DAZ 3D - Free 3D Software and 3D Model Providers

Cart	My Account	My Wishlist
Sign in / Create Account Join the Platinum Club 2 items in cart ( view quick cart )

Edward Bateman

Case Studies: Bryce 6.0

The Motion of Modern Art

Brothers
by Edward Bateman

Digital Artist, Edward Bateman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1962. As a child, he was torn between being an artist and a scientist. Because of his love for technology, he decided to split the difference and create digital art. In 1983, he began using computers to create images. By the early 90s, he was working professionally in the field of digital imaging as well as teaching and lecturing on the subject. He has shown his art work individually and in group shows.

Ed graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and recently received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah. He currently lives in Salt Lake City and has spent the last 12 years working for Borge Anderson Photo Digital.

We had a chance to sit down and talk to Ed at his exhibit in the main gallery of the Phillips Gallery in Salt Lake City.

R.W. Emerson
by Edward Bateman

Digital Artist Edward Bateman create "Eye of Arnolfini (II)

Eye of Arnolfini (II)
by Edward Bateman

an great example of photographic digital arts

Lewis & Alice
by Edward Bateman

See More of Edward's artwork at his online Gallery

You are a long-time user of Photoshop. What inspired you to begin working in 3D?

I began working with 3D because I could! Bryce made it fun. At first I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I was able to make images that seemed totally cool at the time. As Bryce added new features and I saw the work of others, I realized there were more possibilities than I expected. I started making excuses to work and experiment with Bryce.

When I started graduate school, I had already spent years working with Photoshop. I needed something that excited me, something new and different. I wanted to make my art work unique. So I made a bigger commitment to working with 3D.

When were you first introduced to Bryce?

I first saw Bryce 1.0 at the Seybold trade show in San Francisco. They were doing demonstrations in their booth and it looked like a lot of fun -- plus the price was great! I had to buy it!

Why do you use Bryce to create your art work?

I chose Bryce because it allows me to think intuitively with the freedom to experiment. I also love the algorithmic textures and that it comes with a nice library to get you going.

I also like that Bryce assumes your work is part of a bigger world with space, haze, depth, and a sky. Even if you don't use those elements, I think it grounds your work and makes you think how your elements relate to a larger world. Collages in Photoshop almost always seemed to have a narrow illusion of space, but Bryce helped me move past that limitation, allowing me to create spaces as large or small as I need.

Okay, so we know why you use Bryce. Now talk to us about how you use Bryce to create your work.

I use Bryce like a photographer's studio where anything is possible. I gave up on photography because I want to control the image even to the extent that I create the objects within the picture. This became so much work that I would never finish a picture!

Working with Bryce gives me the complete control of the image-making process – and no, I'm not a control freak in the real world, just in my art!

Some people feel that Bryce has too many limitations, or that everyone who uses it just makes science-fiction landscapes. Like any tool, what you do with it is the important thing. A limitation can be a strength if it allows you to develop a real rapport with your tool. This may be why more people can name guitarists than synthesizer players.

Tell us more about the art that you create using Bryce. What makes it unique?

I use Bryce in the fine art context. I recognize that most people think that my images are photographs. However, there is no lens, no chemicals used, and I include objects that have never had a tangible existence outside of a computer. The "photo" label does not apply (although I welcome the confusion).

In reference to the photographic process, my work often includes the most basic optical devices; lenses and mirrors. As I say in my artist statement: I have taken the lens out of the image making process and placed it within the image itself.

There are times when I have referred to my work as 'virtual mixed media' because I combine 'real' objects with 3D modeled objects. Once, when an artist asked what I called my work, I told him that because of its origin in the computer I had considered calling it 'Output' or the 'art formerly known as prints' (sorry, couldn't resist)

Your distinct artwork has been recognized at a national level. Tell us about a couple of well-known works you've created using Bryce.

The image I call Brothers with a photograph and two glasses has had a lot of exposure - from Best of Category at Bradley University's Deux et Machina show, to the Santa Fe Museum of Fine Art. My picture based on the Arnolfini double portrait is in the collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Art.

Are there any events in your career as an artist that stand out as a highlight?

One of the highlights of my career was having three pieces selected by the internationally known painter Susan Rothenberg for "The Show" at the Santa Fe Museum of Fine Art. (As well as receiving one the Honorable Mention Awards.) Santa Fe is one of this county's top art markets. This show, which takes place every 6 years, features artists in all mediums from California to Texas. To have my digital art compete with traditional painting and sculpture was a vindication of how digital is accepted as a medium.

Self Portrait of Digital Artist Edward Bateman

Edward's use of Bryce is as uncommon as his Digital Art.

Will you share some advice for the future digital artists out there?

Bryce is an excellent tool. It allows people to get started in 3D work in a friendly way that invites exploration. Even its interface makes it look like more of a tool for artists rather than engineers. I think that Bryce fills a niche that no other product does - a tool with great creative potential that allows you to make cool stuff right at the beginning.

Artist Statement

Initially my work drew on photographs and their history of depiction and later it explored the influences of optical instruments in the history of painting. This led me to an interest in how we choose to depict the worlds, both around us and in us, as well as those people who made it their life's work to share their insights and observations.

Both artists and scientist create models of the worlds they inhabit. Some of these models are of internal events like feelings or imagination. Others are depictions of the external world, either as we imagine it or as we abstract it through the tools of science. I believe that the basic working of the human mind (and how we perceive the world) is through the creation of models.

The camera was the first machine of depiction. It presented us with little models (that we call photographs) and for a time we believed it to tell only the truth. The computer has encroached on the chemical world of photography and made us even more uncertain of the veracity of what we are shown. Or perhaps it merely reminds us that many truths are of a more personal nature.

Although some elements in my work depict 'real' things, many objects have never had a tangible physical existence. These elements are modeled completely inside the world of a computer. They are ghosts made of nothing more substantial than numbers, yet they seemingly share a tangible space with objects that have both physicality and history. My method of working mimics light itself, one beam at a time, in a process that can take from hours to days to complete and involve literally trillions of calculations. My work appears photographic and often comments on photography (or other processes of lens-based image creation), but my works are not photographs. I have removed the lens from the image-making process and placed it within the image itself.

Lenses and mirrors are common in my work. Like any depiction, lenses represent a point of view and a narrow focus. What they reveal often overpowers what is excluded by their gaze (which may be equally important!). Mirrors are a metaphor for art itself as well as the process of self knowledge and discovery. They are also part of the tricks of mind and eye: smoke and mirrors. In the end, perhaps all the models we create share a strange mixture of magic, truth, and illusion.

Captures
by Edward Bateman

Vermeer's Faith
by Edward Bateman

See More of Edward's artwork at his online Gallery