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I almost went to art school, then decided I'd never make any money in it, so got an accounting degree instead. How boring. Guess I never used that accounting degree either since i've been a web developer for the last 7 years..

I just recently started painting again. Does anyone else paint? Got any pics to post of your work? I'd love to see it. I'll post up some of my stuff as soon as I can find the chord for my camera...

shameless website promotion..
if you're interested, check out my friend's website, artscollab.com:

http://www.artscollab.com/

my bro took art classes. he has some paintings framed and mounted on our walls here.

but he's now taking radiology.

i never painted but i liked to draw a lot when i was younger.

VermilionX wrote:my bro took art classes. he has some paintings framed and mounted on our walls here.

but he's now taking radiology.

i never painted but i liked to draw a lot when i was younger.

thanks for that informative post. Only one more to 6,000!

-Holiday wrote:
thanks for that informative post. Only one more to 6,000!

sorry, i thought i was on topic. i apologize.

What about computer art? You're already doing web design, so graphic design would be a short hop over!

No, I don't paint but I do graphic design sometimes. How'd you get into web design? It's something I've been thinking of.

CNF2002 wrote:What about computer art? You're already doing web design, so graphic design would be a short hop over!

No, I don't paint but I do graphic design sometimes. How'd you get into web design? It's something I've been thinking of.

People always confuse web "design" with web "development".

I'm a developer which means I'm mostly a coder/programmer. I write the front end applications that interact with the data and build the front end programatic structure of our e-commerce web sites. I do also work in photoshop and manipulate create elements, but mostly i write java, js, html, asp code. Designers are people who basically use photoshop or some other image editing software to create pictures and designs. I dont do that and dont really have any ambition to.

As far as computer art?
i just can get into it. I've never really taken the time to learn to do real creative type work with photoshop. I much prefer working with my hands which is probably why i prefer acrylics and oils over a keyboard and mouse.

These days, the traditional way someone would get into my field as a web developer is to get a TIS/Computer degree. I was lucky enough to hit the end of the dot com boom where there was still a shortage of "web" development people and they would take any person off the street who could code a website. In addition to regular college, I did actually go to a type of trade school for "business programming and web development" at a school call The Chubb Institute. It was 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for about 10 months. I think they had a design section as well but I'm not sure.

Most people I know in this field who have been around for 7-10 years seem to have degrees that have nothing to do with our field, like me with my accounting degree, my boss has a biology degree, other people have art degrees and business degrees. Some people didnt even go to college but they were lucky enough to get in on this field when it wasnt really required and they didnt even really offer web related material in school anyway.

If you already have some type of education and are interested in becoming a graphic artist, I'd look into some type of related school, plus learn on your own. Putting together a portfolio is probably the most important thing you'd need to do.

That's some great information, thanks. I've been coding HTML since high school and know php, some sql and basic programming languages (like basic and C++), I am pretty advanced in photoshop and flash and know others like illustrator. I've put together tons of websites and full flash software (games) programs which I guess could be a portfolio unfortunately I have little knowledge of ecommerce writing web applications from scratch. Got an unrelated BS degree (literally, ha!) and thought about going back for a computer science degree but can't do all that math. Haven't a clue how to go about getting a job in that field.

I paint, but I paint motorcycles. I've tried other mediums, but my love for motorcycles keeps pulling me this way. The term "starving artist" really applies to most of us. I can make a lot more money painting cars at a collision center, but that doesn't make me happy. Doing what makes me happy is most important.
My work can be seen at www.beyondthepaintinc.com

That's some great work, Beyond.

I did a mix of graphic design and photography for 5 years after segueing from some basic web design.. but all in all, i found being stuck behind a computer to be a real drag.

basically i have a decent enough eye for the design process, but i dislike using adobe software (just as much as i dislike using microsoft stuff) and so i chose packages that worked well enough for me to develop my own thing... however, it makes me unemployable in most any company since i used none of the major software tools. which is ok, since i'm bored of it, although with the right incentive (moral purpose probably) i could get the camera skills back. Anyway all the sitting behind the pc makes me lazy, and the easy money didn't help either. i seem to enjoy a challange and I always prefer working with a couple good people rather than working alone, which all my freelance work was: solo.

now i just finished taking over 5 months off kicking around all winter, pondering other stuff. writing has been a big past-time of mine for years, but i rarely share that stuff, and need to change that habit. i snagged a guitar but again, found it boring sitting around learning... so i need to improve other things and then we'll see where to go next...

traditional arts are a little nicer too: more tactile, so i do sketch a little... anyhoo... accounting would probably kill me too. i just keep trying new stuff every once in awhile, but it's costly, but then again so is this 5 month "holiday". i guess that's good notice to look for a new gig for me

//monkey