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 (http://www.cameraartist.com).

[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.

[Edward Mast]

Began photography as a hobby in the 50's. Began drawing and painting in the late 60's with courses at local universities, private "ateliers" and workshops. Continue photography and drawing/painting, with the landscape my primary subject. (Played music from Jr. High on - now as a cellist in a few local amateur quartets).

[MIke Sherck]

Although I don't have a degree of any kind (and "art" training consists of one "Art Appreciation" class which ended up focusing on Greek architecture,) my background is technical (20 years as a computer programmer, the last few as the pointy-haired boss.) Photography started as a hobby (well, still is, actually.) I recently took up guitar again after having dropped it as a young man when the family came along, and have also begun to become interested in drawing and sketching.

[Calamity Jane]

I'm impressed - so many artists!

Not an "artistic" bone in my body ;-) Aside from doing a cartoon strip for the local weekly paper while I was in college (35 years ago), I couldn't draw, sculpt, or paint anything recognizable if my life depended on it! I can appreciate something that appeals to my eye but my artists friends say it isn't "art" (snicker!)

[paulr]

I started as a writer. Liked to draw, but was never accomplished. Photography took over much of my life late in college while i was still studying literature. I dropped photo several years ago to become a musician ... somthing i always wanted to do. but then burned out on that and came back to photo.

I prefer the title "artist" to "photographer" because it's open ended enough to be almost meaningless ... not likely to pin me down, I think I keep coming back to photo because I have the easiest time expressing with it what I'm able to express with it ... although there are many aspects of my life and feelings about life that are better expressed in writing or in music. I just have yet to find a real voice in those other media.

[Struan Gray]

I'm a physicist who thinks in pictures. I like to annoy my artist friends by saying that I get the same aesthetic response from a good painting and a good equation. It's true.

[Alan Peck]

I have an art degree. Started college in illustration but graduated in advertising design. Most of my buddies were in the photo program and I had a lot of fun assisting them in the studio. I did the art director/designer thing at a few ad agencies and now do inhouse work for a large marketing place. I do freelance illustration and try to draw everyday in the sketchbook to keep me sharp. Photography seemed like a natural avenue to everything else and I've found that I really enjoy it on an unexpected level.

For those interested my illustration site is www.menacingtourist.net but be patient with the load time. It's meant for people with agency connections :)

[Jim Galli]

No, no.

[paulr]

"I like to annoy my artist friends by saying that I get the same aesthetic response from a good painting and a good equation."

A lot of musicians and composers would understand, especially in new music. I have a friend who's getting her doctorate in new music performance. Some of the compositions are extremely cerebral ... mathematical, theoretical, pattern based. They tend to see the more common understanding of music (as pure emotional expression) to be only one of many possibilities.

[Leigh Perry]

I'd echo Struan's point with another example. The three activities that have claimed substantial chunks of my
life have been composing & playing music, photography, and software development. This may be hard to accept
but there are remarkable similarities between the three. Each has a creative^{<small>*</small>} and a technical component, and the
execution of the activity requires both to come together.


Computer programming? Creative? Perhaps it just has an image problem -- Alexei Sayle's future folksong starts "Oh, I'm a computer programmer from jolly Milton Keynes..."

[Matthew Cordery]

I can pick my nose pretty well when I put my mind to it....or finger as the case may be.

[Percy]

I've been drawing (primarily people) for at least 35 years (started as a wee lad). First picked
up a (digital) camera a few years ago to acquire subject matter from which to paint...
Long story short, I have been addicted for about 3-4 years now. Found I liked film a lot more
than digital, 645 more than 35, 6x6 more than 645, and just ordered an 8x10 today.

Zeiss, I was hurt under your arm! Look for me tomorrow, and you will find me a...
gravure... man. :-)

[Mark Sawyer]

Interesting responses to an intriguing question!

While I have a BFA and did the mandatory painting/drawing/sculpture classes, I always felt the "mandatory" part, and felt I was a dabbbler in someone else's medium. Photography always felt like where I should be, though it's difficult to explain why, even to myself...

But I own an old house which is slowly being restored, (just put wainscoating in the bathroom!), and enjoy building little out-buildings in the backyard, (three so far), building furniture, and landscaping/gardening. Cooking also rates as doing more than just fixing something to eat, especially when friends are involved. These activities often seem as creative and rewarding as photography.

[gene LaFord]

I have a MFA in sculpture and taught it on a part-time basis for a few years. During those times I did paintings, drawings and some photography.
When the kids arrived on the scene, I was a full-time MR Mom, part-time sculpture teacher and part-time camera salesman. Free time to pursue artistic endeavors was really limited. Photography then became my artistic poison of choice ( I had been dabling in photography all through college) and I enjoy it greatly.
Now that the kids are almost out of the house, I may start doing some painting again in the near future.

