Editors note: This interview was originally made for the Danish computer magazine "Privat Computer", but as this magazine is in Danish it only reaches a very small part of the scene, and further more some of the original text may have been lost or altered during the translation and editing so here goes the complete and unabridged version... INTERVIEW WITH MARTIJN VAN MEEL also known af Oogvlak / Citroenpunt. or perhaps even better known as Facet of Lemon. PRC: Hi Martyn. You have made the graphics for famous scene productions such as "Seeing Is Believing", "Legalize 1+2", "In The Kitchen", and most recently "Announce". You have drawn 'front-page' pictures for several magazines including Raw and Stolen Data, and you have won numerous prizes at graphics competitions and you are number 1 on The Official Eurochart, please tell me a little bit about yourself. MVM: What's left to tell? Well, I'm 19 years old and just graduated. I hopefully will attent an Art-college in August. I bought my computer in 1988 and have been active for the 'Amiga-scene' since. Before I bought my amiga I had a Commodore 64 and a MSX computer. I only played games on both machines. In the beginning I used my Amiga to watch demos. Later on I wanted to be one of the 'Amiga-scene-freaks' and joined the scene. The first group I joined was Vision. At that time Vision was THE leading group here in Holland. Later on I felt my gfx was 'second-choise-gfx' so I left Vision for Anarchy. Anarchy 'needed' graphics and I loved to do so. So, I became more active and neglected school. My personal 'break-through' was the 'Hardcore' picture. Now, two years later I'm one of a great team. We call ourselves 'Lemon.' and our intentions are to be active without any presure from eachother. And it's working great. PRC: When did you first begin to make graphics? MVM: I can remember I once tried to do a picture on the Commodore 64. That looked terrible so I ran back to games. On the Commodore 64 I looked at many demos. I was very interested in meeting the people behind these demos. So I went to a little 'computer-freak' meeting nearby. There I saw all the guys behind the demos and felt like a fish in the sea. I became more and more involved and bought an Amiga like everybody. I started drawing right away. That was about 5 year ago (1988). PRC: Why did you decide to use a computer to make graphics? MVM: It never was my intention to make graphics. I never did any paper-graphics before. I really loved to draw on paper but I never got what I really wanted. With my computer I COULD do what I had in mind. Two months ago I started to do some paper-pictures (for the art-college) and I notices that my paper-pictures didn't look that different (in quality) than my Amiga-artwork. «Brush/Archmage» PRC: What does it take to become a graphician? MVM: I think everyone who actually belongs to 'the scene' had a little try-period. In this period you try to make music, try to draw, try to code etc. And then you choose the thing you can do best. I chose for graphician because I thought I could do better graphics that a lot of other graphicians. Not that it was better but I just had the feeling it was better. In the time I started to do graphics, graphics were easy to make. Also now, graphics are easy to make but now it costs more time to make graphics that is liked than five years ago. That is for quite some 'try-our' people a reason NOT to become a graphician. PRC: What hardware do you use when pixeling, and from where do you find inspiration? MVM: I have an Amiga 500 with 1 meg. I have had 4 mouses and have got the best mouse in my opinion , a Golden Image mouse. My monitor is a Philips CM8833 and have two external drives. Together with my brother I have a sampler. I always have music on the backgrould while I'm drawing so my stereo is also my hardware. I get my inspiration from the famous artist like BORIS, Rodnew Matthews, Tim White etc. and from unknown artist. I also get inspiration from scene-gfx. If I'm looking outside my window I see our garden. I examine the trees and a week later I draw a tree in the shape and grades as the tree in our garden. I also get my inpriation from amiga- music. While I'm listening to amiga-music , my fantasy takes over and I'm inspirated. PRC: The on-going question in the scene today, concerning graphics, is whether good graphicians should avoid 'copying' pictures from artists like Boris or Giger? What is your opinion about this? Is it too hard to make original pictures? MVM: I really don't care whether a picture is copied or is handmade. After all, an oil-painter is also using models for his work. So why should it be wrong to use his work as a model. Ofcourse it is a waste of time to copy a painting pixel by pixel. Then there is no creativity at all. You then are , a human-digitheizer. What I try to do is to combine existing art, like a fantasy garden with a face (taken from a mirror). Result: a new picture. What you teach from this is one can do the once