Do you like the above portrait? It’s something I’m very proud of and am using as my gaming avatar.
Growing up, as a Commodore 64 owner and gamer, it was pretty much a requirement to read Zzap!64. Spectrum owners had Crash! Whichever you read, one of the things that stood out was the superb art of Oliver Frey, who is particularly well known for the covers.
But, not just the covers, Oli Frey was also known for the portraits of the reviewers.
As you can see from the right, they were always monochrome drawings, shoulders upwards with arm and hand detail. Every reviewer had their own unique pose. And the same technique was used on both Zzap!64 and Crash!.
So, when I found that it was now possible to pay Oliver to draw you one of these portraits, well, I had to. The hardest part for me was taking a selfie to send to him that I was happy with (okay, it wasn’t a selfie technically, as my wife took the picture).
Anyway, I’m extremely happy with the results. I can’t imagine what my teenage self would have thought about ever having one of these portraits.
Talk to me!