Who is Charles Davis

Well, you can call me either Charles or Charlie, either works. I own Davis Images and have been freelancing for more than 20 years, offering graphic design, website-development, illustration, fine art, digital art, video, and photography, solutions.

I was born and grew up in the Boston area (Somerville) and yes, I tend to slip back into the “ACCENT” on occasion, mostly when I go back home to Somerville to visit my parents.

I guess you can say I have the "TYPICAL" artist beginnings; For as long as I can remember I have been either drawing, painting or simply doodling, anything that made a mark was in my hands and eventually wound up making marks everywhere; paper, tables, walls, floors, myself and several times the ceiling! I started off drawing dinosaurs, Snoopy, animals, and cartoon characters of the 70's and 80's. I have fond memories of drawing and painting along with Captain Bob on Saturday mornings. I also taped and watched Bob Ross, over and over again!

After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with a Major in Illustration, I had plans of being a freelance illustrator!

Then life happened; I got married, I started having kids; my first daughter, Kendra in 1996, my son Ben in 1998, and my youngest daughter, Ruthie, in 2001. Freelancing turned out to not be a steady, reliable source of income so I had a career in retail management to pay the bills, while raising a family.

Even though I enjoyed interacting with my customers and was great at my job, retail was not at all creative. So during that time I decided to teach myself graphic/web design, thus entering the corporate world as a Graphic/Web designer in 2009, as a logo artist, for a large company in central Massachusetts. Also, during that time, my freelance illustrations and paintings were few and far between and started to slip away slowly.

In 2007 I moved to Western Massachusetts. Can you say "Cow Country"! I finally had an office/studio space of my own! This allowed me to "spread" out and start getting serious about my illustration work again, mostly digital, with an occasional traditional painting here and there. I am still a graphic/web designer by day, but in the evenings and weekends I am an artist again!

Why did I get back into painting traditionally again?

My kids are young adults now. I still live in Western Massachusetts. I am remarried. Like I said above, "Life Happened".

Having been digital painting for a number of years (see below) and loving it, I still felt incomplete in creating art. Lacking purpose and direction, so to speak.

Not too long ago my wife Pam asked me why she hasn't seen me do an actual "real" painting?
She asked me if I liked painting traditionally?
Yes, I replied.
"Then why are you not painting with all the watercolor supplies you have in your boxes in storage?"
"Why not get back into actual painting?"
She wanted to see me paint.
"Nothing should stop you from doing what you like to do", she told me.

She made me think...
Why was I not painting?
What was stopping me from doing what I love to do?

Her questions and comments were honest and deeply heart felt, they touched me.
So thanks to my wife Pam, my muse, I am back into traditional painting! Pam sparked my artist soul to want to paint again! Translation: "She gave me the kick in the pants I needed to start painting again".

With that, I dug out my paints, brushes and paper.
I soon realized how much I missed holding a real brush and dipping it into the water and paints.

Why do I want to paint pets and animals?

At one point in my early days I wanted to be a veterinarian, to work with animals, to be around them as much as I can, to help heal them. That did not happen, clearly, so I am doing the next best thing, capturing them with my artistic talents.

I want to help people and animals with my gift. I want to make people happy, give them a reason to smile, or be moved, and in some cases also to help heal and gain some closure from the loss of a pet. The second part is as it states, I am honoring the animals that I portray.

In my mind and heart I am giving each animal I Paint or Draw, whether they are with us still or not, a small piece of immortality. I hope people will gaze upon them long after they are gone, and can still enjoy their beauty and personality. And finally I find peace in knowing that all of these positives will continue far into the future long after I myself am gone.

Much of my work has a simplified or no background, allowing all the focus on the animal. This minimalist approach leaves the viewer with an unadorned appreciation for the beauty and simplicity of the animal in the painting.

Not only do I paint cats & dogs - I love painting domestic, wildlife, farm and exotic animals such as rabbits, horses, leopards, tigers, squirrels, chimps, hummingbirds, monitor lizards, teacup pigs, ponies, sugar gliders, beta fish, green-cheeked parakeets! No animal is off limits for me to paint, it can be real, mythical, extinct, whatever. There’s a lot of time, love, and energy that goes into creating each custom piece!

I have always been fascinated by nature, plants, animals and the marvels of the world.

Yes, I stop and look at the "simple things"; a flower in the various stages of blooming, a spider spinning a web, a squirrel running around looking for and hiding nuts. A cat/kitten or dog/puppy playing. A bird soaring overhead.

Nature in general is amazing. The diversity is mind numbing if you think about it. The variety of just one species is wonderful. Domestic dogs and cats alone have so many variations. That is why I won't limit myself to just pets, but all animals.

