If you suspect the truth is being stretched a little, you are right.

The pictorial truth, that is. What a smooth ride the studio vehicle offers since its wheelbase was digitally enhanced! But now the garage door will not close.

My next confession ought to be that I came to all this a bit late.

I was once an economics student with a bright future, then, an investment fund salesman, with a future still, if slightly lacking in lustre.

One day at work, someone said "we have this image editing program on one of the computers–maybe you'd like to try it out?" I didn't think it would do any harm to try it just once. Yes, that's the true story of how I became... a Photoshop junkie.

The story, though true, is slightly oversimplified. I may not have started out as an artist, but subsequently I did spend two years in art school, wrote articles on art and design, maintained an interest in landscape painting, and made and sold blockprints.

I came to illustration by two converging yet different paths. My blockprint work led to some esthetic assignments using that medium, while a job as creator of learning materials provided opportunities to practice a more technical approach.

That, in a nutshell, is the biography part.

As for the goals, they are to weave together two related careers, in digital illustration and traditional painting.

One is project-focused, uses contemporary technology, and involves teamwork. The other investigates the whole natural world, uses traditional methods, and requires a sustained individual effort.

If asked which I prefer over the other, my unequivocal answer would be "both".