Lum: Right to begin with, congratulations on being our featured artist for our latest exhibit! How does it feel and why don't you tell us a little about yourself.

Glenn Clovis: I feel honoured to have been selected, especially considering the number of fantastic artist we have in the Luminarium. About myself, well, I’m an avid Photoshop user, been involved with it since version 3.0 way back when. I now focus primarily on Space Art and looking forward Sci-Fi art. I’m father of 6, husband to a wife I don’t deserve (I mean that in a positive way, honey!) and now apparently host to a zoo, since we keep adding animals to the homestead.

Lum: Wow that is quite the life there! It's amazing you do art along with hosting a zoo and raising a family! How has art affected your life in general throughout the years?

Glenn Clovis: If anything art has been an escape from the daily pressures. It took a long time to find a genre I felt I could excel in or at the very least be satisfied with my work in. My mother is an incredible sketch artist and she taught me how to sketch at a fairly young age. I carried those lessons into the digital world. Photoshop was the first real ‘painting’ application I became familiar with. It was, for a long period of time, just a hobby. I knew enough to do some okay model texturing, but as far as anything complicated, I just did not possess the necessary skill set. It is something that you just have to put in the time and dedication to learn. That process was in itself turned out to be very rewarding, especially meeting with fellow artist that shared the same passion.

Lum: That's pretty sweet to have a mom who helps you sketch and do art! How have you come to identify or excel in the sci-fi/space genre?

Glenn Clovis: I was actually thinking about this earlier. I would have to say my first real inspiration came from a book my parents bought back in the early eighties called Our Universe. In it (and on the cover) were some of the truly fantastic works of John Berkey. He would be my first and foremost reason I became interested in the genre. As for my progression into space art, I’d have to say it would be a lot of failed pieces and a few that didn’t completely suck, lol. Seriously, for every piece I publish, I have 5-10 that have 15+ hours into them and that will never see the light of day. I guess you’d call it trial and error. Nebulas are probably the easiest for me, since they allow me to create something from chaos, wherein the chaos itself lends to the depth of a particular piece. You just never know where you’ll end up. That’s part of the fun.

Lum: Haha yes, I think all space artists have tons of artwork that just never made it to the final stages or are just trial and error. Where do you see yourself regarding sci-fi/space art in the future?

Glenn Clovis: Hopefully, much more advanced skill-wise in 3D modelling. I’ve been training and practicing for a few months now, primarily in Cinema 4D. I hope to be at a level where I can consistently turn out highly detailed and interesting models and then couple them together with my current Space Art techniques.

Lum: 3D is definitely a worthy goal! By any chance could you tell us what direction you hope to go with regarding 3D in your art?

Glenn Clovis: Right now the primary focus is on space ships, space stations, cities, etc. I foresee continuing in this direction until I feel I've achieved a personally acceptable level of skill. How long that takes we'll have to see.



Lum: WPersistence pays off! :P What or who are your inspirations in your artwork?

Glenn Clovis: In no particular order: John Berkey, William Hartmann, David Hardy, Greg Martin, Chris Fross, Ron Turner, Angus McKie, Alexander Preuss and fellow contemporary artists Synax444, Nameless Designer, Voyager, Phoenix-06, Chris Cold, Keepwalking07, Gucken, Taenaron...good grief I could be here all day naming people. Steve Burg and Mallacore are two of my favourite 3D Artists...

Lum: Steve Burg (who you just mentioned) has recently joined The Luminarium himself, how do you feel now that The Luminarium is attracting established artists of his calibre?

Glenn Clovis: OI feel that we are making excellent progress in growing our artistic base while attempting to maintain our high standards on release pieces. One of the best features of the Luminairum is the Critique Outlet, which paves the way for extremely thoughtful and helpful critiques of works in progress. I personally feel this alone has vastly improved the quality of work I have put out.

Lum: It is something we aim to do within the Luminarium, drive each other to improve! The traditional question regards to improvement next, where do you think you will be with, and for that matter possibly outside, your artwork in 5 years time?

Glenn Clovis: I'd love to get to the point where my art was publish-quality. I'll watch these programs on the History Channel or read articles in Scientific American Magazine and notice the artwork they are using. I think to myself, 'I could make that', then set off to make something (what I consider) better. It's not really a competition, but it is a driving force to expand my abilities. I had a piece recently published as the cover to Sci-Fi Almanac's 2010 edition, that was a real honour. I hope to build upon that. Onwards and upwards!

Lum: Congratulations on that Glenn, that’s pretty awesome, we hope in the future your work does get well published in Sci-Fi and Science media! I think that just about wraps it up for us, but before we go is there any advice you want to give the young and upcoming artists or any thing else you want to say?

Glenn Clovis: For new artist, if you really want to make it, you have to put in the work. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes. Templates and stocks are great, but to truly open up the possibilities, you need a balance to your skills set, which means the ability to create everything from scratch. Otherwise, you're really just limiting yourself. Keep at it and try to find your own style, you'll make it.

Glenn Clovis: Other than that, thank you for the feature, it really is an honour.

Lum: It was a pleasure interviewing you, Glenn. Good luck, your nebulas are fabulous and enchanting. We cannot wait to see what else you've got in store for the next exhibit!