Dusty Peterson Makes Video Games By Day, Metal Art By Night
Video game designer Dusty Peterson might have an ideal job to some, but his favorite work happens after he punches out. "My full-time job is making video games," Peterson told Noisecreep in an interview. "So it's a slow process building up a clientele [for design], but I'm getting there. Of course, I do have some leads that are interested in utilizing me for future albums, but they are a little ways off."
Peterson's art and design portfolio isn't extensive just yet, but it's slowly growing as he has some future projects coming down the pike. "I wish I could name drop a little bit, as I am very excited about a couple of them, but nothing is set in stone and I hate to say something and then look like a fool when it comes crashing down, haha. Overall, this is a dream of mine: to be able to do metal album covers.
"Currently, I am not working on any specific metal related projects," he explained. "But I did recently do an album cover for an upstart band called Behold! The Monolith. I sort of channeled Ken Kelly's Manowar covers based on the band's concept. It was nice to do something a little tongue in cheek as well."
Peterson points to two projects in particular as examples of his style -- both for the band Bloodbath. The first is called 'Unblessing the Purity'. Dusty explains his idea: "I wanted the color scheme to be very cold and almost statue-like so that their logo would stand out. I left the cross proper, as opposed to inverted on purpose as I thought it actually made it more blasphemous. Now, in retrospect their song 'Mock The Cross' comes to mind and I think that fits the concept."
The other is a piece called 'The Fathomless Mastery'. "The whole idea here is 'hell on earth,' so I really tried to look to masters such as Gustave Dore to get some ideas," Peterson elaborated. "In all of his Dante's 'Inferno' woodcuts, the people in hell are almost always nude or semi-nude, so I kept that idea here as well. Finally, it's subtle, but they really wanted the dogpriest's -- from the 'Unblessing' cover -- shadow looming over them in some fashion, so you can see the figure on the far-right reaching out to him."