copied things themselves and use that knowledge in future-artwork. PRC: You have participated in quite a few graphic competitions, what do you think of such competitions? What is the difference between doing demo graphics and drawing a picture for a competition? MVM: In my life I have competed in 3 competitions. Two of them are competitions you have never heard of and the one left was the competition in AARS 92'. I think competitions like in AARS are good and bad. They are good because then you see the 'competition' graphicians, presenting their best picture. They are bad because on a 5*5 meters screen the pictures look very different and not as detailed as on a monitor. The viewers can't see the 'real' hard work (for the detals) and only see BIG objects. If you put the same picture in a demo it will get more respectation that from a competition. The biggest differece between demo graphics and competition graphics is that you have a whole demo to give only 1 opinion about your graphics. And in a competition you have only one screen. Also making a competition picture is more boring than demo-graphics. A full screen picture costs me about 1/2 weeks and a logo, font etc. costs in periods less time. There is more variation in your work then. «Brush/FelixBorealis6» PRC: Have you ever made graphics for games? If so, which games?, how did you like it? If not, would you like to and why? MVM: I've made graphics for three or four games and are all unknown low-budget games. I also made graphics for two commercial presentations. Making graphics for games is quite different to demo- graphics. The little problem is that mostly money is involved with games. So you can put a lot of work, work you could spend on demo graphics, in a project that has a risk not to be sold. Also a certain pressure is behind games. When there is pressure I always feel uninspired. Making graphics for a sofware-company is more interesting than for a friend's game because you get your money anyway. I would like to work for a software company. Maybe, some day... PRC: Do you think/hope that you will be able to make a living out of your pixels? MVM: I think a future with only the capability to draw on a computer is very uncertain. Therefore I want to study and draw. Another link is to attent an education called 'screen,media and technology'. On this study you are working on Amiga's and are you drawing a lot. You also get lessons in theoretical stuff like Art-history. A splendid education. A huge shame I was one of 370 appliers. And lost my ticket to heaven when I was one of the 30 (of which 24 would be picked out). PRC: You are 1st on The Eurochart at the moment. What makes you better/more popular than the rest?, and do you think you will be able to keep the position with new people like Peachy trying to take you down? MVM: I often look back. I see myself hanging around 'Eurochart' guys. They were soo great.I looked up to them and I wanted to be in the eurochart too. I neglected a lot of things like school and only spend time of my Amiga. I joined the right group and my graphics were used in productions with famous guys. My first Anarchy product was 'Seeing is believing' and that was for me a great start. I saw my name in the charts and felt great. Being in the charts gave me a lot of motivation and inspiration. At this moment I gratuated, so I haven't lost any years by neglecting school. I've been number one for 1 year now and wouldn't mind if someone would take my place over. As long as that guy deserves it to be number one. Fairfax deserves! PRC: How do you feel about the fact that you were not allowed to join The Pornos because you were (quote, unquote) "too good"? (HE,HE!! -ed) MVM: Haha... well, recently JASON asked whole Lemon. to join THE PORNOS. So I am a Porno. Some members in Lemon. were allready in TP and asked me to join too. So I think you got the wrong information. If a person thinks he's good enough for something then that person hasn't got the feeling to go on to built out his skill. PRC: How does one go about becoming a graphician? Does one just start drawing or is there anything in particular one should have in mind? Is there any piece of advice that you can give to people who want to start making graphics? MVM: If I would become a graphician today I should copy a lot of work-disks from a higher-skilled graphician than myself. I would spend two weeks to become as good as this graphician and start to do more and more 'own' graphics. Within some time you created your own style and you can do graphics out of your own inspiration. PRC: Thank you for this interview, any last words? MVM: I would like to thank all guys around me. Especially my LEMON. team mates. I also would like to thank all guys behind the new and old Eurochart, for creating competition. You will soon see a lot of new material from me in several LEMON. productions. I also 'started' to compose music , so maybe you will HEAR more from me in the near future.. Yours, Martijn van Meel