Sralos.com has been around since 1998. It was created as a place to post stories, pictures, reference material, etc., revolving around my online free-form roleplaying on AOL. Sralos was the name of the fictional world our characters lived in, and so I chose it for the domain name of this website. As time passed I added more and more functionality to Sralos.com, including galleries and a chat room, so my partner and I made the break from AOL and did all of our gaming and writing on this website.
My interest in digital art was born out of my desire to create portraits for my characters. Like so many other roleplayers, I scoured the web searching for a picture that was just perfect for my character and never found one that was quite right. It was even more frustrating for me, because I am an artist. I’ve been drawing and painting since grade school, and I even have a Bachelor’s degree in Art. So, while I was quite capable of drawing or painting my own character pictures, I just never cared for the way scanned images looked on the computer. I even owned a copy of Photoshop, but trying to draw a character from scratch felt like using those big kindergarten crayons again. That’s when a friend reintroduced me to Poser.
A fellow roleplayer sent me a link to his own website with some of his stories, which he had illustrated with Poser. As with Photoshop, I had used Poser in connection with my job, but the Poser people always looked so plastic. I dismissed the program for any kind of serious art project. Looking at my friend’s website, I was amazed at the effects he was able to get. After that I started researching Poser based art and found some truly remarkable pieces. I purchased the program and started using it in combination with Photoshop to create character pictures and eventually Fantasy Art in general.
I have always been attracted to Fantasy as a genre, but while I often wrote Fantasy stories, I rarely drew or painted anything I considered to be fantastic in nature. At the time I was focused on putting my guts on canvas rather than my dreams. For me, Fantasy does not only mean the dragons and maidens of Medieval Fantasy, but also the propagandized glamour of the historical past, such as the pinup girls of the 1940s. Let’s not forget comic book superheroes and space epics large and small. To me, all of these subjects fall under the umbrella of Fantasy, and therefore all are likely to be a subject for my art.
My goal for Sralos Fantasy Art is to be a place to discuss not only fantasy art, but digital art as well. There are still a lot of people who do not consider digital art as a legitimate art form. However, not even the critics can argue that it is quickly becoming the most popular way to create art. Not only can digital art be beautiful, but it is easily the most functional and cost effective medium available today. Sralos.com will also host my artwork, which will be available for you to buy as art prints, as well as unique gifts and t-shirts. It’s always been my dream to make money doing something that I love. Sralos Fantasy Art is my chance to make my dream come true.
