Superhero Monopoly by Chris Freyer-retro-gameboard-art

Superhero Monopoly (2020)


Video Walkthrough of the (Framed) Original


Produced for the 2020 San Diego County Fair’s Fine Art Show / ‘Heroes Unite!’ category which was postponed until 2022 due to the pandemic. The piece won a People’s Choice Award and a Donated Award from Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies – which came with $100 that I put to good use on supplies!

Keeping with my game board design style, I thought Superheroes would work perfectly in a Monopoly game board design. There is a bit of rhyme and reason to where I placed each superhero. This was a super fun piece to produce and up to this point is probably my best artwork. It showcases many different styles like 80s retro futurism, art deco, art nouveau, and comic book.


Video slideshow to explore the piece

(Recommended: click the expand icon)


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Development of Superhero Monopoly


Supplies:

Posca acrylic paint pens

Molotow acrylic paint pens

Westcott ruler and shape templates


Superhero Monopoly Colors

A total of 57 different colors were used in Superhero Monopoly. I use acrylic paint pens by Posca and Molotow, as well as other various supplies from my local Artist & Craftmen Supply.


Cranium-Carnival-Circus-Edition-boardgame-art-by-Chris-Freyer-retro-gameboard-art

Cranium Carnival (2019)

Keeping with my game board design style, Cranium Carnival is inspired by (you guessed it) the Cranium game board. This piece was a blast to make, although it is one of the most time-consuming pieces in my portfolio. I spent a lot of time crafting the color scheme because I knew I wanted the piece to be very busy and colorful. Besides Superhero Monopoly, I would say this piece is the most stunning in person (especially the original with all the Liquid Chrome highlights).

Cranium Carnival won an Honorable Mention ribbon at the 2022 San Diego County Fair Fine Art Show!



Development of Cranium Carnival


Supplies:

Posca acrylic paint pens

Molotow acrylic paint pens

Westcott ruler, compass, and shape templates


Escape the Witch is an art piece produced by Chris Freyer in 2019-retro-gameboard-art

Escape the Witch (2019)


An abstract art representation of Wizard of Oz movie characters adapted to a Parcheesi game board design

Produced for the 2019 San Diego County Fair’s Fine Art Show / ‘Oz-some’ category. The piece ended up making the art show, received an Honorable Mention, and a donated award from the East County Art Association.

It was early 2018 when I started work on this piece so I had the natural inspiration of starting the year off with a strong art piece. Having Creative DNA make the fine art show at the San Diego County Fair the year before made me want to try and get another piece in the show. I found out that the theme of the fair would be Wizard of Oz and that they would have a category in the art show for Wizard of Oz themed pieces. I took some time to brainstorm ideas for the piece. I was looking at some silhouette illustrations of the characters from the movie. I even watched the movie and took notes on the color schemes used in the production. Around the same time, I was looking at vintage game board designs and decided to craft a Wizard of Oz theme game board. The design is largely based on a Parcheesi game board but also has design inspiration from a vintage board game called Chiromagica.

I consider Escape the Witch a landmark piece in my art career. Really, it was the first piece where I felt like an artist. It jumped started my niche with game board design and my image transferring process that I used in subsequent pieces as well. I also used Molotow acrylic paint pens for the first time in this piece (including my now personal favorite Liquid Chrome pen). Together with Posca, these are my two favorite paint pen brands.


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Development of Escape the Witch


Supplies:

Posca acrylic paint pens

Molotow acrylic paint pens

Westcott ruler and shape templates