Q & A with Ulf Raynor

(Photo taken of Ulf on his birthday ~ 2012)

At my first "home" page for Ulf, there is a bit of a bio from information sent to me by Ulf in the past.

On October 2, 2009, I wrote to Ulf and asked if he would be willing to do me...ummm, I mean do an INTERVIEW with me. He most generously gave up mowing his lawn to sit down and take some time to do just that. Here, with very little editing, is the interview. Some of the info, if you've paid attention, is mentioned at Ulf's opening page.

Daddy: Well, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Ulf: Aw, the age of the dinosaurs, seems like it was just 65 million years ago...

Daddy: Is Ulf your birth name, if so, where does it come from? If not, what is your birth name, or is that to remain a secret?

Ulf: No, the name Ulf came from my German Grandmother. Actually, it started more as an observation/comment on her part while watching me play with the other boy's in the  neighborhood, she called me: "mein kleiner ulf" or loosely translated "My little wolf". The nickname stuck throughout my childhood and when I started posting artwork online I resurrected it.

Daddy: Most of your fans know your alter-artistic, render identity is Cerrin. Where did that choice of name come from, and why?

Ulf: That identity came about because my nephews were always asking me to post artwork they could view online. The name Cerrin is a character from a series of books (The chronicles of Thomas Covenant) one I admired a lot.

Daddy: February 16th is your birthday, but where were you born? (Mine's the 10th, we're both Aquarian.) Where do you live today?

Ulf: I was born in Portsmouth VA., I grew up in the military and now reside in West Virginia.

Daddy: Do you wish to share any updated photos of yourself? How about during your youth and through the years you were growing up? 

Ulf: Like vampires, it's impossible to capture my image on film...truthfully, I hate having my picture taken. My father was a military photographer who lived with a camera in his hands and of course my mother, siblings and I were his favorite victims, so we're all a bit "gun shy".

Daddy: Your imagination is incredible, both as Ulf and Cerrin. How did you begin to express your art?
 

Ulf: I was born with a pencil in my hand, I drew on everything, I didn't get into painting until I was in my early teens. My artworks were cartoon superheroes I admired on Saturday morning TV. 

Daddy: Pen and pencil, crayon, charcoal, which art medias have you used, been taught, or learned on your own?

Ulf: I've used them all, I was never really fond of painting, but forced myself.  My favorite traditional medium is color pencil on heavy art paper.

Daddy: Did you receive any formal artistic education? Where? Were you happy, (satisfied) with that particular educational system?

Ulf: I spent a year and a half at a community college studying commercial art before I finally gave up out of frustration. In every class I took, the focus always was on modern art, which of course wasn't what I was wanting. I looked into more traditional art schools, but I couldn't afford them at the time. 

Daddy: Who would you name as the person who influenced you to become an artist and as an artist today?
 

Ulf: As I've said, I was born with a pencil in my hand, I can't say anyone influenced me to be an artist, the desire was manufactured into my DNA. There have been artist who have influenced my imagination however, the list is huge, so I won't even try to name them all. Truthfully, I think I learn from every artist I've ever seen.

Daddy: Who, in your mind, and we know you’re very outspoken, is the most up and coming render artist in or outside of your GPA group?

Ulf: Oh, I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole! I'll forget someone and then they'll be pissed at me.

Daddy: I have work of yours dating back to 2000. (Some with no dates at all.) Do examples of your 3D work go further back? Do you have any to share with us?

Ulf: My rendered work dates back to 1999, which is when I bought my first "real" computer and no, I don't wanna share them with me,  let alone anyone else. ; )

Daddy: Do you first sketch the idea of your renders before you create them, or do you do it all from scratch with the software? Do you have samples of your work in other medias that you could share (scan) with your fans?

Ulf: I almost always have the image in my minds eye before I start and I just go from there.  I don't do sketches, mostly because I'm anal retentive and I've never been able to stop at doing just a simple sketch. If I do get an idea for a pic and I can't execute it at the time, I will write myself a brief, descriptive memo and work on it later. 

Daddy: Speaking of fans, I want to take a moment to thank Frank W., Martin, and Tony C. for most of the renders that I now have in my collection as they’ve been collecting your poser artwork, probably since your beginnings!

