At the age of 2 my mother says I disappeared for a couple of hours and when I came back I had drawn a Banana Slug in the redwoods. I do not remember that particular event but…
     Mostly keeping to myself, I grew up of my own volition. The family was moving around the country every year or two and sometimes in as little as 3 months. I hated it and never got to adjust and make friends. Right up till mid High school did that settle down a bit. So Comic Books and Science fiction were very big escapist fare in my life. As was TV and movies.
     Neal Adams, Frank Frazetta, Rembrandt and Dali were the artists I dreamed of emulating, someday. I lived in their worlds. It was so much more exciting than my own.
     I sketched and drew a bit and I did take a little art in High School. But that was not particularly useful, as it did not deepen my knowledge very much. And no life drawing. I still want to know how schools think they are teaching art and do not have life drawing/anatomy!!!
     On my own I sought out and monitored at the local College and University the Life Drawing classes and that was a huge help to me.
     And then I quit all my jobs, sold my comic book/science fiction novel collection and in 1972 my friend John Warner and I left Santa Cruz, CA and relocated to New York City. It was an all or bust situation. We had almost no money, no skills and no friends. But we persevered and made our way into the Comics business. He as a writer and I as an artist.
     I picked up Art production skills in the DC Comics production office, my first job in NYC. And started hanging out at Neal Adams Continuity Studio in Mid-town every moment I could. It was the premier Comic art studio in the world. And I soaked up everything I could and met practically everybody there was to meet in the field.
     After working a number of years as a background artist for numerous Inkers in the comic book field I quit doing that and spent the next 2 years sitting in my one room studio and applied myself to the task of becoming the artist I wanted to be. Little funds and little contact with anyone, I studied and practiced and accumulated a large pile of doodles and drawings and inking samples and a set of finished fine art fantasy illustrations.
     I probably would have kept on doing just that for a while longer but I met a friend on the street one day and he said that everyone thought I had moved/disappeared and that I should come back up to Neal Adams studio and say Hi.
     So I packed up a pile of the finished illustration work I had done and went up to the studio.
     It turned out to be very fortuitous for me. That day Neal took the time and looked at my work and said that I was one of them now, meaning I had indeed arrived at my goal. And that he was starting a publishing venture and that my work would be his first published package. That became the Winddreams portfolio for Continuity publications.
     I have gone on with that part of my life’s goal but have moved onward to include Teaching and Computer art and Photo Compositing/Retouching and IT (Information Technology) Mac based.
     I have currently finished the Inks and production for a 38 page Heavy Metal Magazine story in collaboration with the Penciller - Greg Follender for an upcoming issue later this year, The Pugilist (3rd Installment). I am also assisting another artist with inks on a new project for DC.

A few of the Artists I admire most:
Frank Frazetta (The museum in PA. is an absolute must see!)
Neal Adams
Joseph Clement Coll
Tony Salmons
Salvadore Dali
Rembrandt
Frank Brangwyn
Dean Cornwell
Maxfield Parrish
J C Lyendecker
Norman Rockwell
Howard Pyle
Jeff Jones
Bernie Wrightson
Mike Kaluta
Ray Lago
Rags Morales
Barron Storrey
Syd Mead
Bob Peak
Bermie Fuchs
Mark English
And so many of the wonderful artists from the last few centuries and the illustrators from the recent century that I cannot name them all. (But I will keep adding to this list. Google them!)

Rick Bryant
1/3/2010