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 things I am looking forward to when I retire.
I think over the next month or so I will scan in my entire portfolio and post it on the web log. Since I don't have any place really to hang all of this art on my walls (it has mostly been sitting under my bed for about twenty years) why not hang it here in a virtual gallery?
Very quickly this evening I scanned in four images I found. These are scans from faded and heavily duplicated Xerox copies of the original artwork. I do have all of the original artwork somewhere. I hope to find it and build a reasonable portfolio in chronological order. A portfolio that I hope will inspire me to add to it some day.
In the short term, here are four scans, three of which were from old party invitations. I used to have a tradition of throwing a unique and creative party once a year and, on each occasion, I would create an original work of art as the cover for the invitation.
This first is from our "Celebration of Color" party. The portrait is of an absolutely stunning girl I saw on campus one day. I stopped and asked her if I could draw her portrait. Surprisingly, she sat down for thirty minutes and let me do a sketch (this sort of thing was a far easier task when I was young and handsome, long before I became the middle aged fat man I am today). Later I reduced the sketch to a basic set of lines that I felt captured the essence of her beauty.
This second scan is also from a party invitation. This was for my second story telling party. At this party we invited people to sit around and tell stories, from either their personal life or completely fictional. People were slow to get going but soon warmed to the task and, though my memory is completely disfunctional, I have this vague recollection that it was an incredible experience. People told stories which were funny, strange, and poignant. Of course, I don't remember any of it in any detail since I didn't have a blog back then. In fact, I wouldn't even remember the party if I had not just dug up the invitation. This was the second edition of the infamous story telling party (the original marketed as the party of the century), and was an attempt to recapture the pioneering spirit of the first; I don't remember whether it did or not.
The quality of this scan is very poor. This is actually one of my better works of art. In fact I even won first place in an art contest with it once. I will definitely find the original, scan it in, and post it online later. The woman in the drawing is model/actress Andy McDowell. I drew it from a photograph in a glamour magazine. In fact, at one time I kept a 'morgue', which is a folder filled with clippings. I would spend hours and hours pouring through Vogue, Glamour, and other major model magazines clipping out photos of absolutely stunning women in interesting settings. I was never good at drawing the full figure, only the face. Later on, when I took figure drawing courses, I finally was able to draw the female form in its entirety.
This third scan is also from another party invitation. Perhaps it was for the first storytelling party. Yes, I think that is the case, since John Oberschelp and I put that party on together. Again, this is a relatively poor quality scan and I hope to find the original piece of artwork. I wonder if I gave it to John? The man in the drawing is, in fact, my friend John Oberschelp. Not necessarily a good likeness and, most certainly not a beautiful woman. However, not all party invitations can be of beautiful women, that would be cliche.
This fourth and final scan is a little scribble I made for the original game proposal I sent to Electronic Arts way back in 1983 or so. Surprisingly this led to my game development contract for '688 Attack Sub' and, ultimately, my career in computer games.
I really look forward to putting my portfolio online. I'm sure I will enjoy it as much as I do browsing through the photographs I have here that remind me of things of interest that have happened in my life. Of course, I can always forward the link to people who make the mistake of presuming I am merely a non-creative engineer incapable of grasping the concept of aesthetics. You know, since I only shipped any number of computer games where I was designer, producer, and developer, what could I really know about how to present compelling visual effects?
Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure having my portfolio online will inspire me to create some new artwork. Now that I am a Freemason I am curiously attracted to the idea of weaving Masonic symbols into my work.
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 things I am looking forward to when I retire.
I think over the next month or so I will scan in my entire portfolio and post it on the web log. Since I don't have any place really to hang all of this art on my walls (it has mostly been sitting under my bed for about twenty years) why not hang it here in a virtual gallery?
Very quickly this evening I scanned in four images I found. These are scans from faded and heavily duplicated Xerox copies of the original artwork. I do have all of the original artwork somewhere. I hope to find it and build a reasonable portfolio in chronological order. A portfolio that I hope will inspire me to add to it some day.
In the short term, here are four scans, three of which were from old party invitations. I used to have a tradition of throwing a unique and creative party once a year and, on each occasion, I would create an original work of art as the cover for the invitation.
This first is from our "Celebration of Color" party. The portrait is of an absolutely stunning girl I saw on campus one day. I stopped and asked her if I could draw her portrait. Surprisingly, she sat down for thirty minutes and let me do a sketch (this sort of thing was a far easier task when I was young and handsome, long before I became the middle aged fat man I am today). Later I reduced the sketch to a basic set of lines that I felt captured the essence of her beauty.
This second scan is also from a party invitation. This was for my second story telling party. At this party we invited people to sit around and tell stories, from either their personal life or completely fictional. People were slow to get going but soon warmed to the task and, though my memory is completely disfunctional, I have this vague recollection that it was an incredible experience. People told stories which were funny, strange, and poignant. Of course, I don't remember any of it in any detail since I didn't have a blog back then. In fact, I wouldn't even remember the party if I had not just dug up the invitation. This was the second edition of the infamous story telling party (the original marketed as the party of the century), and was an attempt to recapture the pioneering spirit of the first; I don't remember whether it did or not.
The quality of this scan is very poor. This is actually one of my better works of art. In fact I even won first place in an art contest with it once. I will definitely find the original, scan it in, and post it online later. The woman in the drawing is model/actress Andy McDowell. I drew it from a photograph in a glamour magazine. In fact, at one time I kept a 'morgue', which is a folder filled with clippings. I would spend hours and hours pouring through Vogue, Glamour, and other major model magazines clipping out photos of absolutely stunning women in interesting settings. I was never good at drawing the full figure, only the face. Later on, when I took figure drawing courses, I finally was able to draw the female form in its entirety.
This third scan is also from another party invitation. Perhaps it was for the first storytelling party. Yes, I think that is the case, since John Oberschelp and I put that party on together. Again, this is a relatively poor quality scan and I hope to find the original piece of artwork. I wonder if I gave it to John? The man in the drawing is, in fact, my friend John Oberschelp. Not necessarily a good likeness and, most certainly not a beautiful woman. However, not all party invitations can be of beautiful women, that would be cliche.
This fourth and final scan is a little scribble I made for the original game proposal I sent to Electronic Arts way back in 1983 or so. Surprisingly this led to my game development contract for '688 Attack Sub' and, ultimately, my career in computer games.
I really look forward to putting my portfolio online. I'm sure I will enjoy it as much as I do browsing through the photographs I have here that remind me of things of interest that have happened in my life. Of course, I can always forward the link to people who make the mistake of presuming I am merely a non-creative engineer incapable of grasping the concept of aesthetics. You know, since I only shipped any number of computer games where I was designer, producer, and developer, what could I really know about how to present compelling visual effects?
Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure having my portfolio online will inspire me to create some new artwork. Now that I am a Freemason I am curiously attracted to the idea of weaving Masonic symbols into my work.
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