Geirrod van Dyke is an American digital illustrator and comic artist, best known for his work on the Sonata comic series (Image Comics). Van Dyke has a degree in Fine art with a dual emphasis on painting and printmaking. The two 'opposing' skill sets (opposing as in geared towards different media) find a balance in his painterly and near-classic approach to illustration art.

For a full interview with the artist, click here.

Van Dyke's background in painting pays dividends in his free work. His series of 'video game heroes', of which the Shadow of the Colossus work available through this website is but one example, can be defined as monochromatic line art. And yet this moniker doesn't quite do justice to the painterly aspects of his style. His lines have a painterly flow to them, and elements like composition, shading techniques or the posture in his characters remind us of more of eighteenth Century etchings than anything contemporary.

Asked what defines him as an artist, Van Dyke cites another duality: his immersion in conceptual training in art school, combined with a strong-headed self-direction in everything experienced outside of formal training, thus shaping what he calls 'the odd mix of characteristics' apparent in his art today - a classically trained painter 'trapped' in the much less formal world of comic and illustration art.

Inspiration for his art, apart from playing video games, is found in a fusion of (so-called) high and low art. It will be no surprise then Van Dyke cites the American figurative painter slash comic artist Phil Hale as a big inspiration, as well as the equally versatile Taiwanese/American 'visual artist' James Jean, people who transcend and mix media and styles with apparent ease.

Van Dyke grew up in northern California and currently lives in the Bay Area.