MySpace Featured Artist - Steve Baier
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
We are way overdue for a MySpace Featured Artist, and everyone knows we’re suckers for pin-up art. Given that, we’re featuring the talented artworks of Steve Baier.
Steve started learning airbrush in 1999 while attending Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa. His first paying gig was drawing caricatures for Hollywood Caricatures at Adventureland Park in Des Moines. From 1999 through 2006, Steve continued to work as a caricaturist and also painted his share of t-shirts, plus some light illustration work. His first website was launched in 2004. But Steve’s real passion as an artist was not in any of these things; rather it was pin-up art. In his spare time, Steve would continue to develop his particular style of pin-up, combining airbrush with watercolor pencil, acrylics, metallic pen, colored pencil, and even found objects to produce the final result. In April 2007, Steve signed his first licensing contract with Up Your Art, LLC., and made the transition to full-time creator of original pin-up art.
Steve’s paintings are a blend of the real and the imagined. The process always starts with conceptual drawings. Steve works with some professional models, such as Maxim’s 2006 Woman of the Year Monica Hansen and fitness model Dana Hamm, but also shoots his own reference photos with amateur models, and women who are not models at all. Steve does not work to re-create the photo; it is simply a point of reference and a foundation for the overall work. When the overall concept is worked out in pencil, the final drawing is transferred to the painting surface - usually cold-press watercolor paper, though cold press illustration board and even textured mat board are also used.
Steve has always favored Iwata airbrushes, though he has tried other brands. Most of the airbrush work in Steve’s current paintings is done with a Custom Micron SB, though the Eclipse SBS is still in use as well. Steve prefers Com-Art Airbrush Colours for rendering flesh, hair, and clothing and he does mix some custom colors from time to time.
Backgrounds are painted mostly in acrylic, using foam brushes, sea sponges, or traditional paintbrushes. Accessories are often rendered in watercolor pencil, which makes for an interesting contrast, or metallic pen, which plays with the light.
You may have seen Steve’s work in someone’s comments section on MySpace. His paintings are very popular as licensed downloads, and are widely used by web graphics designers and hobbyists all over the world. Original paintings and reproductions are currently owned by collectors in 20 US States, as well as Canada, England, Australia, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
For more about this artist, please visit Steve’s official website: scbartworks.com and his official MySpace page. E-mail inquiries are always welcome, and can be sent to steve@scbartworks.com.
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