Steffen Hartmann and his creatively creepy creations
Gory greetings my horror peeps and welcome to another HEXciting
interview with your She-Wolf Horror Host, Slaughter Cin. I hope all my
horrorphiles had a horrific Halloween. Mine was a real scream. I’m now
back from my horrorday and ready to get this chilling chat started. My
gruesome guest from Germany is an artist who takes pleasure in creating
disturbing images with creative detail. Let’s welcome Steffen before the
moon appears.
1. Please introduce yourself, tell us where you are from and what you do?
Hi. My name is Steffen Hartmann, child of the 90s, living in the eastern part of Germany
and I'm a freelance artist.
My artwork is mostly grotesque, cursed, scary, disgusting and let's be honest not the
greatest to show to your kids.
But from time to time I feel the urge to create something nice and friendly looking. I
guess everyone has a soft side, right?
2. How long have you been an artist for and how did you start?
I started my art journey at the end of 2016, but it took me over half a year to take it more
seriously in mid-2017 thanks to the art fundamentals course on https://drawabox.com/.
A big thanks to Irshad Karim, the owner of DRAWABOX. Without him I wouldn't be in
this interview.
3. Out of painting, illustrating and sculpting, is there a form you prefer?
Since I discovered the beauty of 3D in February of this year, I mainly love to sculpt.
This could change in the future, but right now it's just super fun exploring the entire 3D
workflow and all its possibilities.
4. What gravitated you towards digital hyper realistic art?
I guess I have to thank “The Ren & Stimpy Show” which had those realistic and very
detailed close up shots which I loved as a kid. All of these details screamed disgusting,
but I was just fascinated.
5. What kind of art programs do you use?
Mainly Blender (which is open source and completely free software) for the 3D parts
and the well-known Photoshop for the 2D parts of my art.
I like to limit myself to as few tools as possible to not have my mind cluttered with
hotkeys and interfaces of too many programs.
6. What have been some of your favorite projects?
Oh I guess that would be my recent series of Simpsons sculptures. Super fun to work
on those highly detailed versions of Homer, Ned, Moe and Mister Burns.
Each character took me countless hours to finish because the perfectionist in me
couldn't resist adding more and more details. Very intense projects.
7. Where, what or whom do you draw your inspiration from?
Definitely the Resident Evil series. I can tell you one thing, the 11 year old Steffen had a
very scary time in 1998.
But I also have to mention Silent Hill, Doom, Outlast, Amnesia, Dishonored, the Alien
movies, X-Files, the Ren and Stimpy Show, Garbage Pail Kids, and especially the artist
Maxim Verehin. That list could go on and on.
In the end inspiration is everywhere. It can be the look of one of your friends or an
abnormality or disease which looks cool and fascinating. Hey, even a simple rock
formation can be a good inspiration for parts of a character.
8. Which is your favorite piece and why?
When it comes to my own artwork, I would say the Homer portrait I finished at the end
of july.
Look, I started the project in march of this year and it was a major struggle because the
3D workflow was so new to me. Countless iterations and lengthy pauses over the
course of a few months I finished it in July.
That project showed me once again that a good piece of art needs time to grow,
sometimes 5 months.
And it also started my hunger for more Simpsons related sculptures which some of
them went viral on Instagram and Reddit. I am very happy and grateful for that.
9. Has anyone approached you with an odd request for a commission project
Besides one or two Furry related requests (which I declined), no.
10. Who are some of your favorite horror artists?
That would be a huge list. To name a few: Maxim Verehin, Dan Peacock, Oleg
Vdovenko, Leszek Woź and the unfortunately already deceased Hans Rudolf Giger.
Besides Giger all of them can be found on Artstation.
11. What’s your favorite horror film and favorite character?
Difficult question, but if I had to commit myself to one movie I would say Alien from
1979.
Not only is it one of my favorite horror movies, but it also has one of the greatest
fictional characters of all time named Ellen Ripley.
She has bigger balls than all of the male characters in the whole franchise.
Another movie which I fell in love instantly was [Rec] from 2007 and of course The Blair
Witch Project back in 1999.
12. If someone wants to follow you and find out more about you, where would
they go?
That would be on https://www.instagram.com/hartmann.s_art/ and
https://www.artstation.com/steffenhartmann for now.
Thanks for having me.
I will in just a few minutes…um, for supper. But, first I’d like to thank you for
sharing your Terroriffic art and backstory with us. Make sure you follow
Steffen and support his creatively creepy creations. Tune in to HTG soon
for our next killer interview... It’s now time for my meal and Steffen just
thanked me for having him. It’s not every day your snack thanks you before
eating them!
