First Stroke

Sad Alien

Beginning things can be difficult.

Everyone struggles with both the desire to do something new and the fear of doing it wrong. At the end of the day, I finally managed to force myself to try something new. That doesn’t guarantee that it will be a success, but it does at least mean that I am learning.

–Wow, that sounds like a Mantra. I think it will be my Mantra.–

To begin with I am going to treat this site as a learning experience. I hope that some day it will be more than that, both to me and to whoever reads the site and looks at my work. I suppose that I mean to say that I will be humble. And I will be helpful. I know that there are a lot of aspiring artists out there who are just like me. I hope that we can become a community that helps each other.

Introductions

My name is Tyler Rivers, and I am building a portfolio of work for the Concept Illustration industry. It is very nice to meet you.

The very basics: I am an in-house graphic designer for a printing company in Denver, CO. I am recently married to my amazing wife Amy. We have no children (yet).

I’ve always loved illustration, but have never applied myself deeply enough to make something work. It’s been a constant source of self doubt and shame. Which is nothing new to most artists, I suppose. I learned graphic design and illustration at Colorado State University, so I am not entirely without experience; I have had a “classical” education in representative art and painting techniques.

If you would like to get in touch with me, please feel free to email me at any time at creative@tylerrivers.com. I would love to begin meeting some of my peers and (if I am lucky) a few mentors. You can also reach me on Twitter at @t_rivers_design.

Intentions

I will hold myself to a pattern here on the site. I will be posting at least twice per week, with a major piece at least once per week. Please do yell at me if and when I fail to maintain those commitments.

I would like this blog to form a record of the process of learning both digital tools (digital painting through Photoshop, Corel and other suites) and learning concept techniques. Please do give me your feedback on the work.

Imaginations

That should serve for a statement of intent and such. I’m looking forward to putting this thing together, and hopefully meeting some new people!