Julian Schlottmann, Game Artist

Julian Schlottman is a game artist from Atlanta, Georgia.  He was rad enough to do all the graphic design for this site and for the various FoH T-shirts (if you want one, subscribe to our newsletter!).  I wanted a post featuring his work here, because, well, it’s awesome.  I’ll let him take it from here!

On Homeworld:

 …and on the stone was etched a galactic map, and a single word more ancient then the clans themselves. Hiigara, our home.

I love Homeworld’s nonstandard and asymmetrical design and bright flamboyant ship color schemes and earthy, tribal  soundtrack.  Both of these elements are seamlessly held together by a great story that ultimately is about doing anything and everything to find and protect your home, which is why I love this quote so much.  Homeworld was always something that left its mark on the people that played it.  There was something that was really nonstandard both in its looks, design, and gameplay at the time that still holds up to this day.

The one thing that I absolutely love about Homeworld, is that the story is what drove the sound, design, and feel of the game. A world where Empires and races are expanding across the galaxy, with huge leaps forward in technology, yet still had this very primal and almost tribal feel to it. The way the story progressed through the game, and as a player going to these different locations and meeting these new races of aliens, it’s almost akin to the style of ancient epics like the Odyssey or Gilgamesh.

In the piece I did for Fists of Heaven, I tried to replicate, hopefully, at least an inch of that original feeling of being at Hiigara, this planet of almost religious importance of the series of which you must search, find, fight for, and defend against a pantheon of races and empires that look down at the last of your people with deep indifference.

Reunion Pieces

I did three illustrations set in the Homeworld universe for Mike Maddox’s ‘Reunion‘, a short story that builds upon the Fists of Heaven lore.  It was really interesting work because there’s no portrayal of people in the Homeworld, so I had a lot of creative freedom, but I also wanted to make sure I kept the ‘feel’ right.  (click for full size)

Other Sci-Fi Art

‘The Fall of the IAAM‘ is definitely my favorite non-Homeworld piece.  The above is a still from the below animation, and it’s awe-inspiring.  Although there isn’t a ‘true’ scale, the sense of immensity and awe prevails as this titanic ship slowly but inevitably breaks apart.