My earliest artistic endeavors were probably coloring books where, even at the early age of 3 or 4, I would meticulously outline each area before shading it in to make sure I didn't color outside the lines.
Later on, I graduated to pencil and paper, then art pens, and eventually water colors, one of my earliest subjects being the Starship
Enterprise in everything from schematic views to battle scenes. I was obsessed with Star Trek and sci-fi in general from a very early age and have rarely drawn anything outside of that genre.
In high school, I got involved in drafting classes, back when everything was still done by hand with rulers, T-squares and mechanical pencils. I was also fascinated by computers and became a regular haunt in the school's computer lab, which was populated by state-of-the-art Apple IIe's. It was my math teacher who planted the seed that I should one day find a way to combine the two interests, which I eventually did when I earned my degree in Computer-Aided Drafting and Design.
Aside from that and a couple of months worth of water color classes, I never had any formal training. Somewhat to my regret, I never really tried my hand at painting or other mediums beyond simple pen and pencil. Just never seemed to have the discipline or patience for it. I went in the direction of 3D modeling instead, using AutoCAD and an early version of TrueSpace to build the first iterations of my U.E.S.
Vanguard pre-TOS Trek ship design back in the late 90s (another project I still need to finish one day). That was followed by my 3D rendtition of Franz Joseph Schnaubelt's U.S.S.
Constitution, my re-vamped TOS
Enterprise and, of course, the USS
Grandeur, as well as a couple dozen other minor projects.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped drawing anything by hand altogether. I'd do a rough pencil sketch now and then, just doodling mostly or working out details of one 3D project or another, but my traditional artistic endeavors had pretty much withered on the vine by the mid-2000s.
Then, a couple of years ago, I discovered a little company called Wacom. I started out with one of their cheap-o Bamboo digital tablets and had my own personal artistic awakening. Within a year, I managed to save up the money for a Cintiq tablet, the 15" version with the display built-in so there was no unnatural disconnect between the hand and eye. This opened whole new vistas for me and I have started experimenting with the digital versions of mediums like oil painting that I had never tried before. The flexibility of working digitally finally overcame my lack of patience for such things, so in that sense it has been a great boon to me. I still do some pencil and paper work now and then, but anything beyond that goes straight into the digital realm and I haven't looked back.
I've become so enthused about digital art in general that I am now contemplating the idea of going back to school for it and trying to make a late career out of it. I've had a number of things going on in my life over the last 5 or 6 years that have prevented me from dedicating more time to this sort of thing, but it looks like I may finally be getting some of those affairs in order and be ready to move on to bigger and better things. One can dream, anyway.
But I have taught myself how to use Photoshop and Illustrator so I muddle through. But I really need some training on web coding and I would love to learn how to model in 3D. (I tried teaching myself but it is a HUGE leap from working with clay.)
