Mel Thirkell
My name is Mel Thirkell. That's Mel as in Mel Gibson not Mel as in Melanie B from the Spice Girls. I have two daughters and one is called Melissa. She also gets called Mel which was sometimes uncomfortable when one of her friend's would call the house phone and ask for Mel. It was a while before my wife recognised the confusion this caused.
Anyway enough of the domestic stuff. With regards to relevant information, I studied art and design many years ago and qualified with a degree in Fine Art from Leeds Polytechnic. As an aside the year I left was the year Marc Almond from Soft Cell started his degree. We could have been friends but I fear it would have been a tainted love. I also just missed Green out of Scritti Politi. Perhaps it was fate that these two went on to become musical superstars and I ended up working wth emotinally disturbed youngsters, teaching them Art GCSE for 34 years.
Whilst at Art college my main focus was on contemporay, minimalist sculpture and my love for 3d space has never left me, as some of my 2d work would show. I have never lost my passion for drawing and much of my portfolio shows just that. The advent of digital image editing, coupled with my love of photography has also stimulated a passion for mixing up both traditional and digital techniques to produce bespoke imagery. Please enjoy browsing the site and feel free to contact me to discuss all things creative.
The images shown on this site are but a small representation of my total work. Most are created completely within a digital environment using a range of software including, but not exclusive to, Photoshop. I prefer to relate to the term 'Photoshopping' as a verb rather than a noun as it has taken the place of defining any kind of digital manipulation. 3D programmes such as Bryce, Vue, Terragen, Poser and Daz Studio are also represented on the site with occasional references to the open source 'Blender'
There are also html5 animations and videos compiled using video software such as Avid, Premiere Pro and most importantly slideshow movies created using Photopia. Some images begin as regular drawings or paintings and are then 'tweaked 'using the computer. Some images on the tutorial pages have detailed explanations as to how they were created. Video tutorials will be coming soon. If you wish to discuss aspects of the work in more detail or check out how other images were created you can get in touch via my contact page.
The image opposoite was created recently as an illustration to a poem I wrote 50 years ago.
Click play below to view as Logo examples
