Portfolio of Jordan W. Melcher

*Be sure to send me a message if you have any questions or comments*

My talents started at young age as with most artists. Below is a brief and summed up description of my beginnings in art at the start of 2005 to the present of 2010.

It wasn't until my freshman year in high school that I really started to draw and paint. Art was just a hobby along with raising animals in 4-H. I still sketched often and excelled in art classes, but it still never caught my interest to pursue a career in art.

Around the age of 15 I made my first website were I posted little cartoon scribbles and comics. I also made my first original character known as "Music Avenger": a masked vigilante who carried a big mallet and clobbered musicians that made "bad music". Eventually I took down the site altogether in early 2006.

As my high school education progressed into my sophomore year, I began to try other mediums of art. I started using coloring programs such as Adobe Photoshop to make my drawings a bit more crisp and in higher quality. A website known as DeviantART.com was fairly big at the time and was pretty much the "Facebook" for artists like myself to communicate. I started uploading some of my art and also started making requested art for friends. My drawings were very "fan art" heavy and barely had any original content. This was also the same year I attended the Iowa Hawk Eye 10 Art Show for 2006.

My junior year was one of my most progressive years in my drawing. I started using water colors and studied a few human anatomy books. I made quite a few paintings that got me going to the Hawk Eye 10 Art Show for the second time in a row. I was awarded the "Most Outstanding Artist" and "Most Improvement" certificates.

In the middle of this year my family and I moved from Southern Iowa to Northern Iowa. Despite the new changes it was a nice new adjustment. I worked at a summer camp as a volunteer councilor and joined a new 4-H group as a way to get to know my new community. As I worked with my livestock and helped campers I carried a sketch book all the way. I entered a few paintings to the county fair and had a few submitted to the Iowa State Fair.

Back in December of 2008 I received my first pen tablet from my parents for Christmas. It was a earlier model of the Bamboo made by Wacom. Digital painting and animating was something I always wanted to do. I began sketching and drawing as much I could to better my skills.

It wasn't until January of 2009 that I realized that art was a career I should go in to. I guess you could say my mind was fashionably late. I made a lot of pieces of art in and outside of the class room and was soon looking for schools to start my college education.

With the help of some teachers and councilors I applied for an art scholarship to attend NIACC and won. I started NIACC in the fall of 2009 and enjoyed it from the get go. This was a very productive year for my art and you can find most of my animations and drawings found here and here.

Below are few early digital sketches I made.

I created this online portfolio in late 2009 and have been updating it with the many drawings and animations I produce weekly. I am currently still planning to attend NIACC and hope to graduate and move on to pursue more education for my art career.