Why Digital Painting?

I went the route of predominately painting digitally, using Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter and a 12" x 12" Wacom tablet. The reason for this is, back in the early 2000's, I developed a minor allergy to oil paints, which all but stopped me in my tracks with traditional painting. Over the years I have done an occasional watercolor or acrylic painting as a gift for family members, but I could not get back into painting.

In 2005 I acquired a used wacom tablet from a friend and started messing around in Photoshop. I had used a tablet in the past and was happy to see I did not have any problems picking it up again. My first official digital painting was soon produced and I was hooked! Since then I have been enjoying myself again. I got my drive back to paint.

In April 2007 I attended a Photoshop Seminar in Boston. I went to a class with Fay Sirkis, a digital artist, dropped a business card into a hat and BAM! I won a brand new copy of Corel Painter X! WOW! Talk about lucky! I have played around with it some and all I can say is very nice.The first thing I noticed after briefly “painting” some color onto a new “canvas” was that the paint actually looked a little three-dimensional and you could see the brush strokes.

Talk about impressive, you can play with the paper surfaces as well as all of the traditional art mediums. All of the mediums react to the surface as they do in real life. Water colors spread and can be thinned, oils can be thick or thin as well as acrylics. There are pens, pencils, charcoal, pastels and many more, even crayons.

The truly best thing about digital painting, is how you can jump in, paint a little, jump back out and not worry about the paints drying or getting damaged in any way. You save along the way, make backups and you are good to go. I also like how with digital painting I am several steps ahead of the game when it comes to wanting to make prints. I don't have to worry about scanning in my artwork, or color correcting. I already have the file in digital format.

I am also a Full-Time Graphic/Web Designer, for now...

I am a graphic/web design and illustration professional, with considerable experience using Adobe Creative Suite of products; Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, After Effects, Flash and more, in both a Mac and PC environment, in managing all phases of the creative production process for print, web, and video/multimedia. I am always seeking to leverage my strengths in all graphic/web/illustration projects, where my energy, knowledge of design, web and organizational skills, can be fulfilled even while working with fellow creative and non-creative professionals. I have many years of experience with brand awareness and being able to innovatively pull ‘it’ all together for a more cohesive “branded” look with print, web and other formats, such as video and photography. Proven creative, marketing, and technical skills to effectively and efficiently see projects from concept to completion. Creative, innovative and original with a positive attitude. Hard working, works well under pressure, a great team player. Having a background in customer service, management, and as a team leader working with tight deadlines, gives the confidence to achieve maximum results and success on all projects.

For 10 years I worked as a Senior Corporate Designer for a large direct-mail company in Central Massachusetts that specializes in servicing the needs of small business owners. That decade allowed me to understand and learn what a small business owner needs to succeed and grow. I am proud to say I put myself through college while working for my father, who continues to run his own business.

I am a creative person with a deep understanding of design, animation, printing, and technology. With a solid history in corporate identity, packaging, print collateral, logo design, advertising, annual reports, production, and retail and catalog design, I am dedicated to applying my vision, technology, and resources to meet the design objectives of my customers and produce consistently high-quality products.

Video and photography is another one of my skills - from taking the footage/photos, editing and enhancing them to best convey the message for each project. I have also created How-To-Videos, print collateral, and trade show graphics.

I am also familiar developing email and advertising campaigns that focus on new product releases, press releases and promotional communications that run with social media outlets, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, to name a few. By concentrating on Relationship Building instead of selling, you can steadily reap the rewards from the professional growth of your business!

I am hard working, work well under pressure, and a great team player. With a background in customer service, management, and as a team leader working with tight deadlines, this gives me the confidence to achieve maximum results and success on all projects.

With each project I undertake, I work on a one-to-one, personalized basis with my client. No customer-service or sales representatives are involved--just the client and me. My clients are extremely important to me, and I strive to satisfy all their graphic design needs.

Specialties:

Social Media Optimization

Graphic Design/Print/Web/Multimedia

Software Mac & PC • Adobe Creative Cloud - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premiere, Fireworks, Bridge; QuarkXpress, Final Cut Pro, PowerPoint, Corel Painter, MS Office, Mac/PC Trouble Shooting

Design • Direct Mail, Corporate Identity, Packaging, Print, Logo, Advertising, Labels, Pre-Production, Full Color, Catalog, Web Graphics, Animation, Video and Photo - Shoots & Correction; Illustration, Painting

Web • Flash, Dreamweaver, CSS, HTML, Drupal, Layout, Banners, Graphics