Do you also paint, sculpt, draw, etc?

[Al Seyle]

Just wondering how many of us work -or used to work- in media other than photography. Did you start out drawing or painting and later turned to photography? Do you have any formal art training in something other than photography?

[John_4185]

Yes, I do illustration and design for food, shelter and clothing. Most of it is discursive (scientific & educational). Note that I do not claim it's any good. And Yes, my first work was in hand-drawn art, largely stone lithography. In most regards, I find handwork more usefull in expressing abstraction than photography: the later measured by others' understanding of photography's language, which is not yet grounded.

Training? I am entirely autodidactic; unfortunately, I had a poor instructor. (I keep dreaming that I'll win the Lottery so that I can go to college.)

[darr]

I started my visual arts career as a graphic designer and commercial illustrator. I attended The School of Visual Arts, NYC for some polish and commercial training. Worked in advertising for a few years as a designer and always used the camera to shoot shots that I would use as reference to draw/compose commercial work from. I decided 20+ years ago to leave all the markers behind for film. Never went back. I had a successful portrait/commercial studio for 15 years in the Atlanta area. Now at the tender age of 47 I am self-employed part-time and devoting the rest of my life to fine art photography. If interested, some of my work can be viewed here.

[Kevin M Bourque]

I've always played music of some kind, but no other visual arts. FWIW, asked a similar question on photo.net a couple of years ago....some of the answers are very interesting.

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005rLK

[matthew blais]

I was on course to be an artist, you know, big time. Entered the BFA program after getting sponsored by my Lithography professor at Illinois State. Also took Intaglio with a minor concentration in drawing and painting. Somewhere in there took a couple photography classes.
Although I alwasys had a camera (35mm) around my neck, it was something I just enjoyed as my passion was for printmaking.

My passion for photography came about maybe five years ago and was (still is) as strong as it was for me in printmaking and drawing back then.

Last time I drew was about 9 years ago and it was a struggle. Haven't made a litho/intaglio print in 25 years but think about it now and then.

Someday soon I hope to incorporate all three via some photographic process.

[John Cook]

I began my visual career as a television camera operator. Those days were before transistors, color and video tape. News video was 16mm b&w movie film. I suppose that makes me a history major as well.

Did that for five years, until it became time to "be about my Uncle's business" in the military during Vietnam. The government, in their wisdom, sent me to the Arctic Circle instead. (I tend to perspire a lot.)

Before all that, my only artisitic endeavor was to play (poorly) the ukulele in imitation of my idol, Arthur "buy em by the carton" Godfrey.

[CXC]

I paint in oils and play the harpsichord, both at about the same amateurish, middling level as my LF photography. I came to photography the last, and for me is the least valuable of the three.

I started out in photography with a relatively painterly eye, using a pinhole camera to get various severe effects. Over the years, my interest moved over into more typical, tight focus, normal subjects, while, interestingly, my paintings went in the opposite direction, from an old master style to a nearly abstract, fauve-y approach.

[Richard Boulware]

I started out in college as a graphics-design major, until the camera bug bit.

[Scott Davis]

I still sculpt - I do an occasional stone carving now and then. I used to paint and draw, which was part of my inspiration to get into photography - I wanted to learn just enough about photography to take pictures to use as source material for paintings/drawings. Then I got hooked, when I made my first prints and saw them come up in the developer.

[Ralph Barker]

My first photographic adventures were at about the age of 8, with an inexpensive Ansco TLR purchased for me by my parents. I didn't sell my first painting until the age of 13, and had to wait until 15 before having my poetry published. So, photography officially pre-dated painting and word art for me.

I hasten to add, however, that the painting was an abstract purchased by the father of a then-close high-school friend, and I haven't sold another since. The poetry was published in a high school literary magazine (one issue per year), so no trumpet calls or drum rolls are due there, either. (Perhaps just a single soft burst from a kazoo. ;-) ) I still do pencil sketches on occasion, and doubt that anyone would be interested in purchasing those, either.

I also do woodworking when time allows, and design reproductions of antiques that fit within my sawdust-making skill level and lumber budget. I'd love to design a wooden bridge to span the Golden Gate, using solely Japanese no-fastener joinery, but the whole wind-resistance thing has me completely baffled. ;-)

In my view, all such endeavors are related, like music and math.