I’ve enjoyed making photographs since I was old enough to work my mom’s Polaroid SX-70, but the only painting/sketching I’d ever done was motivated by elementary school assignments or other externally-driven impetus.

In the mid-2000’s, I worked in the visual effects field, and gained my first taste of painting doing wire and rig removal on complex practical effects shots. There is little room for subjective input in this area, so the ”painting” in this case didn’t scratch the creative itch.

Like Helene, I first discovered mobile digital painting when I saw the Colombo New Yorker cover last year, which led me to the Brushes group on Flickr. Of course, I was bowled over by what I saw there (and I continue to be!) and was inspired to try painting creatively for the first time in my life.

The lack of any art education or experience with traditional media predisposed me to fall back to my love of photography for inspiration. Thus, one of the challenges I set for myself has been to differentiate the results of my mobile digital painting efforts from my photography. To try to exploit this new medium in ways that couldn’t be accomplished by simply pointing and shooting.

I never paint over a photo (though I have no prejudice against the practice whatsoever), as I feel the need to hone my sketching/painting skills through the trial and error of ”by eye” guesstimation. I refer to photographs for most of my paintings, though my goal is to paint from life for the majority of my stuff.

I find the act of painting to be meditative, and tremendously soul-soothing. It’s icing on the cake that the community of mobile digital artists are so encouraging, sharing, and talented.