Art
Mr. Loverde's artistic training and accomplishments date back to his single-digit years. He began drawing and painting when he was old enough to hold a crayon, and bought his first camera (a Kodak X-15F) at age 11. Not content with the results he was receiving from photo labs, he began printing his own black and white images at middle school age and had a color darkroom set up in his garage by high school.
Eagerly embracing new technologies while also exploring the glories of established crafts and processes, Mr. Loverde purchased Minolta's pioneering multi-mode XD-11 35mm camera soon after its introduction. While creating literally thousands of images with that camera, he also worked for UCLA as a staff photographer, darkroom technician, and as a writer and photographer for the Daily Bruin. Many of his images were circulated to thousands of readers in and outside the UCLA community.
When computer imaging technology came of age, Mr. Loverde was there to greet it. He cut his teeth on Silicon Beach Software's groundbreaking black and white image processing software Digital Darkroom and quickly mastered Adobe Photoshop 1.0 as soon as he could get his hands on it. He still has his first dye-sublimation print, an experiment from 1990 that then cost $35 (and could now be printed at higher resolution for about $.50).
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this new technology for Mr. Loverde is the opportunity to integrate the photographic and the digital without having to accept "digital" results. "The beauty of digital image manipulation and printing," he notes, "lies in its astonishing -- and ever-improving -- capacity to mimic traditional mechanical and chemical processes. The things I can do in seconds on a computer: sepia toning, solarization, cyanotyping, duotones, tritones, masking, dodging, burning, oil tinting, color correction, etc., would have taken me hours in the darkroom and cost me hundreds of dollars in chemicals and equipment -- if I could have managed to do them at all. And most of those chemicals were not only smelly but deadly poisonous." He also relishes the opportunity he now has to revisit many of his older images and perfect them by scanning them then recomposing, color-correcting, and/or combining them.
Another exciting opportunity offered by digital technology allows Mr. Loverde to graft his love of painting and drawing onto his photographic images. Not only is he able to add photorealistic elements to his photographs, but he is also able to use his photographs as the basis for digital paintings that are neither painting nor photo but an exciting new art form.
Please check back often for new work.
Click on images for larger views.
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This image was photographed in Redding, California in December, 2003. The image was then digitally enhanced.
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This image was photographed in Dublin, Ireland in January, 2004. The image was then digitally enhanced.
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This "electronic painting" is based on a photograph (35mm Kodachrome) taken in Berkeley, California in 1982.
The photo was scanned and then enhanced using various digital paint applications. No part of the image has gone without some sort of enhancement -- including repainting, smearing, texturing, etc. -- yet it retains the simple beauty and vivid colors that inspired me to capture it that day many years ago. CLICK HERE to see an enlarged detail of the cow. CLICK HERE to see an enlarged detail of the tree.
And yes, both tree and cow were actually there and actually in those positions.
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This is an "electronic painting" created entirely on a computer.
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This image is based on a photograph taken in Central Park, New York, USA in November, 2002.
The image has been digitally enhanced and textured to create an interesting "through glass" effect. Be sure to look at a larger version for a better idea.
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This is an "electronic painting" created on a computer and based on an image photographed in New Mexico, USA July, 2004. Click on the image at left to see it in more detail.
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This "electronic painting" is based on a photograph taken in Paris, France in January, 2004. The image was digitally manipulated and enhanced.
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This is an "electronic painting" created entirely on a computer.
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This "electronic painting" is based on a video still of the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. The still was manipulated, enhanced, and completely repainted on a computer.
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This "electronic painting" is based on a video still of Lake Arrowhead in Southern California that was taken at sunset in December, 1999. The still was manipulated, enhanced, and completely repainted on a computer.
As outlandish as it seems, the colors of the sky and the water are very close to the way they were that cold winter afternoon -- spectacular.
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This "electronic painting" is based on a photograph (35mm Kodachrome) taken of the Pacific Ocean from The Cliff House in San Francisco in 1982. The photo was scanned and then enhanced using various digital paint applications.
Yes, it really is the sun.
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This image was photographed in Arizona, USA in July, 2004. The image was then digitally enhanced.
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This is an "electronic painting" created entirely on a computer. It is part of a series of illustrations for a children's book entitled "Clawdette the Cat". To see a preview of the book, CLICK HERE.
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This is an "electronic painting" created entirely on a computer. It is part of a series of illustrations for a children's book entitled "Clawdette the Cat". To see a preview of the book, CLICK HERE.
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This is an "electronic painting" created entirely on a computer. It is part of a series of illustrations for a children's book entitled "Clawdette the Cat". To see a preview of the book, CLICK HERE.
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This is an "electronic painting" created entirely on a computer. It is part of a series of illustrations for a children's book entitled "Clawdette the Cat". To see a preview of the book, CLICK HERE.
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Essential Details
Go to Mr.
Loverde's Main Page
