My name is Christian Haley & I'm a mixed media artist. This section is designed to answer any questions you may have about myself & my work. If there's anything additional you'd like to know, feel free to drop me an e-mail.

RANDOM THOUGHT 9/16/04:

I heard a great tune today.

Band: "Frou Frou"

Song: "It's good to be in Love"

...unbelievable. This type of tune really "does it" for me. ...yea.

BRIEF NEWS:

June 2004

Well, my family has grown larger with the birth of my daughter about a year ago. She's doing great & my son now has a nice little playmate to bang around with, so he's pretty psyched. Things are a bit different in my career since the last update. I'm now working professionally as a matte painter for Industrial Light & Magic! It's a thrill & an honor to be working on Episode III & I'm having an absolute blast. I was also lucky enough to work at The Orphanage with an incredible group of artists & got a chance to work on "Hellboy" & "The Day After Tomorrow." I really couldn't be happier... good stuff.

Favorites:

Favorite Band: ...Depends on my mood, but I tend to gravitate towards Toad the wet sprocket & The Dave Mathew's Band.

Favorite TV Show: Late Show with David Letterman

Favorite Movie: Braveheart

Favorite Classical Painting: Abrecht Altdorfer's "Battle of Issus." ("Battle of Alexander")

Favorite Food: Pizza... yea, Pizza.

Favorite Beer: Sam Adams, Boston and/or Lowenbrau

Favorite Girl Scout Cookie: Thin Mints

FAQ Section:

What Programs do you use?

I tend to stay within Photoshop for my paintings. I sometimes add features & sections from Painter, but the piece usually lives in Photoshop. For my 3d I use Electric Image, Lightwave 6.5b, & occasionally Cinema4d. I also just started to use Maya, which I hope to use in my upcoming 3d animated short.

What do you do for a living?

I work for ILM in the digital matte painting department. Dream job? ...yup. I basically create environments. ...Love it. We are given concept paintings to match & how we get to the final image is a mixture of 2d painting, 3d work, & photo manipulation. ...Sometimes the paintings are supplemental & serve as backgrounds to pre-shot elements & other times we handle everything in the shot.

Do you do freelance work?

Yes I do. I offer my services for matte painting, 3d/2d environment creation, 3d illustration, 3d animation, digital artwork, traditional artwork, graphic design & well... that's pretty much it.

Where do you get the ideas for your paintings?

They just come to me. I hate to make it that simple, but if I'm thinking about a certain event or idea I sometimes get a visual of a scene or a mood or what amounts to a "final" painting layout. I then sketch it out as soon as I can to work out the visual balance & composition.

How do you keep your corn fritters from sticking to the pan?

Well that's easy folks. Most people would tell you to use "Pam" or "Crisco" or other types of baking sprays, but not for this guy. No, I prefer to let them suckers stick right to the pan & eat them right from there. I don't want to have to "go the extra step" to get a secondary container for the fritter. If you transfer it to a bowl, you then have to clean the bowl & I mean, hey... all I wanted was a fritter. All this talk of cleaning bowls & everything? No sir, that's not for me.

Well those were the most "Frequently Asked Questions" that I've received over the years. I'll keep adding new ones as they come in. Below is the older "about me" text that I've had on my site for years:

I am 31 years old & I've been a digital artist for about 9 years. Before that time, I was looking for a medium to carry out my surrealistic imagery. I thought that I had settled on acrylic paints began work on a series of paintings. Soon thereafter, I stumbled onto the computer (via a college class) & I've been a digital artist ever since.

My paintings always come from an image that I see in my head. If a subject intrigues me, it usually works it's way into a visual of some sort. I always begin with a pencil sketch of the image that I see or want to create. Once I get this sketch into the computer, I begin to fill in the shapes wirh my WACOM pen apply some basic shading. I then use photography or other imagery if needed to help the painting along. The two main programs I use are Photoshop & Painter.

Early influences: I'd say my two biggest influences are Salvador Dali & M.C. Escher. I was a surrealist long before I had heard of them, but their work has been unbelievably motivating for me. Since I can remember, I've been fascinated with the interaction & relationship of 3-dimensional forms. A lot of my art is finding & representing these relationships in the forms contained within my paintings. Aside from the visual aspects of my work, there is personal signifigance found in the imagery that I paint. People always want to know what the paintings are about, but It's my preference that they look for their own meaning. It's easier to connect with things when you personalize them.