RIC MATKOWSKI
DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION ACCREDITATION
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By Ric Matkowski I AM CALGARY BASED AND HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF PPOC FOR THE PAST 4 YEARS. I AM CURRENTLY THE CHAIR OF THE PPOC-AB CENTRAL BRANCH. AFTER A CAREER AS A GRADUATE ENGINEER IN THE ENERGY SECTOR, MY FOCUS IS NOW ON MY PHOTOGRAPHY AND DIGITAL ARTISTRY. MY SUCCESSFUL ACCREDITATION IN DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION IS A SECOND ACCREDITATION WITH PPOC. While it can be said I’m a generalist when it comes to my photography, I do have a bias towards portraiture, nature, landscapes and product. However, I can be found photographing just about anything that can be used as stock for my digital artistry. I use my photos or portions thereof and turn them into digital art.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF CREATIVITY Art is considered digital when created by software on a computer platform. The result may be indistinguishable from non-digital paintings or photographs, but the process is entirely different, with distinctive challenges and rewards. Working applications and their features, best adapted to creating a piece of digital artistry, requires some expertise, trial and error, research and a whole bunch of practice! It’s intriguing that the final version of digital artwork can be hard to predict when the process includes multiple decisions (think composition, story telling, color grading, etc.) and the artist’s subjectivity as he or she works the software. Variations from the original conception can range from awesome to terrible. Fortunately, the digital creation process can be reversed, step-by-step, if the art piece doesn’t meet expectations.
