ARTIST STATEMENT

My name is Chris Nielsen. I am an Associate Professor of computer graphics courses. My specialty is using the digital medium of the computer to create visual art. I have a Master of Fine Arts Degree (1998) in Illustration from California State University, Fullerton.

My personal emphasis is in the subject of portraits ranging from illustrations of Pets, to Motorcycles to Friends and Cosplayers.

With all of my portraits, I work exclusively in Adobe Illustrator. My work is completely made up of flat-colored shapes... lots and lots of them! I DO NOT work with any types of filters or special effects. I like the process of developing a realistic look in my illustrations with totally flat colors and abstract shapes.

Although all the portraits I create are based on my own reference photographs, my creative process is to go deeper into the reality you and I see and define a New Reality in the digital medium I use. I define the Visual Style of my Vector Illustration work as “Stylized Photorealism”.

My visual works are not interpretations of the reality I photographed. They are not literal copies of the subject in the scene. No... instead, they take on this New Reality from the fact that I am constantly breaking up continuous tones into a much more graphic, shape-oriented means to conveying surface details. My New Reality does not exist in the world that the camera can be used to capture.

My shapes and color changes and subtle additions here and there are strictly from the way my eyes see this New Reality... a New World of imagery that I can share with the viewer. In other words, through my work I am saying - “Welcome to my world.”