I was born and raised in Colorado, and I've always loved it here. Living on a farm, I grew up with a lot of animals, but not many toys, movies or cable TV. When I wasn't outside playing with my pets, I was drawing, mostly animals. This went on for a few decades or so. And hasn't really stopped. I attended public school, spent a large part of high school in the art room, took the occasional college course. Now I'm still working with animals, and drawing, though I've given some thought to the human animal recently. There isn't a whole lot more to it than that. I adore movies, books, food, and my cat.   Q: Can I archive your art on my webpage or use it for my site? A: This is hands down the most common question I get. I will occasionally allow one or two pieces to be shown on other websites if I'm asked nicely, but the answer will often be 'no'. That is precisely what Sandelwood.net is for, it is an archive of all the art I choose to display to the public at any given time. I spend a lot of time designing and maintaining this site by myself, for your benefit. There is no need for a duplicate. You are certainly welcome to provide a link to this website from yours.   All artwork I put on the web is purposely small, low resolution and watermarked, and I won't upload 'better' versions for other people's use or manipulation. Please see the copyright info at the bottom of each image. I do not want to see it copied, altered or redistributed in any way.   Q: Is there any way I can use it? A: You may crop an image to use as an avator/icon for your blog, LJ, JF, AIM, etc. Just credit "Art by Sandelwood" in your keywords. Please, do not alter the art.   You are welcome to save my art to your own computer to use as wallpaper, or just to look at at your leisure. In fact, if you really like a particular piece you might want to save it, as I will sometimes remove older pieces from public view when I don't like them myself anymore. Curse of an artist, we are our own worst critics and tend to find pieces from a year or somes only months ago embarrassing when we know we can do better.   Q: Where did you learn to draw? A: I've been drawing all my life. Aside from regular art classes in school, and the occasional local continuing ed course, I'm self-taught. Being self-taught isn't a magical thing though. Think about it. I have spent twenty-some years drawing almost every day, making many mistakes and learning how to correct them by studying life, learning a few pointers from people who are better than me, and accepting (sometimes harsh) criticism. I feel it is very important for an artist to realize they are always still learning, and will never stop. That's part of the challenge. No formula, no magic, no scholarly education, just years and years of practice.   Q: Draw me a picture, please? A: Okay. Please review my commission guidelines first. Sorry, but I do not draw for free. Funny thing about that 'starving artist' cliché is that it's true in a lot of cases, including mine. Any free time I have to draw is valuable, so if I'm drawing a picture for someone other than myself, I would really appreciate it if you can pay me.   Q: What mediums do you use? How do you do your art? A: I work most often in pencil, colored pencil and digital media. I typically do a lot of sketching on paper, refine it from there and then choose if I want to shade in graphite, or color in colored pencil or digital. For digital work, I scan a cleaned up sketch and paint it using a Wacom tablet in Adobe Photoshop, a program I have been using since it debuted (and relearning every time it upgrades). It may not scratch the surface of what the program is capable of, but I simply paint with it almost as I would on paper.   Q: When are you going to draw (this) scene from (that) book? A: I usually read books I like over and over again. Each time I read them, I mark specific scenes I want to draw with those little Post-It tabs. However, most of the time this adds up to a lot of tabs. My copy of Lord of the Rings has 40+ tabs alone, all of which are various stages of progression, mostly ideas or very rough sketches. And every time I reread it, I tend to add more tabs. So the answer is invariably this: someday, I'll get around to it. You're welcome to drop ideas of scenes you think I should get to sooner than "eventually", but it really just depends on when the muse strikes and I have the time.   Q: What does Sandelwood mean? A: It doesn't mean anything. If you want to be specific, it's an asian tree that smells good. The proper spelling is "sandalwood", but of course, the correct way was already taken by the time I got here. In short, it's just one of the names I use online.   Q: I have a question that isn't answered here. How can I ask? A: You can ask a question through my guestbook which is linked in the window at your left, or email me at sandelwood(at)speakeasy(dot)net. If I don't answer you directly, check back on this page.
	Name: Melissa Rogers Gender: Female Birthdate: August 16th, 1979 Location: Boulder, CO, USA Occupation: Artist, Dog Groomer Pets: one old cat Interests: art, animals, movies, music, reading, writing Current Favorites: (Movie) The Lord of the Rings, (Book) The Lord of the Rings, (TV Show) Lost                                                                   All contents of this site are the property of Melissa Rogers unless otherwise noted. Please click above for more information.