Image of the day: What Happened? by Eric Petersen

Computer Arts: Tell us about What Happened?
Eric Petersen: My idea behind this piece was to create a scene with several people standing outside their doors all looking away from the viewer in the same direction. As the title suggests, I wanted the viewer to think, "What happened?"

CA: How did the piece come together?
EP: My creative process starts with the general idea for the scene. Typically, I set up the scene in 3D – I use Poser and Modo. After finding my shot – like a photographer – I render it out and draw from it, as if it were a photo reference. On rare occasions I will work from a photograph. I use Adobe Illustrator to draw and Adobe Photoshop to finish the colouring. Each stage can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two. The challenging part, for me, is the perspective: I set up vanishing points in Illustrator; simply tracing would produce an imperfect result.

CA: How did you get into design and how would you describe your style?
EP: I studied art, graphic design, drawing and photography. I spent much of my career writing code for websites, and started drawing again in 2012. I describe my style as one that's purely functional or technical, and void of emotion. My goal is to get an emotion from the viewer somehow. You may notice that none of the people in my illustrations ever smile or frown and the eyes are blank. I'm influenced by instruction manuals and the look of 1940s comics. My ideas come from random thoughts throughout the day that I write down immediately.

Check out more from Eric Petersen on his website and on Behance. 

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