Real name 

Eric Pierce

Email address 

wapcaplet88 (hold down shift and press the number "2" on your US keyboard, or shift and quote on a UK keyboard) yahoo (full stop) com

I give you this barn star for all the incredible ilustrations you gave to wikipedia. Thanks all of us to you. --Alexandre Van de Sande 17:54, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I grew up near Decatur, Illinois, briefly attended college at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and eventually graduated from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio with a degree in computer science. I moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado at the beginning of August 2003 and am currently seeking employment in my field. In the meantime, I work for Washington Inventory Service to pay the bills, and spend my spare time contributing to Wikipedia and hacking. My other interests include Linux, computer (and non-computer) graphics, music and musical composition, and LEGO. I like to play Risk and disc golf.

I have a certain affection for the diverse Wikipedia articles that I have contributed significantly to, from the Great Pyramid of Giza to King Crimson, from the HSV color space to the M-209 cipher machine. I've found that writing for Wikipedia has sharpened my skill with precise, unambiguous prose, and has given me practice in making a technical narrative accessible to a general audience. I'm only an amateur writer, though, and a poor researcher; my specialty, at least in regards to Wikipedia, has been the art of illustration.

How I learned to illustrate

I've had a lifelong proclivity for drawing that naturally extended into computer graphics, beginning with my first computer experiences on the TRS-80 and Apple IIc. I remember writing dumb little programs, little more than a bunch of graphic commands, to draw boxy 80x25 graphics of things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was briefly obsessed with the first Apple Macintosh's paint program, which a co-worker of my dad had. My next computer, a Tandy 1000 HX, taught me how to use a 16-color paint program. Next, it was POV-Ray on a 386, Fractal Design and Adobe Photoshop on a 486, and now Blender, GIMP, Sodipodi and others on my well broken-in Athlon XP 1600.

I am not currently employed as such, but in times past I have worked professionally as a graphic designer. In professional graphic design, there is usually someone standing over your shoulder with approval on how something looks. It's difficult to meet the expectations of a client who has poor design or color sense; as the designer, I know when it looks bad, but I must do what the client wants.

It is only in illustrating for Wikipedia that I've really learned how to illustrate. Here, I have complete creative freedom, but there are a number of other constraints to consider. In order for an illustration to work for Wikipedia, it must be simple enough to be legible at low resolution; it must communicate information in a way that complements the accompanying textual description; it should not be language-dependent. Having worked within them for a while, I believe these constraints can only make illustrations better, and I think I have become a better illustrator because of my experience here. The appreciation and recognition that I have received for my illustrations is the best reward I could ask for!

Automobile diagrams

I've created a partial 3D model showing the internal parts of an automobile using Blender. I've neglected the project in more recent months, however, and very few practical illustrations ever came out of it. If you would like to pick things up where I left off (or are just interested in getting ahold of the model), let me know and I will gladly email the Blender scene file to you.

Wikipedia T-shirts

I've made some Wikipedia T-shirt designs. Check out my meta user page for designs which you are free to use for any purpose you like.

Illustrations

I've contributed a lot of illustrations to Wikipedia. Here are some of them:

• Anatomy
  • Heart
    • Image:Heart_labelled_large.png
    • Image:Heart_diastole.png
    • Image:Heart_systole.png
• Automobile parts
  • Four-stroke cycle
    • Image:Four_stroke_cycle_start.png
    • Image:Four_stroke_cycle_intake.png
    • Image:Four_stroke_cycle_compression.png
    • Image:Four_stroke_cycle_spark.png
    • Image:Four_stroke_cycle_power.png
    • Image:Four_stroke_cycle_exhaust.png
  • Disc brake
    • Image:Disc_brake_open.png
    • Image:Disc_brake_half_clamped.png
    • Image:Disc_brake_clamped.png
• Computer graphics
  • HSV color space
    • Image:Hsv_sample.png
    • Image:HSV_cone.jpg
    • Image:HSV_cylinder.jpg
  • Constructive solid geometry
    • Image:Csg_union.png
    • Image:Csg_difference.png
    • Image:Csg_intersection.png
  • Image:Radiosity.png
  • Image:DPI_and_PPI.png
• Cryptography
  • Enigma machine
    • Image:Enigma_rotor_exploded_view.png
    • Image:Enigma_rotor_set.png
    • Image:Enigma_ratchet.png
  • M-94
    • Image:Wheel_cipher.png
  • M-209
    • Image:M209_guide_arm_springs.png
    • Image:M209_guide_arm_touching_lug.png
• Locks
  • Pin tumbler lock
    • Image:Pin_tumbler_locked.png
    • Image:Pin_tumbler_with_key.png
    • Image:Pin_tumbler_unlocked.png
  • Tubular pin tumbler lock
    • Image:Tubular_locked.png
    • Image:Tubular_with_key.png
    • Image:Tubular_unlocked.png
  • Disc tumbler lock
    • Image:Disc_tumbler_locked.png
    • Image:Disc_tumbler_with_key.png
    • Image:Disc_tumbler_unlocked.png
  • Combination lock
    • Image:Combination_discs.png
    • Image:Combination_unlocked.png
    • Image:Combination_locked.png
  • Warded lock
    • Image:Warded_locked.png
    • Image:Warded_with_key.png
    • Image:Warded_unlocked.png
• Maps
  • Image:US_state_abbrev_map.png
• Mechanisms
  • Epicyclic gearing
    • Image:Epicyclic_gear_ratios.png
    • Image:Epicyclic_carrier_locked.png
  • Differential
    • Image:Differential_free.png
    • Image:Differential_locked.png
  • Electrical stuff
    • Electric motor
      • Image:Electric_motor_cycle_1.png
      • Image:Electric_motor_cycle_2.png
      • Image:Electric_motor_cycle_3.png
    • Stepper motor
      • Image:Stepper_motor_1.png
      • Image:Stepper_motor_2.png
      • Image:Stepper_motor_3.png
      • Image:Stepper_motor_4.png
    • Image:LVDT.png
    • Image:TWTA.png
• Miscellaneous
  • Image:Milgram_experiment.png

Some I'd like to illustrate if I find the time:

• A dial-style combination lock
• Clearer examples of a vacuum tube

If there is something you would like to have illustrated, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

My monobook stylesheet customizations

License

All my main article and talk namespace contributions, as well as all PNG or JPEG graphic images created, photographed, or altered by me, are released under the license described below. This license applies retroactively.