Hello Everyone,
I'd like to welcome you to my website and tell you I appreciate you stopping by; I hope you're enjoying your visit & will tell your friends and family about Birdman's Designs. I have had several emails asking questions about myself so I thought I'd list a few of them along with my responses so you can get to know me a bit better rather than just another artist who has a website among the millions of websites in cyberspace.
Where did "Birdman" come from?Actually it's not as mysterious or exciting as it might seem but first let me tell you where it did NOT come from. It didn't come from the Rapper, the 60's cartoon or the "Birdman of Alcatraz"- I have those dropped to me all the time. I just became nicknamed "Birdman" because in my late teens I developed a fascination with wild birds of all sorts and became an amateur ornithologist(bird scientist). Then when I came online and got into creating graphics I used that nickname for my screen name and that's how the "Birdman" got started.
How long have u been creating?That depends on how u mean; if you mean sig tags then it's about 5 yrs now; if you mean professionally- that'd be about 3 yrs but if you mean creating in general, since I was a little birdie.
What's your media of choice?I use Paint Shop Pro and my graphic tablet the most; I must admit that I'd be lost without my graphic tablet; it lets me fine tune a lot of features on my work & add details that you can only get with using a tablet or going at it with a brush.
Where did u get the idea for Project Penguin?Wow, I always appreciate it when my work creates a question for someone. Actually the idea came to me when I was painting "Snowball Fight"; I thought it'd be cool to see a couple of penguins building a snowman.
How long did the Iron Cross Celtic Knot take you to complete?That particular piece took me about a week to get completely finished; I kept fine tuning parts and replacing different spots that didn't look quite right as the project went along.
How do you come up with your painting titles?Actually most of the time the titles come to me as I'm finishing a painting; from what I've read, most book authors have the same issue but once in a while I will come up with the title before I paint it. Once in a blue moon though I'm even stumped AFTER I've painted and so I take a few extra days til I get a working title to use.
What would you say influences your artwork the most right now? ( March 2007)Hmmm., I'd say some ideas that friends have been throwing my way as well as my general imagination. I finished 2 new pieces; I seem to work in cycles sometimes; for example, in the past month I've worked on 2 NEW Egyptian paintings as well as a couple of new Celtic Knot paintings. It really depends on what ideas I have at the time as well as whatever I'm seeing or watching; such as last year I painted "The Gateway to Hall of Truth" after I watched a documentary on the Book of the Dead that the Egyptians used in ancient times; a vision came to me and I had to create it. A couple of friends gave me a few ideas which turned into "Mom & Cub" as well as "Father & Son" but the Egyptian ones and the Celtic knots were mainly my own idea; I always like to push myself with my work and take on new avenues. Whatever I'm working on I make sure to add a bit of myself into it to give its own unique style & flair.
How do you spend your free time?I have very little of that but when I do manage a bit I like to spend it with my dogs and bird; playing with them, watching a little television, going for a hike to do some birdwatching which is how I originally got my nickname-my love for birds. I also try to be active in animal welfare causes as well as environmental and social causes as much as possible. I feel we all have to do our part; it's one thing to complain about it, it's entirely another to get up and do something about it.(End of soapbox hehe).
I'd like to take a moment and catch all of you up to speed on the book publishing deal I won several months back. I'm so happy lol I finally got the first edition yesterday in the mail and it looks great. I know many of you voted for me so I'd win this contest and if you'd like to get a copy of the book I'd be glad to assist you there; you can order my book here; just scroll down the page til you see my book, "The Wild & The Fanciful" . In this wonderful book you can see 30 of my paintings all in one collection! These include some of my earliest works all the way to the present & with such subjects as big cats, birds, Egyptian art & so much more you're sure to find something in this book that everyone in your family will love to see and read about.
Here is a picture I took at our local lake a couple of years back. You'll see the normal picture I took and what I did with it to give it some special touches. If you think this might be something you'd be interested in having done to some of your pictures, by all means contact me.
