Renee Biertempfel
Updated July 2005
I have loved and drawn Faery and Fantasy art as long as I can remember...
I grew up in the countryside of Harmony, Pennsylvania. Growing up in the country was wonderful for the imagination. We were surrounded by woods filled with large old stones. This is where I started getting ideas to draw fairies and other magical images. I was also inspired by different other things like "role playing". I used to love making and drawing characters for friends and myself.
The other big influence was watching "Robin Of Sherwood" - a show the BBC created back in the early 80's. Years later I ended up going to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and got my degree in Visual Communications. Not long after I was hired on by a company based outside of Pittsburgh that manufactured gift items. I worked in the gift industry for five years as a gift designer and illustrator. I was creating products from wind chimes to decorative home decor. Eventually I moved on to other companies where I was creating signs, designing advertising slogans, or worked in photo retouching and restoration. When I was colorizing old vintage photographs, I discovered the joys of digital colorization. I use this technique now with my illustrations by scanning in my graphite-drawn art work and colorizing them in Photoshop. During the day I worked but at home I continued to draw fairies and other fantasy art inspired by the images of Alan Lee and Brian Froud, as well as old art like all the late victorian art, Art Nouveau and many other fantasy artists.
Right now I reside in Pittsburgh Pa. with my fiance, Blake, who is a fantastic medieval armorer in the "SCA". We share a house with two cats, Ginger and Gremlyn, and a love bird named: Ms. Phoebe.
