for those who don't know me, my name is riptidejim. this is obviously not my given name but it's the name i've picked to share my art under so that i may maintain anonymity. no particular reason for that, but i like to separate my online identity from my identity in the real world. if you've been on the internet for a while, you'll likely understand.

i've used microsoft paint to make art for as long as i can remember. i started on windows 98, scribbling incessantly with every color in the default palette and saving each picture under "untitled (1)," "untitled (2)," and so on.

when my family upgraded to windows xp, the first thing i did was open the paint program.

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my workspace for 2 decades and counting.

what an upgrade it was. i thought to myself, "wow. this surely will present me with all-new options and bring forth fresh ideas and inspiration."

although it didn't actually bring forth new options or fresh ideas, my inspiration has yet to fizzle out and i still find time to sit at my computer and create new works in the same windows xp version of microsoft paint. nowadays, they've thankfully become a little less juvenile and a little more purposeful.

a couple years ago, i began sharing these works on the somethingawful forums. i was lucky enough to reach a handful of people who enjoyed the paintings. in all honesty, i reached more people than i thought i'd be able to. it encouraged me to continue working with this program, and if not for the kind words of the people on somethingawful (who would've thought) i may not still be making these paintings or this blog post today. that brings me to explaining the purpose of creating this blog.

i created this blog to have a more centralized space to share and display my work. here, i'll not only be sharing my new microsoft paint works, but also miscellanous posts about art, the world, and many other fascinating things that i'm sure everyone's just dying to read.

for this post, i'd like to share a painting i made about 10 or 11 years ago. while it's unlike the work i gravitate toward nowadays, i'd like to start by sharing some older paintings.

bonham portrait

i was really into led zeppelin at the time, so i made a portrait of their drummer, john bonham. this was my first attempt at a coherent portrait using microsoft paint. while it's not something i prefer to make today, it's a fun example of how you can push the limitations of the software to create realistic paintings.

that's all for the introductory post. when i have something new to share, you'll see it here.

until then,

riptidejim