...a digital artist hobbyist. Since I was young I have been fascinated by magical landscapes, both real and fantasy. I remember being blown away by the stunningly beautiful landscape photography in the National Geographic magazines of the 1990s, and also being mesmerised by many fantasy and sci-fi landscapes described in books and portrayed in films and on TV.
When the internet became more readily accessible after the Millennium, I began to discover digital art websites showcasing very cool alien-looking landscapes. I had no understanding of how they were created, but eventually came across Mojoworld legend Armands Auseklis. Armands was a very early user of Mojoworld - the software I still use to create my work (I'll be following up this blog post with one that goes into more detail about Mojoworld). On discovering his work, I thought to myself, 'I want to learn how to do this,' and in 2003 I started my journey.
To get my journey underway, I downloaded the free demo of the Transporter software that allowed you to render images of worlds other artists had created and shared with the community. The Transporter product was a great introduction to the software, but didn't allow you to 'create' anything. So, a few months later, I took the plunge and got myself the professional Generator software: this was the full world builder. Mastering the software and using it to create my own worlds over the years have given me, and hopefully others, much joy.
Mojoworld is primarily an application for creating digital landscapes, but is diverse enough to create abstract work - which I did pursue a little in the past. In more recent years I have focused my artistic time on what I like doing most, creating atmospheric landscapes and spacescapes of alien worlds. In 2011 I created my Astral Realm project which instead of just having a regular gallery of images, sets out to create a galaxy of worlds to explore with a story behind each. The Astral Realm website itself is very much a work-in-progress and is in need of some TLC (one of things on my to-do list), but I do plan to keep developing the project with both new works and content, along with a brand new website.
People often ask where my inspiration stems from. As previously mentioned, a lot comes from stunning photography, fantasy and sci-fi material; also other artists and even music. However one of the truly great sources of inspiration comes from our own beautiful planet. Getting out into the great outdoors and discovering the beautiful sights our world has to offer - you can't ask for much better inspiration than that.