Ulf: I'd like to breed them all, except for Martin, I'd make him beg first. (just for the hell of it)

Daddy: I loved creating the fictional story, “Nightshift”, from your work. I thank you for allowing me to share in that project! You have others that I have put on my website, “Buddy System”, and “Dangerous Marine”, both written by RimPig. Is that you with another identity, or another person? Do you plan to do another series renders? Is there one already out there that I’ve missed?

Ulf: Nightshift was a rather quick piece for me, you did an excellent job breathing life into it.

Rimpig is a friend/author who shares my fondness for Marines, he's a very romantic author.
 

There are no other Ulf stories to date, tho I am working on a huge series that, so far, has 4 story arks that will ultimately inter-connect.  As it stands, I see no end to it. I can say, it's a lot darker than anyone's use to seeing from me.

Daddy: What made you decide to create GPA?

Ulf: GPA was first started just as a place for myself and a couple of friends to gather and discuss rendering. modeling and the like, others just started joining and contributing, I think folks just like the friendly banter, that and they know they can get good advice from the membership.

Daddy: Have you always been openly gay?

Ulf: I've never been gay, just a horny fag.

Daddy: What men turn you on? (Mentally and/or Physically)

Ulf: I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, there's nothing in this world more erotic than a Marine in his dress blues. I also have a weakness for the black Irish type. I don't think I have a preference for body type, a lot for me is the guys attitude. Oh, and I have a fondness for naturally big balls.

Daddy: What men turn you off? (Mentally and/or Physically)

Ulf: Number one is long hair, it's difficult for me to get past that and guys who lack self control or self discipline, those types are usually very lazy lovers and I like a lot of aggressive passion in and out of my bedroom.

Daddy: Did you ever have, or do you now have a “spouse”, “life partner” or however you prefer to term a loving, live-in partner? If not, is this something you would like to have, or do you prefer being carefree and “single”?

Ulf: Well, there is this black Irish ex-marine bastard I've been doing since I was 15, does he count?

Daddy: Your images run the gamut of romantically touching to those that involve S & M, physical abuse and seemingly, non-consenting sex. Are these strictly fantasies or do they have some reality to their construction? Is rough and tough sex your “thing”, or are you, like myself, an Aquarian, adaptable, curious and apt to work and play within your many moods and desires, often influenced by the persons your with at the time?

Ulf: I like sex, preferably with someone who is as hot for me as I am for him, with the right guy, there are few limits. It helps, when looking at my artwork, if you think about the old stories: "The Perils of Pauline"; the hapless, generally not too bright main character who just happens to land in all these "situations" and yes, sometimes they dance to close too the flames.

Daddy: You also have a keen sense for spiritual and scientific expression in your work. Where are your thoughts in those matters?

Ulf: I was raised a Southern Baptist, but both my parents were very open minded people for the most part but very devoted to each other, my mother died when I was young, my dad never remarried, whenever asked why, he would always say: "She was the one!" Typical of my Dad, when he found out I was a fag, his response was negative, not because it was another guy, but because he was a Marine (My dad was career Navy and the two don't exactly mix well)

Daddy: Finally, turning to the art of rendering. Help set the definitions straight…um…more precise. What is the 3d art called? 3D art, poser art, rendering art? How did it begin and were you in the forefront of its beginnings? Does one have to have CAD training to get started?

Ulf: It's called many things, the images are rendered on a computer using 3D software, but as far as I'm concerned, it's just art, done with yet another type of tool, no different than any other art medium. CAD is just another type of software usually used by engineers and architects, mostly used to create schematics, etc.

Daddy: I downloaded the free DADZ program and there were so many options to do this or that, I simply gave up not knowing where to begin? It all seems so very complicated, especially when the group starts helping each other and gives the technical info on this, that or the other! Huh?

Ulf: Think of it as any other art tool ya didn't know how to use correctly until you practiced, ya just gotta get in there and start poking around until ya start getting what ya want from it.

Daddy: It also seems like one has to have a pretty powerful computer to make the more complex and detailed renders. I get the sense that like clay, one has to let it sit in an “oust” to reach it’s final, completed form, and that doing so takes up a lot of drive, “heat”, in the computer’s “oven”.

Ulf: My first rendered artwork was done on a 10 gig machine with only 68 megs ram. ; )

Daddy: I think this is why I appreciate the work many of you do achieve.

Ulf: Work?  I'm lazy, if it were work I'd have nuthin' to do with it.

