the ’Zine

The People's Artist

December 3, 2008 by Fish McGill

Filed under: Sketchbook / Tags: eliot-min, rock-band-art, publicity-artwork, abnormality / 13 comments

A hallmark of Rock Band is the visual authenticity for users playing at home (you're on your own for accurate rock n' roll smells). A key element for creating all the spot-on performances and environments are the plethora of musicians who pitch in building the world. Many of the coders, composers, producers, artists, QA testers are in bands and they can be spotted carrying in their instruments to the office for practice after work. All over Harmonix you will encounter real and plastic instruments including full drum kits, giant amps, and the revered 3 foot gong.

Artist Eliot Min goes to great lengths for capturing musicians in their element. Sometimes he has to climb furniture for just the right angle, or venture across the studio riding a scooter to witness a guitarist tuning, or quietly observe a bassist scowling, or a swiftly sketch a strutting singer on his way to a meeting. Eliot is The People's Artist when it comes to creating PR art for Rock Band.

For this shot of his desk neighbor, Eliot scaled great heights to get the angle just right on her guitar playing, "I didn't realize her being tall was going to be a problem before I tried to take the (reference) photo, because I had to climb on top of a table, and I think I actually needed a chair on top of the table to get the right angle".

If you look closely at this drum kit you will see a series of familiar colors on the snare, bass & toms.

The proper finger plucking pose is easy to encounter at HMX, so are cutoff shorts in the warmer months.

Nobody gets to see the back of the drum kit at a rock show (unless it is a Mötley Crüe show in the late '80s); Eliot gives us a casual bird's eye view of a Harmonix artist getting comfortable on her throne.

It is unknown just how Eliot achieved this angle using a certain lead singer from Abnormality.

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Iprogg...

these are pretty intense drawings, I can't even draw that good

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Beam-The-Chao...

WOW. I can't stop looking at these. They're so beautiful!
As an artist, I now have new standards to meet up too.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Ole' Geezer...

I can draw thaaat good... Actually no I cant... but I wish I could...

Saturday, February 7, 2009

emo-gothgirl...

those are some cooll...

Monday, January 19, 2009

TheChasm...

so sweet!!!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

deathbunny94...

This would make a great wall paper.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

pacifistWITHgun...

i demand wallpapers!

Friday, December 19, 2008

WonderAnt10...

OMG!!! there Amazing! It would be sick if I could them framed cause Would put these on my walls of my room, plus it would also be sick if they were tee- shirts made out of these! Great job!!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

rachaelanne10...

WOW!!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sayburr...

Very impressive artwork. Yeah, shirts with those designs would be great!

Friday, December 12, 2008

DaxterDude...

This is epic I wish I could be as inspired as she is.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

vApathyv...

You guys should start using these for shirt designs. Not to say the shirt designs you already have aren't incredibly stellar to begin with (mad props for the griffin shirt, I wear it all the time), but these would just look amazing, especially that one with the female drummer.

Friday, December 5, 2008

HeavyHorse...

These are really REALLY impressive. I'd take more colorful art like this over museum art anyday. Having to stand on tables or go scooter-ing by at full speed was definitely worth it. Cool angles, very detailed, and just awesome. Job well done! Once again, I really wish I saw more of these advertised for the game on websites and such.

Keep up the cool work, and don't kill yourself stunt sketching.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

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