A blast from the past...

Kraznaya MESH (made in Adobe Illustrator)
Originally uploaded by isker

Sometimes i think about how the hell i got into photography?
Where did it start and why?
But if i go back a couple of years in time, it seems quite logic somehow and the pieces comes together.

I have always been a person leaning more to the estethic side.
Drawing and painting filled up my days as a young boy and i remembered certanly the time when i copied and learned how to draw the Ninja Turtles from the comicbooks.

Later in my teenage me and my best friend John started out with graffiti.
I think i was around 14 at that time and as most of the youngsters in that age we just didnt give a shit.
It was cool and we did put our tags on toilets and electricity booths etc around our willage.
The graffiti epok was a great period.
We could spend hours after hours to sketch, and after 4 years, yes you really developed a style.
You created a concept to express yourself, an alterego and you got a more trained eye for styles, colors, composition and perspective etc..

...wich you have a lot use from even today....and even the alterego thing is still rolling. ;o)

But the graffiti interest got more pale and you grow from it a bit.
Sure i could have continued, but i just didnt.
Had a couple of strange years when alot of crap happened.
But as some people does you one day just wake up from the "coma" , thinking you got to get a grip of things and dont spoil what you once had.

This is where i started to learn Adobe Illustrator and got deeply involved with vector graphics.
I was so impressed by a guy from canada, that did those super realistic vectors in illustrator with help from the gradient mesh tool
Basiclly what you do is that you trace a photo, it seems very realistic but there are no pixels involved. Just vector points wich is a totally different mathematic.
How the hell did he do that??
I contacted him and got some words of visdom and alot of helpful tips.

This led to alot alot alot of hours infront of the screen, practice and practice to get the realistic look.
And yes it is very timeconsuming, but after a couple when you get the technique it seems like it was worth it.

Here is my mesh portfolio at IllustratorWorld.com
http://www.illustratorworld.com/users/enikone/

I rarely wisit that site nowadays but when i did recently i saw that some of my artworks had over 10.000 views!!!
Some even had about 20.000 views!!
Jesus!

So just for the curiosity i Googled "Henke Svensson, Gradient mesh" or "EnikOne Gradient Mesh"

http://www.google.se/search?hl=sv&q=Henke+Svensson+Gradient+Mesh&meta=&aq=o&oq=

And what did i found?

A number of blogs etc that had me listed as one of the Top 10 gradient mesh masters on the web!

Here are some links:
(copy the adress into the browsers adressfield)

VectorDiary: http://www.vectordiary.com/illustrator/top-10-masters-of-gradient-mesh/

From the Aeron blog: http://alanvalek.com/blog/2008/10/17/someone-knows-how-to-use-the-gradient-mesh-tool/

Blog your heart out: http://pakarooo.blogspot.com/2008/10/masters-of-gradient-mesh.html

Paintalicous blog: http://paintalicious.org/2007/05/02/a-pyrotechnic-showcase-of-photo-realistic-art/

Basang Blog: http://basangpanaginip.blogspot.com/2006/07/worlds-most-photorealistic-vector-art.html

Digital Artist: http://digital-artist-toolbox.com/?p=28

Wilogo: http://en.wilogo.com/blog/2008/vector-art/

Biorust: http://forums.biorust.com/illustration-sketching-vector-art/3203-gradient-mesh-tutorial-enikone.html

Very flattering!
Thanks to all you bloggers and all other people that pushed and enjoyed my meshworks.
WOW!

So what has this to do with photography?
As you trace a photo when you mesh, i usually bought highres pictures from stocksites to use.
After a while i wnated to do my very own stuff.
I could take these pictures myself?
And thats where it begun...

Even the interest for Meshing got paler and paler, the patience to sit for hours clicking these points just dissapeared.

I went from a Minolta G400 to Nikon D50, to Nikon D80, to Nikon D3 and Studioequipment in 5 years.
Now it is about three years i did a mesh (see picture on top..) and im not really planning to go back there.
Maybe one day ill do one... ;)

So here we are.
Trying once again to develop my own style and expression, but with photography instead.
What will be next?

Pakka.

//Enikone.