My name is Paul Burden. I am a S.C.A.D. graduate (1992- B.F.A. Illustration) and have spent most of my artistic career freelancing for the public, retail style. Outside of the basic dry media typically used for sketching, the tools I specialize in using are mostly mechanical, i.e. my airbrush & tattoo machine collections, and Wacom tablet. My software proficencies include Corel Painter, ACDSee (bye, Deneba!) Canvas, the Macromedia (or if you must, Adobe) Dreamweaver / Fireworks combo, Bradbury (or Newsgator.com) TopStyle Pro, and a good number of applications that require a DualShock 2 controller.

Up until 1994, my career consited of retail level airbrushing (shirts, hats, licence plates, etc.). On an ad flyer tour of local businesses near my flea market airbrush booth in Riverdale GA, I stopped by a certain tattoo shop and gave the owner a look at my portfolio. Based on what he saw, I began my tattoo apprenticeship back in mid-1994. After months of emptying trash cans, making needles and permanently marking most of the inner parts of my lower legs at every opportunity, I became a full-fledged tattoo artist. I have been drawing on people full-time since late 1994 / early 1995. Stylistically, I would say that I am a fan of the non-standard and less traditional; a style commonly referred to by broadcast television news or desperately hip free newspapers and cereal box promotions as "underground" or "nu-skool". My visual solutions, much like the rest of my illustration and airbrush work, lean toward the weird, cartoonish and humorous. I enjoy using the full range of the color spectrum in my work, but I find it equally entertaining to think in shades of grey.

off to the tattoo section...