Daddy: Ulf, thanks for, at least, being willing to check out my Q & A, and I hope you’ll take the time to answer all the questions!

Ulf: No prob, it was a good excuse to avoid mowing my yard.... See, I told ya I was lazy! ; )

Take care and have a beer on me.
 

Ulf
 

I wish to, again, say thanks to Ulf for taking the time out to answer these question. If you haven't been to all of Ulf pages yet, here are links to all the available pages at Daddy's website.

Below are interesting quotes I gather from Ulf when he opines to the GPA group.

Ulf had made a comment about the "olden days" in reference to rendering, and I just had to put my two cents in. We had a bit of a back and forth that was pretty funny, as I see it!!

LOL, in the olden days I did renders in Bryce 4 that took days. Now I get cranky if it takes 5 minutes.

Ulf

Olden days...puh-leeze!

We're talkin' way past Biblical!

Can you imagine how long it took me to scratch out those cave wall mammoths?

I must have gone through twenty or thirty sharp stones just on one tusk!! And all by firelight while suckin' up Saber tooth Stew and getting rear ended by a near sighted roomie who smelled like rained on musk ox.

"Life isn't easy, when you're in the wood!"

Daddy

You kids today, all the modern conveniences of rocks and stuffing yourselves on furry animal life forms.  In my day, we considered ourselves lucky if we could get out of the way of hurling streams of matter brought on by the big bang.

You wouldn't believe how long we had to work just to get that shit to coalesce into something solid let alone take the form of something that even remotely resembled a *rock*.

Ulf

Big Bang? Big Bang?
You mean that little gas bubble that came out of my infinite rear after swallowing too many worm holes?
Is that what became of it?

I remember it was quite colorful. Zeus and I had a big laugh over that one! You should have seen the universe he farted out!
Now THAT was funny!

Daddy

I wouldn't expect someone of your junior years to remember that far back, I can remember bouncing Cronus on my lap and believe me, I really don't see how that bitch ever got it up to propagate.

When I say *Big Bang* I am of course referring too the ephemeral orgy that began existence (the gooey secretions we squeezed from that raucous imp Cthulhu we used as lube, which later formed the foundation for coherent matter), not the adolescent flatulence of our minors who have delusions of antiquity.

Ulf

Can you hear it? The sounds of my laughing out loud!
Totally love you my man. You even answered my email before it showed up as email to the group!

Daddy (the younger)

That's because, like Merlin, I'm aging backward. Anything that was written in the future, is part of my past. ; )

Ulf

Oh, Merlinesque dude, I would love to see you doing some personal magic, you mage, you!!

Of course, I do see that often in your renders, good Sir!

You do realize, of course, all those renders and other artists at my website started with discovering you and your fabulous work!

My appreciation for 3D art just grew from there! I just added a 2 terabyte external drive to my computer, and everything on my computer is backed up on the Ethernet by Carbonite, so keep the images coming!

Daddy

I have to tell ya, one of the hottest cinematic scenes I've ever seen was in the movie Excalibur when Lancelot (played by the ever so hunky Nicholas Clay), bested by Arthur thru the might of Excalibur, kneels before him and kisses the dangling tip of Arthur's sword.
That scene is wood inducing every time I see it.

Ulf

(A GPA member inquired about exporting images in Photoshop and the loss or changes of colors.)

I have a suggestion, save them as Tiff files. Tiff is a standard art file with little or no compression.  Saving as jpg for posting is okay, but for an original file I use Tiffs.

Ulf
 

(A GPA artist/member made a legitimate comment regarding Ulf work on the #6 Downtime image, Ulf had this to say.)

I certainly didn't take your comment as rude and I hope no else did as well. 
Rest assured, had I thought so, you would have been the very first to know.

Ulf
 

Interesting about Lupetti;  Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell also work from B&W photos and even trace the images onto canvas before painting them.

Like many artist, they work from the shadows out, adding the darkest values first, then working toward the lighter ones.

I always try to apply this technique whenever I work.

Ulf
 

Go to ULF's Blog!

ULF - 0000 -2001

ULF - 2002

ULF - 2003

ULF - 2004

ULF - 2005

ULF - 2006

ULF - 2007

ULF - 2008

ULF - 2009

ULF - 2010

ULF - 2011

ULF - 2012

ULF - 2013

ULF - 2014

ULF - 2015

ULF - 2016

ULF as CERRIN