Retired professional full-time portrait artist and engineer (degrees in mathematics, engineering and photography... go figure).
If you read bios, and sometimes revisit them, you'll know in 2018 I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. Then, in 2020, a new neurologist (because I moved across country) diagnosed me as having Parkinson's. Then, after some serious issues with jerking movements, she sent me to a movement specialist, and NOW this new neurologist who specializes in movement disorders has said I don't have MG, MS, ALS, Parkinson's, or any other host of neuromuscular diseases. She classified the movements as non-essential tremors, and said, "My hardware is over loading my software." That's the 2022 diagnosis.
2023 Update - It turns out that I have a half-dozen discs in my spine that are collapsing. Thus, Degenerative Disc Disease, or DDD for short. I never knew that DDD could cause tremors (well, the pain causes them) and stuff like that. Now I go to physical therapy 4 days a week to hopefully avoid spinal surgery.
I've got high hopes and remain positive.
I started doing 3D renders in DAZ and Poser started when I first became sick at the start of 2018. It is a distraction from my symptoms, and I'm not under any pressure or deadlines to get things done. Even this is difficult on some days, but I can always stop temporarily to get some rest. In July, 2020, my wife and I moved across country to be closer to children and grandchildren.
If I'm not cooking or preparing for a meal, I'm rendering. Art and food are my passions.
I used to enjoy travel, bicycling, cooking (which I can still do in short bursts), photography (again, in short bursts), hiking and painting (which I now do digitally). I'm determined to do something with my time even if my strength is greatly limited.
Just prior to getting sick I drove ALL of Route 66. I've been using some of the photos from that trip and adding 3D characters to them. You can see them in my Route 66 gallery here on Renderosity. You can actually follow the story at Route66Photographers.com. It's a fictional story about my travels with a rambunctious young lady named Charly.
My wife is my biggest supporter. She helps me come up with ideas to render and paint.
Brent's Rules to Live By...
1) Everyone can teach you something regardless of age or education.
2) When you're down, a child's smile will always lift you up.
3) Keep God's commandments, as best you can, but when you can't, repent quickly.
4) Read your scriptures daily, but pray all the time.
5) Love everyone, but don't expect anything from them in return.
Artist of the Month - December, 2021
https://www.renderosity.com/article/24824/interview-with-december-2021-artist-of-the-month-dbwalton
Comments (5)
Saby55
Gorgeous portrait.👍🙋♂️
dbwalton
Thank you.
PhthaloBlue
Beautiful portrait! This one is my favourite, because of the lighting and her expression.
dbwalton
Thank you. I agree.
TinkerACW
Lovely! Great combo with the "Rembrandt lighting" for sure!
dbwalton
Thank you. Trivia question: Why was Rembrandt's portrait lighting the way it was?
TinkerACW
Origin of photographic term: (from Wikipedia) Pioneering movie director Cecil B. DeMille is credited with the first use of the term. While shooting the 1915 film, The Warrens of Virginia, DeMille borrowed some portable spotlights from the Mason Opera House in downtown Los Angeles and "began to make shadows where shadows would appear in nature." When business partner Sam Goldwyn saw the film with only half an actor's face illuminated, he feared the exhibitors would pay only half the price for the picture. After DeMille told him it was Rembrandt lighting, "Sam’s reply was jubilant with relief: for Rembrandt lighting, the exhibitors would pay double!
dbwalton
Now, that I hadn't heard before. They taught us photography portraiture class that Rembrandt painted in the cellar. There was a trap door that let light in. He would position his model such that the light would glance across the face creating shadow from the nose down to the corner of the mouth (i.e. closed loop lighting).
The instructor claimed others before Rembrandt used that shadowing, but I've done no research to validate that. (Frankly, I could care less. LOL)
It does create a good mood for portraits.
TinkerACW
I didn't know the origin of the term. I do like Rembrandt, and I made a weak attempt at a rendering many years ago based on his painting, "The Mill," in my gallery. There are so many tools available to 3D artists, and the sky is not the limit. I hope to start up again.
dbwalton
My paternal grandmother was a an artist (oils mostly). She got me started painted, but I only did it once in a while because clean-up took SO LONG. In the early 2000s, I bought Corel Painter, but was overwhelmed by it's complexity. Then, when I retired in 2012, I signed up for a bunch of classes in Corel Painter - Jim Cunningham, Helen Yancy and Jeremy Sutton.
Corel Painter is as close as one can get to real-life painting with oil, gauche, acrylic, watercolor, etc, as one can get on the computer. It's amazing (and expensive). BUT, anyone taking it up should take a class with someone like Cunningham or Yancy (Sutton isn't a very good instructor). Yancy is the BEST. She's also got some tutorials out there.
So, if you like to paint (not just render), I really recommend taking a look at Corel Painter. There's a stripped version called Painter Essentials. Both have free trial periods.