Updating my website in 2021 involved looking back on years of professional work as well as the personal projects that preceded my career. I liked reconnecting with some of my earlier artwork and seeing how -- even when completely analog -- there were obvious signs of leaning into visual effects, communicating ideas through images, etc.

Before I had an email or had even "surfed" the internet, I was an art student weaving meaning into my colored pencil drawings. Opening Photoshop for the first time at age 19 unleashed an insane power. For the first time with my art I had an undo button, allowing me to experiment without fear. Instead of drawing a face I could start with a photo, allowing me to focus more on meaning and less on craft. 

This paradigm-shifting event my junior year in college -- switching from analog to digital -- was eclipsed a week later by news that I'd soon be a dad. Looking back and connecting the dots years later, it appears serendipitous that these two events dovetailed so nicely... resulting in my career as a visual effects artist, and the passion to express myself via digital art.

I was a young artist with an insane new tool and an avalanche of emotion in need of expression.

But I'm skipping ahead...

Self-Portrait, 1995

photo-2

You can't connect the dots looking forward.

1982c_SELF_PORTRAIT_9x12_sm2K

A series of abstract self-portraits from when I was 10 years old.

Growing up, I used many different types of media.

1983_09_25_FLOWERS_7.5x9_sm2k
1988_SHINY_DRESS_8x17_sm2k
1987_02_01_PLANT_8.5×11.5_sm2k-1
1988_10_TEXTURE_10x13_sm2k
1985c_ABSTRACT_03_6x6.5_sm2k
1989_04_17_DAD_12.5x19_sm2k
1988_10_24_GREEN_LINES_11x18_sm2k
1989_03_JEFFREY_PINE_11x16_sm2k
1988_02_CONFINING-VASE_6x6x8.5_sm2k

By the end of junior high, I was mainly using colored pencils or graphite.

1989_04_JORDAN_14x20_sm2k

In 9th grade, I was a huge Michael Jordan fan. At the time, this was my favorite drawing. It was one of the first times I had done a collage or used colored pencils.

The ring of smaller Jordans reminds me of the ring of Eroses in Gaea.

1989

1992_03_EFFECT_of_DRUGS_11x23_sm2k

THE EFFECT OF DRUGS

I submitted this in place of a written paper for a social studies class project on drugs. I got a B.

I was a junior in high school and wondered if, at any point in my life, I'd try drugs. I didn't have a strong opinion one way or the other. But I wanted my future self to know that I was always a bit weird. In other words, don't blame drugs. Not sure if that makes sense, but that was what I was thinking.

I also wanted to remind my future self of who I was at that point in my life, a bit of a time capsule. I don't remember all the details, but I remember that it has some of my favorite items from the time... A Pink Floyd album, the book Joshua, a Bible. 

Looking at it with fresh eyes 30 years later, I see a few parallels to some of the art I enjoy doing most today. Using "visual effects" (the cross-sections of the tree and the cross, drop shadows, reflective spheres, a water drop morphing into a hand, upside-down skull in the top right, etc.).

These each had deeper meanings... the hand pulling back the veil and revealing the nature of its reality—an awakening. 

Parallels between Jesus reaching out on one dimension and (what I later learned was called by the Greeks...) Gaea on another. 

1991_01_DEEP_PURPLE_12x12_sm2k

Using the chessboard to form her face, the teardrop morphing into another form... funny how I've always liked doing those sorts of things.

Reminds me of parts of Rebirth of Gaea.

1991

1989_04_JORDAN_detail_01zoom_2k
1992_03_EFFECT_of_DRUGS_11x23_detail_01_sm
1991_01_DEEP_PURPLE_12x12_detail_01
1990c_STILL-LIFE_15x17_sm2k

Unfinished still life. My favorite part to work on was the saddle.

1990

My Distorted Sister (1990)

Ahhhh... poor Erin. I wanted to create a fish-eye lens effect, and Snapchat didn't exist yet.

1990

1992_KETTLE_8.5x12_sm2k

POV. Sitting at my dining room table and drawing a tea kettle.

1992

1990c_STILL-LIFE_15x17_detail
1990_03_MY_DISTORTED_SISTER_12x12_detail01
1992_KETTLE_8.5x12_detail
1992_KIDPIX_DAD_in_ALASKA

My first digital artwork, using a program called KidPix, created by Craig Hickman.

There were few colors to choose from, hence the "stylized" version of my dad's skin tones -- to add shadows, I could choose a darker color, but it wasn't necessarily the same hue as the others. 

Nice water glints! :)  

1992

Studying art in college,

the first few years were entirely analog.

1993_MOTHER_and_CHILD_13x9x5_sm2k
1993_SELF_PORTRAIT_14x9x8_sm2k
1994_PHOTO_LAKE_SCULPTURE_sm2k
1995_03_LONDON_bottle_6.5×7.5_sm4
1994_PINK_FLOYD_14x16_sm2k
1993_SIBLINGS_15x22-crop_sm2k
1993_VETTE_11.5x15_sm2k

My new favorite medium was marker renderings on vellum. 

1993

1994_06_ABSORBED_16x20_sm8

A colored pencil drawing I made for my girlfriend at the time.

1994

As a junior in college, I found out I'd be becoming a dad.

