John Ratcliff's Weblog

My Memorial day weekend has been very long, and very eventful. I wish I could post everything that happened but, to be quite honest, I am completey and totally exhausted. I am only making this brief post because I promised a number of my guests that I would post pictures online so they could see them. Here is a fairly raw unedited gallery of some of the weekend photographs which include Alex's weekend at DeMolay conclave, my son John's high school graduation, and our Memorial day party which just so happened to be replete with, as yet, undiscovered super-models. Enjoy. Here is the link: This photograph is the most representative of the day. My new friends Becka and Christa:

Resume, game developer, John Ratcliff, 3d graphics engine, Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment, physics simulation, tools, artififical intelligence, 688 Attack Sub, SSN-21 Seawolf, Cyberstrike, Planetside, Novodex Rocket. Ok...let's see what that does to the Google keyword search. In the past three days my phone has been ringing off the hook getting cold called from headhunters. There must be a lot of game companies desperate for development resources after E3. Today I got a phone call from a headhunter at Electronic Arts who asks, "How would you like to work for EA?"; to which I respond, "Sure, that sounds great, I really enjoyed it when I worked for them before and wrote a couple of top ten best selling games." He responds, "You worked for EA before? Hmmm...that isn't in my files... well, can we get you to work for us again?" My response, "Sure, give me the same deal I had before, 12% of royalties on my game, advances on the con...

I spent this evening scanning in the bulk of my remaining artwork. I just uploaded a new copy of the portfolio. However, I haven't had time to comment the drawings, so without context and description it doesn't make a lot of sense. Some are just scribbles while others are prints. The art is really diverse and basically represents what I haven't thrown in the trash. It is something around 90 pieces. I still have about five to ten more that are somehwere in the attic. These remaining pieces represent my 'best work' and are nicely framed. Some of these pieces even placed in a couple of art shows. After that the only thing I will have left is whatever childhood drawings my mom has that she kept in a scrapbook. I think my next scanner project will be to start scanning in all of my parents really old photo-albums; to preserve them as they slowly fade and degrade. Tomorrow evening is going to be an exciting one for my nephew Charlie. He is being initiated as a Freemason in...

Ok, I finally have an online portfolio! I just finished scanning in about 20 sketches. The bulk of these are from my 'Nagel' period. This was one summer when I was doing sketeches from magazines of beautiful women. It was a period where I was trying to hone my skills at capturing the beauty of a woman in as few lines as possible. However, after finishing this exercise I came to realize I wasn't doing much of anything but copying someone elses artwork; primarily that of the photographer. I think it was a good learning exercise, but nothing more. Later on I focused on figure drawing from live models. I look forward to scanning in a few of the pieces I kept from my last class. This collection here is the most conventional work you will see from me. The bulk of my artwork is outrageously surreal. It really is my nature to draw 'strange things'. Two of my favorite artists are, of course, Salvador Dali and Yves Tanguy. This is really fun for me because I only f...

Well, I'm back from E3. I don't really have anything to report. In fact, I don't even really have the time to. Today I have chores to do and other activities at hand. E3 was the most crowded it has ever been. It was so packed that you felt like you were on a subway train in Tokyo. Absolutely horrific. On the second day of the conference I went to see the new Star Wars movie and then went to the beach. I simply could not bring myself to deal with the crowds again and I wasn't needed at our booth. I was basically 'on call' for technical support if needed and I wasn't needed. On Friday I returned to the show and took photographs of large breasted women. I think that is all there is relevant to report from E3. The reason I am making a brief post today is because while I was out of town I received my scanner. The first thing I did was hook it up and scan in a couple of my drawings to test it out. I can't wait to scan in my entire portfolio and po...

You know, it's funny but I've had this blog for a few years and have never posted my portfolio online. Recently I had an experience where I was treated like an engineer. Now, some people might consider that quite reasonable since it is my job title. However, I have never considered myself an engineer. I have always considered myself as an artist who often uses computer software as his medium of choice. I really miss my art. In fact, I miss it a lot. The thing is, I feel like I only have so much creative energy to invest and when I am programming the computer I have nothing left for art. It has always been an all or nothing thing. On a few occasions I have been able to take a short sabbatical from software and gone back to my art. During college, one semester I stopped taking all engineering courses and only took art and English classes. On several occasions I signed up for figure drawing classes at various colleges. Getting back to my art is most certainly one of the greatest t...

Well I haven't updated my blog in a while. And even though I am uploading the pictures from my Easter vacation now, I don't know when I will have time to post them. I also need to update the template to my blog with some more current information. One key thing I need to update is the link to my calendar . As we get nearer to summer, things are starting to get really busy! According to my calendar, my recent activities have included rejoining my tennis league after a long layoff due to injury, taking Alex to the state math finals in Springfield, a number of backyard barbecue on our new super giant grill, many lodge activities, and a business trip to San Francisco that included a visit to PacBell park to see the Giants and Padre's play. This Tuesday I took most of my family out to the ballpark to see the Cardinals play the Padre's. Sadly, the Cardinals lost but the game was very exciting anyway and included a triple play!! I just recently found out at work that I have to ...