Thrown into Oblivion: WAR Artist Andrée Wallin

The World Famous Wall Art Rockers are proud to showcase some of their artists, starting with Andrée Wallin:

Andrée has collaborated with Universal on the artwork for the recently released film Oblivion. A futuristic film, set in 2037, following an invasion by alien scavengers who destroyed the moon and nearly destroyed the Earth. It stars Tom Cruise as Jack Harper, one of the last humans left, who is tasked with extracting the last of earth's resources, especially water. His life unexpectedly changes after a space ship crashes......

The visuals of this stunning film and Andrée's work on the trailer poster give you a good idea of what we produce here at WAR.

Andrée had a love of drawing from an early age, he was the boy always huddled over his desk with a pencil and paper in his hand letting full reign to his vivid imagination. At 19 he stumbled across photoshop and found a medium he could explore, as he himself states he's lazy, not wanting to get into all the colour mixing and stuff. One of his artworks usually takes 2-3 days to complete, depending on the detail required.

Andrée (29) started his digital concept art career with RealtimeUK in 2008 and currently works for Radical Thinking. He freelances from his native Sweden, though he has also worked in house for companies. He has worked on major big name projects like Napoleon: Total War, Dirt 3 and Halo 4. This shows you the high calibre of his work and why we are proud to have him as a featured artist. 

He was first approached by WAR in 2010 with regards to him working with us, bringing his style to something other than canvas. His detailed digital artwork lends itself perfectly to being used on our giant widescreen acrylic pictures. He had never taken up any offers before but after seeing our product he quickly changed his mind.

His style is unequaled in detail and this isn't lost in anyway when we reproduce our giant wall art, keeping the integrity of the original design intact. One of our best selling pieces 'You and Me' is a perfect example of the clarity we can achieve, along with the emotion Andrée creates in his art.

You will find other examples of his work in our gallery, from 'Swamp Fever', a rather eery bayou picture, to the very Mass Effect looking 'Down Town' which would be a great addition to any gaming household or business..

For more info on Andrée check out www.andrewallin.com

3DTotal rocked by the Rockers!

When one of the worlds most prominent CG Art websites required some CG inspired wall art, they didn't have to look too far. A simple phone call was all it took and the World Famous Wall Art Rockers did the rest.

UK based 3DTotal is one of the leading brands when it comes championing CG and Digital Art. The website offers a variety of training products, an inspirational gallery, a free texture library and hundreds of free tutorials with over 1.5 million visitors per month.

After an initial chat with 3DTotal team they decided to choose two pieces of work (You and Me and Deep Impact) both by the legendary concept artists Andrée Wallin.
3DTotal have featured Andrée in several of their publications and were already huge fans of his work.

A week later the World Famous Wall Art Rockers personally delivered the wall arts themselves as they were keen to meet 3DTotal team in person and get their views on product itself.
As they were unwrapped in front of the whole team a chorus of gasps could be heard when they were fully unveiled for the first time.

The next ten minutes involved an enjoyable question and answer session as the team wanted to learn more about how so much detail and sharpness could be retained in the images despite their huge scale.

Tom Greenway (3DTotal Editor/Owner) was particularly impressed "They looked fantastic on the website but in real life they are simply astonishing." He continued "The gloss of the acrylic really makes the colours so vibrant and I love the contemporary look of the finished frame. They really do look like huge computer screens".

Receiving an overwhelming endorsement of quality by some of the industries leading CG and Digital Art professionals made the long journey back up North to WAR HQ that little bit easier.

The 8-bit art revival - will it last?

On our Wall Art Rockers site you will run into a lot of artwork that wouldn't look out of place during the production of a videogame. 

In fact, you can view the work we did for Just Add Water, who helped bring Odd World: Stranger's Wrath back into being for a modernised re-release. However, a lot of game art these days, especially in the indie space, is trending towards a resolution that's not been seen on consoles much for decades: 8-bit. 

Low-resolution, it might seem at first to be extremely ugly or primitive. But when you look at the art seen in games like Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP, you know that despite the lack of pixels, some of the art can really be mindblowing. But is it going to stick around, or is it just a passing thing? 

Realistically, it'll be around for decades, at least, and that's from this point forwards, not from its genesis point. Whether you were a gamer or you simply recognise someone's Pac-Man username, you'll know that retro art is a big thing. People like the art of yore, as it still has a sense of clean-cut simplicity to it that some multi-layered, more complex art does not. Here at WAR, we're into all sorts, and focus on progressive, incredibly detailed pieces, but low-res work certainly has its place. 

Whether it'll still be popular within certain mediums in time - not only in games, but even retro chip-tune music (music produced with old gaming hardware) - is something we'll have to wait for, as predicting the tastes of the world is simply impossible. But as society becomes more and more digitised, that appeal may actually just keep on growing. So don't worry about the Super Mario Bros. 3 art on your wall - it'll still be a worthy centrepiece in the years to come, we think.

