Animal portraits by Rene Gimpel

Classical realism is not a lost art

I was a 3d graphics programmer for years before getting into any sort of art – I felt that couldn’t draw, and I wanted to program a machine to do it… when I did start drawing, it was almost a natural evolution of my CGI coding knowledge, because I understand how to create realistic images using lighting/etc…

I drew privately for several years before semi-accidentally falling into a niche of animal portraits for charity – my time is donated for custom animal portraits for auctions and misc. events – this allows me to contribute and provides a unique purpose for each piece..

As an artist, I am most interested in classical realism using traditional tools and methods (despite my background I’m not much into digital art)…my current focus is human portraiture in a live setting, and this can take years of training.

This is why Drawing Academy is important to me; the core skills and development that I’m after will only be understood by others with the same level of enthusiasm and long term commitment… as an engineer I appreciate the complexity and relevance of drawing to the human condition, and that respect is clearly shared by Drawing Academy.

As a fairly accomplished “graphics guy” and traditional artist, I’m already on my path to the next level – but I’m also at the stage where getting to the next level is more difficult on my own – getting an open slot at DA would be a great boost to my self-directed progress, and a validation of my efforts – I appreciate any and all support :)