1995_06_CHAMELEON_AMBIGUITY_4x4_sm2

This is a colored pencil self-portrait from the summer I pivoted from being a college kid to a dad, not knowing what the future held. 

Lots of symbolism throughout.

The tree in the top left represented my fear that my daughter wouldn't know my side of the family. I felt like a shell of my former self, heart bruised, my daughter in the reflection of my eye as I look forward.

June 1995

 

Coincidentally, I opened up Photoshop for the first time that same month. The power to much more quickly and realistically communicate an idea was invaluable.

A self-portrait from November 1995, the month after my college roommate had passed away. 

Nov 1995

1995_EYE_INSANE

EYE INSANE

The foot piercing through the contours of the confining wall is an homage to Dali’s “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man.”  I painted this entirely within Photoshop; for example, using the smudge tool to create the clouds. 

At the time, Photoshop had no layers, so I would paint the eyeball in a separate doc, cut and paste it into the final layout. Similar to what I did with Rebirth of Gaea and precomping in After Effects.

Side note: back in college, most of us didn't have computers (I never even had email). So we'd go to the art building and have to take turns on the computers there. And while we were using "Photoshop" on a "Mac" it was quite different than today's experience. 

Whenever I had to go back and forth between illustrator and photoshop, because the hard drive was so, so small and only one of those apps could fit at a time, I'd have to uninstall Photoshop, install Illustrator, uninstall Illustrator, etc. These weren't downloadable from the internet, but rather on a series of several disks. Good times. 

1995

1995_08_SUB_VIOLENT_FEMMES_11x17

Senior year in college, I created posters for on-campus events. 

An infant girl somehow managed to make it into each of them.

The first time I did that was with Violent Femmes. She's body-surfing the massive wave in the background. The flames spell her name below. My head is in the clouds, lightning in my eye.

Hanging around campus were these personalized Where's Waldo posters. :)

1995_09_SUB_GREG_LOUGANIS_11x17
1996_02_SUB_KATHLEEN_CLEAVER_11x17
1996_03_SUB_SATIRISTS_11x17_sm2k
1995_10_SUB_GERRY_ADAMS_11x17_sm2k

While working on those posters one night, I was flipping through a MacMall magazine and came across an ad for "Morph." Michael Jackson's "Bad" had just come out, and I was mesmerized by the effects in Terminator 2. 

I was no longer interested in majoring in Industrial Design. I just wanted to morph stuff. So, I created a new major called Digital Imagemaking. :)

Here is my senior thesis Green Corps.

1996

 

After college, I was thankful to get a job at Computer Cafe, a boutique visual effects studio.

My personal projects continued as a series of 3 short films which culminated with my head on fire.

Through work, I started teaching myself After Effects and diving into motion design. And there may or may not be a frame in Flubber where the highlights form my daughter's name. :) 

SWF_08-0-02-33-21
1998_04_SOUL_FUSION_sm2k

Here are 2 montages I made for friends. 

1996_12_BIKE_TOUR_sm2k-1
thumbnails-from-demo_SD_0037

Teaching myself some basics of CG. I thought it would be cool to have some batteries dueling.

A good example of how personal projects are great for inspiring you to learn something new.

1997_JAZZ_cleaned-up_sm2k

Hard for even me to believe, but at the time, I didn't have a computer or TV at home.

Analog continued to be something I enjoyed.

1997_DANCER_sm2k

I started making artwork for my daughter so that she'd remember me when I wasn't able to be with her.  

©ARTBEATS™
Box 1287
Myrtle Creek, OR 97457

503-863-4429
503-863-4547 FAX
emblur_sm2k
2001_05_EMMA_six_fingers_crop
1998_03_EMMA_save_last_dance
1998_08_EMERGY
emma_web08
2000_12_EMMA_website
1999_12_EMMA_XMAS_card
2000_12_EMMA_spikey
2000_12_EMMA_bizarro
1998_EMMA_age1-0000000

Over the years, the projects got more complex. They had more layers, contained greater meaning. 

1999_05_EMMA_BDAY_sm2k

This is a montage of her 2nd year. 

It started off with me meditating with a skull in the desert. I'd imagine her in the clouds. She'd be running in my mind. The spinning globes representing the months, lit up if we had been together.

I collaborated with my daughter to create the artwork for this CD packaging, combining her watercolors with other Photos in Photoshop.

1999_ONDREA_booklet_sm4k
1999_ONDREA_bookletback_sm4k
2008_IMG_1047

This image of my daughter inadvertently became the basis for an effect for a Gillette commercial.

Gillette_Hydraman_01
2001_05_EMMA_six_fingers_crop
2006_05_EMMARLEY
EmCD_13
2007_06_EMMA_12BDAY_cd
2005_04_EMMA_10BDAY_card
2004_05_EMMA_9BDAY_card_sm2

My family began expanding, and soon I had a son. :) 


2007_11_MOTHER_and_CHILD_sm4
2008_07_ANDRES_age1_MOSAIC_sm2k

There's more to it, but I know this is already a long story. It hopefully helps lay a foundation for my art.  Soon after my son was born, I did some of my first sketches for Rebirth of Gaea, which I continue to this day...

slideshow_C_exploration_01d
slideshow_B_research_01
slideshow_C_exploration_04b

+01 201 707 9630
jessenewman@mac.com
@RebirthofGaea

© Jesse Michael Newman, 2021