Stranger's Wrath - Bespoke Digital Wall Art

Recently, we teamed up with our friends at Just Add Water (the developers of the legendary Oddworld Series) to produce a stunning large format wall art immortalising one of their most celebrated tittles - Stranger's Wrath.
The wall art is to take pride of place in the very studio where the JAW team create and develop their games therefore they required something truly inspirational!

After seeing a couple of our printed samples. Stewart Gillray (CEO of JAW Ltd) was left in no doubt that our unique and innovative "wide-screen" perspex wall art was the only way to present their artwork.
The very next day the talented JAW crew emailed over the image they wanted reproducing and the Wall Art Rockers did the rest.

Upon receiving the Stranger's Wrath wall art Stewart commented "Utterly amazing! The overall size is impressive enough but the quality of the print and the colours are simply breathtaking." He continued "We especially love the glossiness of the perspex which really does make it look like a huge computer monitor!"



We printed and delivered the Stranger's Wrath wall art within 7 working days.
We are now on the look out for other video game / software / CG related companies to WOW with our unique wall art for a digital generation!

We're Exhibiting in Leeds Jan 2012

From 9th January 2012 The World Famous Wall Art Rockers are exhibiting a selection of our unique concept, video game, sci-fi, fantasy and digital inspired wall arts at Café 164 in our home town of Leeds, West Yorkshire. 

Café 164 has established a strong following with the local art community by serving good food/drink in a relaxing environment surrounded by inspiring art.
It is also ideally situated for art lovers as they are right next door to the Leeds Art Gallery.

We are exhibiting several pieces of our work including the stunning Down Town by the legendary concept artist Andrée Wallin, Minimal Valley by Dr Franken and our very own vinyl masterpiece Dub Flow.
All will be displayed in our huge 1400 x 675mm "widescreen" format with the artwork printed directly onto 8mm thick acrylic. They really have to be seen to be believed!

A special mention must go to our super star guest artist Phil Wall Art. We have collaborated with Phil to produce an awesome "one off" original wall art that will be exclusive to Café 164!
It's called Leeds vs Monsters and features three cartoon monsters using a Leeds cityscape as a playground. We'll even sign and date it for the lucky purchaser!

If you happen to be in Leeds during January please call in and shows us your support.

Address is: Café 164, Unit 2 Munro House, Duke Street, Leeds LS9 8AG
Opposite the Bus Station

We look forward to seeing you!

Back to School for the Rockers

So last week the World Famous Wall Art Rockers went back to school. In fact we went back to the very classroom where our artistic big ideas first began! 

We were invited in to our former school (Sherburn High School) to talk to groups of year 5 Art students about the highs and lows of being involved in the art/design industry and also running your own business.

Personally, I vividly remember a similar moment happening to me over 25 years ago.
A former student gate crashed my beloved double art lesson claiming to be a "graphic designer" and wanted to show us her portfolio of work. I didn't have a clue what a graphic designer was (or did), so I sat politely and listened and looked.

From that moment on I have been forever in her debt as I have worked as a graphic designer/artists ever since. Therefore I felt duty bound that we would return to our old "stomping ground" and hopefully inspire other students in the same way.

We waxed lyrical about all things creative including social media, brand awareness, the importance of standing out "from the crowd" and everything in between. To be fair the students sat and listened very patiently and even asked the odd question or two.

Fortunately we brought a couple of our huge acrylic wall arts with us and when we showed these they really caught their attention! The were interested in not only the art styles but also how they were printed, produced and sold.

This also led to a discussion about the thriving video game industry and how art plays a pivotal role in the production of any AAA or Indie game title.
We were very surprised to learn that one of the students was in fact a budding concept artists himself and his end of year project featured several manga and concept inspired art pieces.

It was great to talk about our business journey and spread the love for digital art.
Hopefully we have inspired a few budding artists who will go on to enjoy a rewarding and profitable artistic career.

We would like to end with a big thank you to all the students for listening to us, Mrs Landon for inviting us in and Sherburn High School for letting us share our vision.

Aperture's Requiem - Portal 2 Wall Art

The World Famous Wall Art Rockers are proud to announce that we have teamed up with our friends at Steel Series and Valve to produce an exclusive Portal 2 wall art titled Aperture's Requiem.

As I'm sure you are aware the Portal Series from Valve/EA is one the most highly regarded video games of recent years and has received numerous well deserved awards and accolades.
The iconic series has a huge following among the video gaming community with legions of fans eager to discuss, write, draw and share all things Portal.
Therefore we had to create something truly spectacular that the fans would really engage with and get excited about.

Working closely with Steel Series and the artists at Valve we have produced a jaw dropping wall art that focuses on GLaDOS (who also appeared in the legendary Half Life series) inside the decaying Aperture Science Facility.
Chell also features silhouetted against the light beam cast down by GLaDOS. Completely dwarfed by her surroundings.

The muted colour palette really compliments the stark use of light and shadows to create suitably sombre atmosphere.

This stunning Portal 2 concept art is reverse printed direct to a gigantic 1400 x 675mm (8mm thick) acrylic panel. The reflective gloss of the acrylic makes the whole wall art look like a huge HD TV screen and brings every detail to life.

A special mention must go out to our friends at Steel Series who made all this possible.