Artist: Old Man

Los Angeles artist Jeremy Engleman likes to push the computer graphics medium to get at what is painterly about it, "but this does not mean I am trying to make CG look like a painting through the use of push-button art filters. Rather, I am trying to identify what can be painterly and beautiful about computer graphics' own nature." The result is work that more closely resembles fine art produced by oils on canvas than images created with software on a computer. "CG is such a chameleon; it can look like so many things--a photograph, a cel shade, or a painting. So I am trying to push CG in its own terms, in ways unique to CG itself," he says.

While some of Engleman's work involves thousands of polygons, the artist strives for a certain economy in his art by using minimal geometry. "I typically restrict my image output size and color range. I love pixels, and I like to be able to see and manipulate each one. However, if my resolution is too large, I lose individual pixels."

To create his work, Engleman uses a variety of programs, depending on the task at hand. Most frequently he uses Softimage (Montreal), Lightwave (NewTek; San Antonio, TX), and 3D Studio Max (Kinetix; San Francisco), though he notes he is not an advocate of any particular package. "I may work on a model in all three packages, depending on what I need to do with it, then render in any one of those. This also helps keep my work platform-independent. Each package often has a particular discernable 'look', and I would like the image to be about itself, not the software," he says.

Additional images by Engleman can be found in the June 1999 Portfolio pages of Computer Graphics World. For more information about the artist and his work, visit www.art.net/~jeremy.
-Karen Moltenbrey