Q: “Have you ever participated in a collaboration with your paintings?”

A: Yes, several. I used to do demonstrations (mostly airbrush) at Sc-Fi conventions and one of the activities was a collaboration piece for charity. Some of these were photographed and made into prints. I have lost track over the years, but there are three or four that were done with David Lee Anderson, Robert Daniels Jr., W.J. "Bill" Hodgson, Erin McKee and Lucy Sync, all regional Midwest or plains states SF and Fantasy artists.

Q: “Who inspires your work?”

A: A tough one... I tend to find inspiration from many channels and artists, many of whom I don't even know their names. Aside from the masters such as da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Poussin, Caravaggio and so on, there are the Pre-Raphaelites I enjoy, particularly Alma-Tadema, Frederic Leighton, Edmund Blair Leighton, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Additionally, I am fond of the Golden Age of Illustrators, especially Maxfield Parrish.

I have some contemporary favorites like Bob Eggleton, Eonite (Dick Scherzinger), David Hardy, Vincent Di Fate, and Greg Martin, but I most often find inspiration by looking online at places like Matte Painting (dot org), Inner Traveler (dot com), Renderosity (dot com), and Solar Voyager (dot com).

Q: “Where do you get your ideas for your pieces?”

A: See above... often from film and online sources, but also from some of my contemporaries in the field such as discussions on the IAAA (International Association of Astronomical Artists) list service. Mostly, I have a lot of my own ideas, and sometimes the medium I am working in suggests concepts to me by virtue of what it can do.

Q: “I have an idea for a painting.  If I send it to you, can you paint it?”

A: I could, but I cannot give away my time any more than you can. Would you work for your boss for free? Of course not. Neither can I, and anyone who asks me to do some work for them (especially illustration, which is what that request is) becomes my boss for the duration of the project.

So, the real question is, are you ready to commission a piece? I am ready to create it, so if that is what you want, let's talk...

Q: “What do you envision doing next?”

A: I would like to be more involved with book covers. I also have several pending projects and ideas of my own that I want to develop farther, specifically music and animation or CGI (not manga or anime).

Q: “How do you think your work will evolve?”

A: My work tends to be fairly traditional in composition. The picture plane and its boundaries contain all the information for the composition in most of my work. This comes from a strong connection to the Masters of the Renaissance and from graphic design. I will likely start breaking the picture boundaries more in my work since I really admire the perspectives, angles, and point of view often found in the more contemporary and cutting edge SF/F and Matte painting styles. Habits are sometimes hard to break though!

Q: “How long does it take to do a painting/piece?”

A: This is the most frequent question I get, and the least easy one to answer - so it is the longest answer. This often seems a trick question because sometimes people want to think a piece is less valuable if you didn't spend days or weeks on it. The reality is, every piece I create has years of study, thousands of dollars in software, thousands in equipment, and a lifetime of experience behind it. Without any of that, I could not do what I do. This is a terribly expensive and time consuming endeavor!

Sometimes a piece seems to come together in a single render or sitting, after just a few basic procedures. More often, it takes many hours of setting up parameters for textures, creating skies in ArtMatic, developing function trees or creating new brushes for Photoshop (or in painting - masking, stencil creation, mixing of paints or textures, and maintaining equipment...) just to get to the fun part - painting and creating. Unfortunately, every job has its drudgery.

Usually I spend a couple of days on each piece. I produce a base render which often takes over night after the set-up. Often, the first several versions are not quite right, and after a few adjustments, it is rendered again. This alone sometimes takes a few days! I then take the image into Photoshop and re-size, adjust contrast and so on. I may elect to paint on it or I may then take it into another program to add to it. It then goes back to Photoshop for touch up and maybe some special effects or filters, and compositing for final output.

It is a misnomer to think that digital art is easier and faster... an accomplished painter can actually paint faster than most artists can produce an equally effective, finished piece, via digital programs. Digital art is cleaner, more expensive, more technically involved, and requires a broader range of knowledge than traditional media.