In 1988, I made a decision to try to make a business for myself as a storyboards artist. After cutting my teeth as a slide creator at Business Graphics (r.i.p.) - filling just about every conceivable role at one time or another over four years, I was ready to try something different. Computers (and videos) were reducing the need for original, high-quality optical art - a lovely, but time consuming medium - and I had a nasent desire to "draw for a living."
I had spent a fair bit of time 'comping' out some of the more complex slide graphics we produced and drawing shot-list sketches for the photographers of the audio-visual shows that I produced as well as for some of the larger speaker support presentations I worked on. It made sense to me that there might, just might, be a need for such pre-production illustration - storyboards specifically - in other presentation media outside the feature film industry, perhaps even in and around New England! (gosh!)
Well, it's nine years later and I'm still doing what I set out to do and loving it!

I have, of course, broadened my services over the years, trying my hand at any number of different skills when the chance arose. In the last few years I have shifted most of my work over to the computer, partially by decision. Once I was convinced that I could realistically achieve satisfactory results, and most importantly that the work could be transferred electronically to just about any place in the world, there was no reason to delay any longer. What I didn't expect was how universal and profound the change would be to my working process and conditions and that I'd bethis willing to give up my markers &paper! (It's just another tool!) Most of my work is now done using Metacreations Painter for image creation and Adobe Photoshop for image editing with a handful of other software toys used for this or that.

Regardless of what methods of creation or delivery are involved, I take pride when I know that I've been able to make a positive contribution to the project. While I am comfortable with any level of involvement on a project, the more intergral my participation, the more fun I have. One of the things I like most about my job is the wide variety of people I get to work with and the often fascinating subject matter of the projects. Sometimes the best part is, I even get to learn a little too. As a pre-production specialist, I'm generally called in to a project for a discreet period of time. My job is well defined and is generally completed within a few days. Occasionally I am called on to play an expanded role and end up taking on other responsibilities.
In one case a few years ago, months after finishing a set of graphics boards (presentation-level) for an anti-depressant drug, I ended up rejoining the project in the edit session because I was the only person who had a working idea of how some of these rather abstract theoretical representations were supposed to move and interact. (t'would've been nice if the presentation boards could have done that job as well, but that's where thumbnail boards come in!)

Some the most rewarding projects have been ones that have provided a challenge and a change of pace: