kept a touch up kit in the back of my trusty Mazda GLC Hatchback. Clients were happy and surprised when I told them I could do the touchups now in the back of my car ASAP! This helped get me paid on time and finalize the job.

The Power Blade piece definitely reminded me of a certain celebrity from that era. Did you intend to give off that vibe with that painting? Did Taito give you any instructions about the character beforehand?

I was asked to create a cover that had a Terminator feel to it. I am a big fan of the movie and was very excited to paint the cover. I wanted to create a cover that would be very eye-catching and have a lot of attitude. I knew I would need my own photos to work from, so I set up a photoshoot in my studio under the powerful overhead fluorescent lights. I tried photographing two of my friends with sunglasses and holding a metal T square. The photos were good, but not great. I decided to try the pose myself, and the photo turned out very well. I smile every time I see the box cover. It’s not every day you get your portrait on the cover of a Nintendo game box.

Solstice is a very memorable game for a lot of NES fans because of its isometric gameplay and great music. I had never seen the poster insert before seeing it in your book, and it brought back a lot of memories for me. Can you share what you remember from that project and what it was like to work on the cover art and poster?

I was very happy and fortunate to get the Solstice job. This was an awesome opportunity to paint the cover and poster inside the game box for a cool game and prominent company. I put my heart and soul into the project realizing the success of the job could secure me more high-profile game cover work. I remember seeing screen shots of the small wizard in the game and decided that the wizard needed to be larger than life and ripped for the box cover. I was determined to paint a very powerful looking wizard in a spectacular and heroic pose.

I thought of posing for this painting, but decided I needed a true body builder who could better portray the superhero look I was after for the cover painting. I remember seeing an extraordinarily powerful looking bodybuilder while grocery shopping in Pasadena in 1989. I thought he would be a fantastic model for my paintings. I eventually asked him to pose for the Solstice cover. Another interesting thing about the project is that the original art is painted on two separate boards. I painted the wizard on one board and the castle background on another. I had to carefully figure out the best sizes to paint each piece so they could be beautifully composited together for the final art. The poster was a fun piece to design and paint. It shows a cutaway view of the castle with different levels and creatures in several rooms. In the tower, I had painted a princess who got covered by the Solstice logo in the printed piece. I was a little bummed when I got the final printed piece, but still thrilled to see the poster included in the game box. I was happy to see my concept of a powerful wizard used in a TV commercial for Solstice. Solstice was a dream job come true and was seen worldwide in 1990 and helped get a lot of other work for me.

One of the pieces I saw in your book was a painting for the magazine Nintendo Power. I recognized it immediately when I saw it in your book and was excited to finally connect a face to the image. Was that job offered to you, or did you reach out to Nintendo specifically for that one?

I had sent Nintendo Power samples of my work since I thought the magazine was super cool and wanted very much to have my art in it. The illustration I did was for Smash TV and appeared in issue 28, September 1991. I remember I had a tight deadline on this piece, and decided I would pose for all the characters in the painting. There are nine protagonists in the background and a hero in the foreground defending himself with a laser gun. I had my friend take numerous pictures of me for this fun painting. I enjoyed immersing myself into many of the characters I painted.

Your artwork for Double Strike actually started out as a painting that you did for a class. There are some details in your book about how that painting became the box art we know now, but will you please tell us the story on how that came to be?

Double Strike is one of my favorite paintings. I love the close crop and dramatic angle of the painting. This painting was done in 1985 for my Advanced Rendering class at the Art Center. I had my friend pose with sunglasses and a helmet outside my apartment door. I photographed her from a low dramatic angle and got a fantastic photo of her looking up. In 1988, I put this painting in an American Showcase Illustration ad. American Video Entertainment saw the ad in 1989 and wanted to use it as a game cover for their new game Double Strike. They would buy the painting if I added a fighter plane and sunset to the sunglasses. They liked the addition of the fighter plane and sunset very much and used the painting for the cover of Double Strike. I was super happy that this painting I did for an Art Center class was being used on a game cover.

You have worked in other spaces besides gaming over the years. What was your favorite non-gaming related art piece that you worked on in your career? 

I have worked in many other non-gaming avenues that needed traditional illustration. These have included illustrations for magazines, board games, books, and films. The art I did for the Star Fleet Battles role playing game was an absolute dream job that I did for Task Force Games in 1991. I mention this painting because it is not a computer game, but rather a role-playing board game. I am a huge fan of the original Star Trek TV series and have seen all the episodes many times. This was an opportunity to paint a poster of the original Enterprise and Klingon Bird of Prey in combat! I painted this at 30×40 inches, and it was printed as a collectible poster and big box cover art. The other non-gaming piece that is also a favorite of mine is the Fatal Sky movie poster in 1990. This was a cool and creepy sci-fi movie poster seen in Blockbuster stores. The poster was also seen internationally since the film was marketed in Europe and many other countries.

I would also like to mention another favorite that is game-related, but not traditional artwork. By 1994, I was one of the first artists learning and working in the 3D art space making games. The full-blown 3D concept renderings I did at New World Computing of The Tree Forts, The Guards Quarters, and The General Store for the game Might and Magic are some of my favorite 3D work. I was able to create 3D renderings from my traditional concept sketches and actually move through the environments on the computer! It was like magic to me at the time. 

I really appreciate you doing this interview with us, Mike. Thank you. Is there anything that you would like to say to our readers and fans of your artwork?

I believe this was a unique and creative time for traditional artists to be able to paint beautiful and outrageous game covers. This was also a unique time for the arts and pop culture, and I am happy and fortunate to have been part of it. I believe in the power of creativity. If you keep working on your art, good things will come from it. You may never be rich or famous, but the personal growth and satisfaction is priceless. Thank you very much for the interview and sharing my art!

8-Bit Steve is a Detroit native, NES Speedrunner, High Score chaser, and published author, holding well over 100 NES world records and climbing to the top of the NES high score rankings. Along with writing four books in his series “The Easy Way” (Friday the 13th, Festers Quest, Jaws, Mike Tyson’s Punch-out!!), which focus on beating hard NES games as easily as possible. www.8bitsteve.com