Working in the 'Media'

When I was still in art school, a buddy of mine and I got a tiny dealer's table at a convention in the Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago.  At the time, it was a bit of a run down old Michigan Avenue hotel, in a seeder part of downtown.

We split one tiny table.  And thus, that's how my adult life of selling artwork began.  At a really really small Star Trek Convention!

I had a knack for not only painting portraits... but likenesses as well.  As it turns out, only a few people can achieve them, even though many artists paint very nice portraits.

So, for quite a number of years, I would paint images such as this Babylon Five character.

These are all watercolors.  The idea was to put them in a "movie poster" format, as we were taught in our illustration classes.

Eventually I tried to get more and more humor in the images... like this Trouble With Tribbles painting.  Eventually I would have to give up on them in favor of the Wildlife, Astronomy and Celtic Mythology series, since I saw lots of other "media painters" getting cease and desist orders.

That was a bummer, but I suppose it was all for the best.  I knew that the other genres of painting had far more longevity to them.  Media paintings had a tendency to run hot and cold, depending on what show was popular at the time.

Also, with more and more shows coming out, the fans became more fractured in their interests, making it almost impossible to judge where to go and what to take to a show.

However, I do have half a dozen pieces of artwork that have signatures of the Actors/Actresses who played the characters!!!