A new twist on old pin-ups

It's burlesque, it's manga, it's the kind thing you'd expect to see inked on the forearm of some lumbering truck driver in the American midwest. This week, the work of vector artist Brian Gibbs caught our attention, so we caught up with him to find out more. 

Computer Arts: How would you describe your work?    

Brian Gibbs (BG): "My style is probably best described as contemporary illustrated pin-ups from retro to modern fetish – I often compare it to aircraft nose art, the girls on the side of war planes."

CA: How do you put one of these pieces together – from conception to completion?  

BG: "The ideas I get are mostly from images friends post on Facebook. I request jpg files either from the model or the photographer. I place the image on a layer and lock it down. I redraw the entire image as vector artwork.

"I draw the face first, which will take half the time of the illustration, and then the rest of the image. I only use a single layer and generally lock and group each section as I go. When an image is sent to me I ask the model if there is anything they want changed, because it's easy to do with vector artwork."

CA: Who are your influences and what inspires you?  

BG: "There are so many great artists doing similar work, but I have not seen any that use Adobe Illustrator. Boris Vallejo is a favourite artist. What inspires me is the new images posted on Facebook and the fact I believe vector artwork is so flexible." 

CA: Some of your work is quite provocative – what's the feedback like? What kind of people are fans?  

BG: "The feedback I get is always good. I've never had any complaints about my style of work; I keep it tasteful and believe an image doesn't have to show everything God gave you to be sexy or beautiful.

"My fans are all very different, from different parts of the world. they maybe private customers who want artwork for their own bedrooms, something special to capture a moment in their lives. Other people just want to see their picture drawn as vector artwork."

To see more of Brian's work, check out his Facebook page or his website.