1 - Posted on 8/12/2020

Huge congratulations ! ALwas nice to see paintings by Spanish master.  Especially those  from early nineties. <3.

Posted on 8/12/2020

Thank you. This one's actually from the eighties, but I get what you mean. :-) In my opinion Azpiri's absolute best period as an illustrator was from mid eighties to mid nineties. His videogame related art, in particlar, stands out from the rest of his production of that period.

Posted on 8/12/2020

Oh dear, you`re right, late eighties :D . ANyway I have to agree this is his best period. And to be honest, for many european artists as well - Staples, Bisley, Fabry. Serpieri. I always loved those game related art. I have in my collection some BIsley piece, which could be game related as well, but nobody even Biz can`t remember for what he did this barbarian painting :D . I like on Azpiri pieces,  how is relatively easy  to find for what purposes was made

Posted on 9/2/2020

I checked your Bisley gallery (amazing collection you got there, by the way) and I guess you mean the barbarian piece. It does remind me a bit of the style he used for the cover of Gods, which is from the same period (1991). I looked it up, but all I was able to find is the same image referenced as "Soldier of the Sacred" somewhere in Pinterest.

I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be some cancelled project. Commissioning cover artwork from top artists only to have the project cancelled isn't unheard of. It happened to Azpiri a few times. On one occasion, he even got to finish a commissioned cover illustration for a videogame only to have it replaced by another illustration by Luis Royo.

As for the easiness to identify Azpiri's videogame art, it's mostly due to the fact that Azpiri was the most prolific videogame illustrator in Spain back in the eighties. There were other top artists such as Luis Royo or Juan Giménez working for the Spanish videogame industry, but nobody came close to Azpiri's sheer volume of work. He contributed cover, promotional and/or production artwork for more than 60 videogames from 1984 to 1992.

His legacy in the history of Spanish videogames is so important that nowadays Spanish retrogaming fans can't evoke the eighties without mentioning Azpiri at some point. He attended all major retrogaming events in Spain as a guest of honor up until the very last one celebrated a few months before his death.

Such is the interest in his videogame related production from that time that a book was published in 2009 devoted exclusively to his art for videogames, 'Spectrum: Videogame Art of Alfonso Azpiri'. It's a very extensive compilation, showing not only the final art, but also lots of pencil sketches, discarded art and artwork for cancelled projects. Unfortunately, the book is now out of print and the asking price for available copies online is very steep. Lucky for me, I got to have my copy signed by Azpiri himself.

Posted on 9/16/2020

Hello Juan,

thank you. YEs, exactly, Barbarian painting. It reminded me GODS  as well to be honest. Interresting with the PINTEREST ... I didn`t know that. Pity that even BIz did not remember why or for  what he did this painting, too much beer I guess :D

I like how it was with popculture in SPain, and I like all those artists you mentioned. I think every counry in Europe has their slightly different but in the global very similar style how they personalised the video games, VHS covers for video or comicbooks by their own artists.

I was looking for the book you mentioned "Spectrum Azpiri" and it looks it is absolutelly unavaiable :( I`ve found one copy on amazon for 200 £  what is quite expensive for book :D. I will try to set up ebay filter and maybe I will have a luck in the future. Thank you for that, I did not know this book.