Hey everybody. Before, I posted a short introduction explaining a little bit about who I am. But, as the designer, there is a lot more that goes into understanding my perception of art. So, I will take a moment to discuss some of my beliefs, experience, and stylistic preferences.
If I went through the whole story, things might get a little bit complicated. I had some experience with drawing before I was in high school, but nobody every really cared (I am still shy and dislike showing off incomplete drawings), and it was limited to small sketches of things I saw on TV or in games. I actually drew comics as early as ten years of age, and I was pretty proud of them. What I mostly want to note about that is that I wanted to use pictures to tell stories even from a fairly young age.
I love stories, and they are incredibly important to human culture in more ways than you might even imagine. Stories, when you think about it, are a logical extension of language itself. Language can present any idea to other individuals acquainted with that language, and stories are simply a series of related ideas. They do not even always have to be presented in a specific order to make sense, and the manner in which a story is told can, alone, make it unique. However, other than artistic expression, stories are also useful tools for learning. They can teach us about events that occurred in the past to show us how the world became how it is, and can help us understand moral values as well as teach us techniques that we can use to make further discoveries.
With that view in mind, it is easy to understand why I developed such a fascination with stories in high school. At that time, I began experimenting with writing. Now, I was not a huge reader in fantasy or science fiction at the time, but it was still something that was around me and an active influence. My style might have been unique because my experience with writing actually came more from scientific documents, such that I developed specific patterns of organization within a work and used mostly formal language. Though I have eased up somewhat on the formality of my writing style since then, the influence is still there; for example, I almost never use contractions outside of dialogue, even in casual environments like this blog. I also like having facts exactly right when I write, which pushed me into worldbuilding. For me, as with many fantasy artists, worldbuilding is like a drug.
That is actually how I came back to drawing. I had difficulty, at first, describing characters, so I wanted to draw pictures to go along with them, to make them a little more clear. My greatest artistic influence, at that time, was anime, and as such, I began copying that style. My weapon of choice: the pencil. This is still my preferred tool, and even much of my digital art stems from pencil drawings. (At the time of this writing, my icon is a sprite made from a pencil sketch of Amplectobelua symbrachiata, related to the better-known Anomalocaris, a creature known from Cambrian fossils.) My artistic style went from simple sketches in anime style to more elaborate, detail-oriented drawings that diverged from that, and then back to simpler pencil sketches as I became more familiar with common artistic techniques. Nowadays, I rarely draw humans, but my style with everything else is a bit more distinctive... and my proportions are better.
In high school, music also became a much more dominant influence in my life. This is largely because of my experiences in band at that time exposing me to classical repertoire and things that I liked in general, though access to music through the internet facilitated this, as well. I had taken a liking to jazz music in middle school, but by my second year in high school, my listening habits switched over primarily to classical music. I am still greatly into classical music, especially romantic classical music. I also like opera, aided by working at a movie theater that broadcasts performances at the Metropolitan Opera.
At the end of high school, though I had some basic artistic skill, I actually was not sure what I wanted to do. I was pushed into Parkland and ended up signing on in Digital Media. The first semester threw me in art classes that were way more advanced than I should have had right off; as such, I spent more time dabbling in general computer skills (programming and networking, mostly) before my first 3D class convinced me to stick with art, at least for the remainder of the program. I developed quickly in 3D art, as opposed to traditional drawing, with which my improvement had stagnated for some time. In 3D animation classes, my instincts with timing were praised, and I was compared to people I would have considered far out of my league. (Ever heard the name Tex Avery? I am not kidding. This is why I need to get back to 3D animation.)
I graduated from Parkland College, and ever since, I have maintained my connection to art. Lately, it has been a little strained, as I have had to keep up with much more demanding classes and work at the same time. Unfortunately, I do not have lots of examples readily available because of that, but once I am a little more familiar with the blogging software, as well, I will try to make sure I post a picture or two with each article.