[Wayne]

I used to scribble drawings in college when I wasnt paying attention, ie most of the time (I chose the wrong major, science instead of some useless but satisfying artistic field), but thats about it for visual arts. I've always written things of little or so consequence, journals, very short stories (VSS), poetry, rants, and general drivel. I have conceived ideas for much longer written works and even movies but dont have the focus or worth ethic to see them thorugh, so I wisely dont start them. I recently (and unfortunately, belatedly) started learning several musical instruments and started writing songs, which now consumes most of my time and is currently my favorite form of wasting time.

[Struan Gray]

Paul, Leigh, it's nice to have some agreement. I'm always surprised at the vehemence with which people on both sides insist on the seperation of the Two Cultures. It always seemed baffling to me because I got the same feelings and emotions out of an elegent bit of science as an elegant bit of sculpture or painting - or architecture or pottery for that matter. Those with synesthesia have experienced similar insistence that they can't be feeling what they know full well they are feeling, and indeed can't avoid feeling even if they wanted to.

I know a lot of mathematical musicians, but then also I also know plenty of musicians who avoid triple time because counting to three gives them a headache. The link is not inevitable.

I have been blessed - or cursed - with a general visual awareness that permeates my whole life, even when never given formal expression. Heading south from Lofoton one Easter, my friend and I had driven in relays through the night, and started looking for a spot to eat breakfast somewhere in middle Värmland. We passed sparkling lake after sparkling lake, but my friend eventually pulled off beside a pile of shit-brown snow at the edge of a clearcut and happily started setting up the stove on a bed of slimy gravel. He conceded that the sunlight-dappled lakeside beach I forcibly decamped him to had considerably more charm, but I could never persuade him that it was worth the effort.

[CXC]

As a software guy for 25+ years, I have to disagree with the science = art folks. The satisfaction I take after a good day of coding is completely different from that I get from the camera, or from the harpsichord. They may bring the same smile to my lips, and the same endorphin to my brain, but the intellectual processes are independent.

While it's true that music such as Bach's has a clarity and perfection to it that is reminiscent of math and logic, its auditory qualities place it into an entirely different realm. For apples vs. apples, you'd have to compare some math equations and the music score, silently. IMHO.

I know this is a minority opinion, but there it is.

[Mark_3899]

I draw, paint and sculpt, although not so much anymore. Photography was sort of the family business and has always been a part of my life. When I can make time outside making a living it is pretty much photography at this point. I received my BFA in 1985.

[Richard Årlin]

I started as a printmaking artist, copper engravings mostly but everything exept lithography and silkscreen, all b&w. I am also a hand-paper maker including building a stamper-beater, wirescreen loom and papermoulds and I am now cutting stamps for my second hand-cast typeface. I use it in books illustrated by burin engravings, woodcuts and photogravure. I have been photographing for fun, mostly b&w with Leicas until I got a second hand 5x7 monorail for a book. I now mostly use an Ebony SV45TE for enlargings and a Shen Hao HZX 810-IIAT for contact printing. I just recieved a box of Cenntennial POP eager to try it out with 8x10

[John Alexander Dow]

I guess I am the only potter so far. For work I am a systems developer but this does not fully satisfy my creative streak. Pottery and Photograhy do. Incidentally I am a much better potter than photographer although a lot more of my time and effort goes into photography.

JD..

[fred arnold]

Personally, I caligraph a little on the side, and hack around in the garden. I agree with Struan, to a point, but I'm a structural chemist, so we tend to get various pictures as a byproduct of the work. Every now and then you'll get one that's both pleasing intrinsically, and worth playing with to get an inspiring illustration. The old, "that's a lovely molecule, but the bonds should really be in pale, metallic, green, to highlight the structure".

[Leonard Metcalf]

I always wanted to be an artist, learnt to draw, and paint in watercolours. I also learnt pottery. I spent 3 years at art school, and found myself at home in the photography department. I also loved printmaking (etching and lithography)...

It was in the photography department that I was allowed and encouraged to explore my love for nature (other departments wanted the exploration of inner emotions or political stuff)... a fantastic place to explore photography without the rigid constraints of course work....

I will be forever grateful to the photography teachers who inspired and guided me there...

So my love for large format photography started... at first with there TOYO 4 x5... latter a linhof and a graphic.... now my ebony.... twenty years of colour work has seen me return to black and white again... oh the joys....

I still paint and draw occassionally, and a few etching plates get done... from time to time...

[RJ Hicks]

I work on rebuilding cars along with fabrication, not hugely artistic but nothing like working with the hands. Ialso have started to build wood furniture from scratch. Takes a ton of time which suits me fine, its either play with this stuff in my garage or I have to do the dishes.

[John Kasaian]

I like to doodle and play the saxophone ( not at the same time of course) and I'm not very good at either. I used to be a farrier and sculpting horse's hooves with a rasp and hot forge work strikes me as being a kind of an art form but the only one who'd appreciate it would be the horse!