Document text
High-tech illustrator strengthens career after breaking leg By Cindy Blankenship,For the Daily Tidings Sep 22, 2005 12:00 AM A A Reggie Gilbert has always been an artist, but it wasn& t until he snapped his femur bone while flying down the mountain on a snowboard that he became a full-fledged technical illustrator, landing assignments from worldwide companies like Adobe, which used his illustration of the Ashland Fire Station in its new book for Creative Suite 2 high-end users, & Adobe Illustrator Wow.& & I was walking around downtown Ashland with my camera, it was twilightish, and I took a picture of the fire station because it looked so cool,& recalls Gilbert. & I printed it out and hung it on my wall. ... Looking at all those bricks, I decided to draw this for the Adobe project.& Adobe (the company who created Adobe Reader, Adobe Photoshop, etc.) had asked Gilbert to do a tutorial using techniques that most people don& t think about. Gilbert is most known for his technical, realistic and stylistic illustrations that he creates using tools such as his computer software and Wacom pen and mouse, the latter enabling him to draw digitally as one would with a pencil and sketchpad. His technical illustrations involve illustrating the mechanics or layers of a product based upon the product, broken down or not yet assembled, that the client sends him. While creativity comes into play with technical illustrations, his real creative work, everything from Flash animations for Web sites to T-shirt designs, makes up about 50 percent of his work. His spray-painted Reeboks recently won the Reebok& s Sneaker Pimps competition at the national level and will go on to the international competition in New York. Gilbert had decided to donate all proceeds from this to the Red Cross Disaster Fund before Hurricane Katrina. — — Artist Sketch — Name: Reggie Gilbert — Hails From: Big Sur (born and raised). — Age: 30. — Training: Primarily self-taught. — Claim to Fame: His Web site, www.techvector.com. — Niche: Technical Illustrator. — Inspiration: Snowboarding — — His spray-paint art took off after he moved from Big Sur to L.A., where he used to skateboard the alleys of Santa Monica during his teen and young adult years. He was only 17 when he first started getting paid for his art. He went from selling T-shirt designs locally to selling drawings to skateboard companies and such in his early 20s, working both on and off the computer. Moving to Ashland about eight years ago, he continued working as a graphic artist, making ends meet by welding and blacksmithing during the day & until he broke his femur in his thigh while snowboarding. A titanium rod in his leg meant he could limp around at home, but for seven months, he couldn& t go snowboarding or work his day jobs. He filled the empty hours with learning the skill of technical illustration, teaching himself through manuals and on his computer. He became good at technical illustrating & very good. Soon his Web site, where he displayed his work, was attracting lots of interest from some of the largest Web site communities in the graphic arts field. And by the time his leg was healed, his art had become his day job. Now he finds satisfaction and balance in his technical illustration and his more creative graphic arts, including a clothing line he& s added to his Web store. & It was kind of a blessing in disguise,& he says of his broken femur. & I don& t like to think that this had to happen for the other to happen; but I& m glad something positive came of it, though.& Asked what he loves most about his work, Gilbert replies, & Choosing when and where I work. I& m not nailed down to anywhere ... and I can pretty much choose my own hours.& Snowboarding remains his inspiration: & It& s how I clear my head and get away. Seeing the snow, nature, keeps my head clear. If I were in the city all the time, I don& t think I could create what I do.& His work can be viewed at www.techvector.com.