Chris Peters (Germany)

Chris Peters (Germany)

Sooner or later, I will have to make a post about history of rock posters and along with Alfons Mucha of course, I will also have to speak about the 20s german advertizing posters, as germany was really creative at that moment. Was ? well, Germany is still creative today and Chris Peters' work is, along with Lars P.Krause and Fritte, the best proof.

Hello, of course as every Crewk interview, first question: what are we listening to when we come to visit you?

we´d probably start off with some led zep and when you´re heads start humming we´ll move over to bang, dust or warhorse. we could also have a tea with nikhil banerjee, paul butterfield or listen to some rather weird stuff like early 60s bollywood music;-). in the end depending on you, because i can obviously listen to whatever i want when i am alone.

Can you tell us more about yourself, who are you, where are you from, what do you do?

i am a male human being, age 31 and for about four years i live in berlin. since i am bits more of a country boy i had some difficulties to adjust to big city life, but then slowly started to enjoy and see the advantages in it. besides doing a day job and all the regular stuff, i play various instruments and sing in a band called samsara blues experiment and yes occasionally i draw posters, artworks, logos and so on.

When did you start drawing?

As a little boy i was starting to draw houses, cars or flowers on chalkboards and sideways, i proceeded with
drawing metalband logos and skulls in my elementary classes, in my adolescent years i was doing graffity and mostly lettering. i made quite a big pause from the ages of 21 - 27, when i did only a few sketches and simple flyers, and then seriously started to do gigposters and stuff like four years ago.

Did you follow any course or did you improve by drawing in the margins of your schoolbooks?

rather the latter.

Today are you living from your art, or do you do something else for a living ?

i tried to earn money with it. actually i even earned some money, but it was never enough for a living so i am in a regular job, doing designs for a solar energy company. and there´s no coincidence with sunartworks. i am happy to do something useful and not having to sell crap or even worse - myself.

Are you collaborating with magazines/fanzines, regularly?

i used to do some stuff for a magazine called bad acid and some other psychedelic music zines, but not on a
regular basis. most of them guys would find it rather boring to get artworks from only one person.

Where does your influence come from? Is there any artists/graphists you particularly like, what are your influences?

i dig art nouveau, the psychedelic 60s, the looks of stoner and hard rock and early metal generally speaking. frank kozik had quite a big influence and some skateboard graphics. these days i am probably more influenced by subconcious affairs. i like a lot of things, beautiful things and artworks done by people who have better drawing skills than i have ;-). i am always stunned by ken taylor´s works for instance and also most pieces of malleus and arik roper are really great.

What are the principal steps in your work ?

making a sketch, checking with the people who are involved (sometimes i have to do another sketch), then drawing the final outlines, scanning and adding colors in photoshop. lettering depends, sometimes by hand, sometimes computer, sometimes both.

Do you do everything by hand or on computer?

i try to use less computers. i like to feel things.

How long does it take you to do a poster?

from at least 2 hours up to 2 days or more (with some breaks or interruptions in case i got stuck).

You have a very distinctive style, are you doing only what you feel like or if tomorrow somebody asks you an oil painting with horses running out of water with a sunset backdrop, is it a problem or are you up for it ?

thank you. i´d love to draw like j.w. waterhouse (or at least like bob ross ;-)...), but i am much too impatient and maybe incomprehensible to oil painting. i am trying to improve technics, but i guess on some level i will remain a bit naive as an artist and know what? that´s totally okay for me. people should know from a good
look at my portfolio that i won´t do oil paintings. i just can´t.

For which band have you already worked for?

i worked for some promoters that brought several big names in the stoner, psychedelic, heavy rock scene on my posters. i won´t do much namedropping, though i am happy to have these in my portfolio. these days i mostly work for my own band, due to several personal issues and a general lack of time in the last months.

For which band would you love to work?

for the one that asks for sunartworks, not an oilpainting ;-). it´s always better, when i can identify myself at least a bit with their music.

Do you choose the artists yourself?

yes, since i am not dependent on it.

What is the most difficult part in designing a poster ?

when it turns out that the band has a totally different opinion about the artistic directions than i have. it didn´t happen too often to me, but when it happened it was quite frustrating or sometimes even worse, when bands ask things that totally didn´t fit to my personality or style like people asking "hey can you draw us a 3d-robot?" - nope sorry, i won´t. all the rest is being creative and part of my identity.

Do you think you are part of a "Graphic Scene", if so who else ?

i am not sure. i know some people who do graphics, some also do posters, but i am not sure to call this a scene. in the last two years one could easily point out a similarity in posters that you´d see in and around berlin. lots of works that look like from the late 60s/70s, but you could also blame this to some sort of fashion. when i started there was only kyrik drewinski here in berlin, whose works have this massive influence of 60s poster art.

A bit of self-promotion, take advantage of it, it's free, where can we see your work, on the web or in real life?

i have a website at http://www.sunartworks.com/. i´ll have to put some imaginery there. i bet you´ll find a lot of stuff through google and for sure at gigposters.com - also a lot of old crap.

The best praise you received lately?

lately i´ve been much busy with my music and other issues, so i didn´t really get a lot of praise for my posters. i also do not work much frequently these days. over the years i got some very good comments and inputs by several "important" people in the scene that wrote to me and in 2009 i took part in a bigger exhibion in the usa among many well respected people, which was awesome. i´d love to do more posters again.

What can we wish you for the future?

balance and wisdom.

Thanks for answering my questions and see you soon on the website !!

right on, thanks for your interest and best wishes!