You might not immediately recognize the name Stephen Bliss, but I guarantee you'll recognize his work on arguably the most influential game franchise of our time. As a senior artist at Rockstar Games from 2001 to 2016, he defined the iconic pop art and comic book feel that has become the visual hallmark for Grand Theft Auto. IGN spoke to him at the Lucca Comics and Games festival about his work with the series, what he's been working on since, and finding the balance between making a name for himself away from the brand and seeing his artistic impact continue even as he works on other projects.
IGN: I was reading an interview with you where you said you didn't want to be known as the GTA guy, but you take it as an affirmation that people know your work and are inspired by that. Is that something that has been tricky to navigate in the past 10 years?
Stephen Bliss: I wanted to make a name for myself away from Rockstar in fine art and to make my own IPs, my own properties, and cartoons. And that's worked to a degree, and it's getting stronger all the time, my career. But I can't ignore what working at Rockstar has done for me. I'm very grateful for getting a job there and working there for such a long time. After GTA 3, Vice City, and Warriors, the team came in, Anthony Macbain [Director of Illustration at Rockstar for 13 years] and Steven Olds [former visualization director at Rockstar Games], who are both amazing artists. So when people tell me that they love my work, I might not completely be overwhelmed with the flattery of that, because other people did the work, and I don't want other people to think that I did all the work. When I said that quote before, what I meant was I don't want to take all the credit.
People have been bringing me GTA 5 covers to sign, and I say sorry, because I didn't work on that. And they look disappointed, but I've got to let people know what I did and what I didn't do. But I did contribute massively to Rockstar. And as I said, I'm grateful for that. And sometimes it can be like people are walking past my stand and they'll see all my personal work, Fear City work, and gig posters I did for bands and comics I've done, but they're really interested in more in the GTA getting that signed, or they're interested in a poster that's inspired by GTA for Lucca. But that's okay, because I did something well.
IGN: What you did, it set a standard; it set a style. I know there were other contributors to that, but as an artist, is that something that you see as an affirmation?
Stephen Bliss: Well, I looked at the GTA 6 cover, for example. I had nothing to do with that, but the fact they still use the box grid and they still put the helicopter in the top left corner, which was something that I developed, I'm flattered by that. It touches me that that heritage continues. And my influence is in the GTA 6 cover, but it's its own language. I just have little references in there. I'm like, 'Oh, that's nice that they used that.' But I'm absolutely not saying I contributed to that massively.
IGN: Is it difficult to convey something that is telling part of a story that sucks people in but isn't telling a whole story? Is that a challenge? Is that a puzzle that you have to solve as an artist?
Stephen Bliss: Yeah. What I'm missing with my work since I left Rockstar, for example, is that there's an emotional connection with people growing up and seeing that GTA work, which has actually been a good lesson for me recently. I realized that whatever I do from now on has to create an emotional connection. And even if I draw the anatomy badly or I'm being anal about getting everything correct, if it doesn't connect with someone emotionally, then that's where there's a disconnection. So I'm trying now to create some kind of emotional connection, which I'm not quite sure how I do that right now.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-artist-stephen-bliss-explains-how-he-defined-the-series-iconic-visual-style
