Shawn Olson.NET

I got my artistic side from my Dad. He is a tremendously talented artist, skilled in oil painting, pencil & ink, watercolors, sculpture and ceramics. He mainly sticks to wildlife art.

I grew up drawing wildlife too. But as a teenager my interests went more to the fantastic. Inspired by my sudden interest in fantasy and sci-fi novels, I began to draw dragons and unicorns. I was intrigued with the artistic work of M. C. Escher. I never took any art courses in high school.

Most of my sketches are in pen & ink. I learned at an early age to shade with a pencil. In high school I started incorporating ink into my art because I wanted to illustrate my school’s newsmagazine with drawings.

During this same time I developed an interest in cartooning. I had never much appreciated cartoons until I was the student editor of the school’s paper. It was probably due to a desire to fill up spaces with a witty perspective that I started cartooning.

My cartoons are sometimes accused of being too “illustrative” in that they aren’t usually lampoonish in style. That’s fine. If they amuse me and make some of my friends laugh, that’s about all that matters.

While my style is not very similar to his, I most appreciate Gary Larson’s cartoons.

My venture into 3-Dimensional design didn’t begin until I acquired a computer in 1998. CorelDRAW 8 shipped with a program called Corel DREAM 3D. I think it was a limited version of Cool Dream 3D. That was my first taste of 3D.

Over the next few years I ventured in and out of 3D. I started playing with Bryce 4 and 3D Studio Max 3. But I couldn’t really understand the possibilities in the programs until I started studying the software literature—which can be daunting for such seemingly infinite programs.

I finally started perfecting 3D Studio, and I am working on some short animated movies. I also used my knowledge of 3D design for building maps for the popular online game Counter-Strike. I’m putting together a map pack for download on the internet.

The images here are samples of art I’ve done in the last few years. They represent pencil and ink sketches, graphics composed in image editing software such as Corel PHOTO-PAINT 10, and 3D renderings. For another perspective on my graphics, check out Collision Graphics.

Copyright © 2002 by Shawn Olson. All rights reserved. For more information about these images, Shawn Olson, or Collision Graphics, write to shawn@shawnolson.net. To return to the home page, go to www.shawnolson.net.