My Digital Existence

Created in under 2 minutes in Microsoft Paint

I don’t know if I foresaw the digital revolution of art coming, but I embraced it from a very early age. It’s only appropriate I would become a digital artist.

In grade school, before printers and computer screens were really colored, I was creating pixel art in a print shop program. It was essentially clipart. I would spend hours blocking in pixel-by-pixel until I had an image. Think NES Mario in black and white.

And, how cool was Mario Paint? Mario Paint was released for the Super Nintendo in 1992, and came bundled with a mouse.  I remember staying up late at night drawing freehand and composing musical scores. Apparently, the first Homestar Runner, a popular animation, was created using Mario Paint.

As computers became household items, so did Microsoft Paint. I used Paint to create cartoon characters, business cards for my fictitious company, web images, t-shirts and GIF animations. Looking back, the end results were pretty atrocious, but they were a beginning.

After high school, I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop. My first experience was overwhelming. I thought filters were the coolest technology. I began applying filters to every photo I could find. Scary!!

Eventually, I learned Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, Director, Flash, QuarkXPress, InDesign, AutoCad, Maya and the list goes on.

Each one presented new challenges, but became invaluable tools of design. I am interested in seeing what digital innovations are heading our way.  Will we hit a standstill, or will there be a new must-have software program or feature?