I'll be posting my artwork and sharing my behind-the-scenes creative processes.
My name is Paul Petersen. I'm a 68 year old artist who has had a variety of art-related jobs.
I've been a sign painter, an advertising art director, a storyboard artist, an equine watercolorist, and a medical illustrator. My latest passion is creating geometric abstract digital art.
My user name, spherical art, is a phrase I use to describe a particular method of generating digital art via three dimensional spheres and a virtual camera. I'll be posting my artwork and sharing details on how it's created.
This art was previously posted on my Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr pages. Links are below.
Other topics that interest me:
- Photoshop
- motion graphics with After Effects,
- running,
- yoga,
- fiction and poetry,
- nature walks,
- stained glass
- golf
- gardening
- and baking (I'll post about the pies my mother taught me to make!)
I'm married to Jean and live in rural Pennsylvania. I have two grown children and three grandkids. We have three dogs - Bouviers, that we treat like kids.
I grew up in Compton, California. I got my start in art by tracing. With six brothers and two sisters, finding an unspoiled coloring book was really difficult when I was five!
So when I finally got a new one, I was afraid to color in it. I wanted it to be pristine. It occurred to me that I could make tracings of my favorite pages and color them! I got my Mom’s onionskin typing paper and traced over the outlines on the “E is for Eagle” page. While I was doing it I wondered if the coloring book artist had traced his line work, too.
By third grade I realized I wanted to be an artist. My teachers discouraged tracing, which made me want to do it even more. When I wasn’t copying pictures of ships and hot rods, I wanted to make money – literally. Here's a sample: 
I got a Batchelor of Fine Arts degree from UCLA in '72, where I attended on a track and field scholarship. That education was about becoming a fine artist, but I couldn't see a path to income when I graduated. I got a job drawing retail products for a drug store chain's newspaper ads, while I studied at Art Center College of Design at night. That school near Los Angeles specializes in turning out high level designers and artists for the commercial world. After a few semesters studying advertising design, I made the trip to NYC to land a job in advertising. Maybe I'll post an article about that experience, because it was very much like the show Mad Men.
@sunvaar saw my work on twitter and invited me to Steemit. I've been posting my art on Twitter for about two years and have quite a few followers, but the interaction there is limited compared to what I see here on Steemit. I like that I will have more room to get into the details here, and commenters will have the same luxury. There is so much to share and learn, while we earn!
"Esteemed" is a great way to describe all of you here! The origin of the word dates from the 15th century word ais-temos, "one who cuts copper," i.e. mints money. I'm looking forward to cutting some copper with you on Steemit.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/spherical_art
Instagram: http://instagram.com/sphericalart
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spherical_art/