Not only is he a very good artist in his own right, as demonstrated by these images from his gallery, but without him I think it's safe to say that HeroMorph wouldn't exist. He was one of the founders of the site that would evolve into the HeroMorph that we all know and love.
It all started as an idea from HubCap and Black Alchemy. They were friends and were doing manips as part of a yahoo message board group.
The limitations of the yahoo group idea got HubCap thinking about starting his own site...
So he and Black Alchemy created the first version of HeroMorph back in April, 2003.
After a rough start with the site temporarily going offline, it came back for good in August, 2003. And that remains to this day HeroMorph's official anniversary!
With the creation of HeroMorph, HubCap helped set the tone and pave the path for many great Photomanipers to follow...
He also created a community of digital and traditional artists where everyone is welcome, no matter if they are a professional, an aspiring amateur or a simple aficionado.
HeroMorph is a place built by fans for fans, in order to help each other improve — or just to have a great place to hang out.
Now I leave you with HubCap's own words posted here at HeroMorph during our 10th anniversary:
A little over 10 years ago I was posting my manips on GeoCities™ and got a lot of requests to do another page with other people's art that was being e-mailed to me. So I paid for a domain name and grabbed some php webpage builder and changed some code here and there to add multiple galleries and such and uploaded it to Heromorph.com . For about a year I ran things and was slowly getting behind on all the moderating , clean-up etc.. on the boards and galleries. I asked for and received much needed help from volunteers. Since then this community has grown and moved to different host servers, my original host shut us down multiple times for too much traffic, this community has also seen many artist get jobs and start careers in art. I wanted to thank all those that have helped because in their capable hands Heromorph has become what it is so if you are one of those people please take a bow in this thread for all you have done. For the unpaid and some times unappreciated time you have spent to keep this website going I THANK YOU. HubCap
HeroMorph may have started with (and literally meant!) photomanips, but we soon attracted a wider variety of talent, including some magnificent traditional illustrators... and one of our finest pen-and-ink masters was the great Pat2004!
Pat2004 first caught HeroMorphers' attention with his superb black-and-white pinups of (what else?) comic book babes...
And we don't just mean black-and-white as in "not coloured", we mean black-and-white as in "specifically created to make jaw-droppingly brilliant use of light and shadow"!
Just check out these wonderful renditions of some of the gorgeous ladies of Marvel...
...and a lot of beautiful images going beyond the classic capes-n-masks crowd to literary fantasy, video games, animation, and even his own original characters!
Pat2004 is hands-down one of the greatest illustrators HeroMorph has ever been lucky enough to have... and a fitting choice for the second entrant into the prestigious HeroMorphHall of Fame!
As a final word, remember to visit his gallery to see some truly amazing artwork.
i'm not english, my english is bad i know it . no need remember it to me ! sinon je vais finir par tout ecrire en français ensemb meme un ti gigne kreol si zot y vé! Pat2004
HubCap may have been the father of HeroMorph, but Winterhawk (Mighty Guardian of the Great White North!) is the man who made it what it is today!
Winterhawk has always been an artist. He loved drawing as a child and teenager, and was making B&W pixel-by-pixel computer art on his dad's Texas Instruments home computer as far back as the 80's. Years later, he discovered photomanipulations... and was blown away!
I had never seen anything like them before and thought they were the coolest things since sliced bread.
Winterhawk was an active member of HeroMorph almost from the beginning. He joined HM in its infancy (just in time for the Great System Crash of Summer 2003) and soon started posting in the forums and commenting on pictures... and on September 2nd 2003, he finally took the plunge and made his very first manip!
It was horrible but I was addicted! I had to try again because I was so bad the first time; I knew I was better then that. After the second manip I realized I was excited about doing art, I was inspired again and hopelessly addicted to Heromorph.
And Winterhawk's addiction to HeroMorph did not go unnoticed! Within a year, he achieved the rarified heights of moderator... And ever since, Winterhawk has been the heart and soul of HeroMorph! He became our de facto big boss after the departures of founders HubCap and Black Alchemy, and in the decade and more since, he has done more than anyone else to keep HeroMorph alive and thriving.
At one time or another, he's been our most active moderator, the man in charge of our servers and system, and an important part of our Challenges and SmackDowns and Top Tens and Spotlights and Awards and... Well, and everything else that makes HeroMorph the great website that it is! If it's at HeroMorph and it's awesome, then you can probably thank Winterhawk for it!
And as though that wasn't enough, Winterhawk is also a hugely talented and incredibly versatile artist. His most recent work (but not recent enough!) may be his magnificent 3D creations, but he's also a phenomenally talented manipper, an awesome colorist, and a fine penciller... just look at some of these superb selections from his gallery!
Without Winterhawk, HeroMorph wouldn't be the great community and artistic haven that it is. That is why he is the third inductee into the prestigious HeroMorphHall of Fame!
Question: What is your guiding philosophy as an artist?
Hmm, I guess, "Share art and have fun." I never really thought about it but I just kind of go with whatever looks like fun.
bhm1954 was mostly a coloring guy, which means that he was mostly known for his coloring of others art... But that was not all he was known for.
As proved by his many comments in others art and by his attempts at photo-manipulation, long gone from the archives here at HeroMorph but not unnoticed or forgotten!
We try not to be too personal as we write these little homages but when it comes to bhm1954, that is unavoidable as he touched us all in some way or another.
I still remember when I was trying to learn more about digital art, and most of my early images were utterly crap, but none the less bhm1954 always had a word of encouragement that was at times, just enough to make us try again... and again... and again...
His critiques were thoughtful and even when they showed areas where improvement could be made, they still always managed to be kind and encouraging.
I think one of the things I admire so much about bhm1954 is the way he had been encouraged by the HeroMorph community and gave back even more encouragement to others in the community.
At one time or another, he was that person that with his simple comment and all around sympathy made a huge difference in our lives.
We at HeroMorph salute bhm1954 for his many contributions here, through both his art and his words as well as his kindness and encouragement and for that, we'd like to show our appreciation as we add him to our list of legendary members in the HeroMorph'sHall of Fame!
... A couple of years ago I came across the Heromorph web site and decided to try my hand at digital art. ... By the way, I do enjoy doing the digital art and do it just for the fun of it. I don't ever expect to be as good as most of you or get paid for doing the art but I still enjoy it all the same. bhm1954
This Hall of Fame is a bit diferent than usual. As many of you know we have lost one of our own recently, so this is our way to pay tribute to the friend and artist he was...
I'm sure some of you have some stories with him as well, so after you read the following Hall of Fame, please, we invite YOU to share one story about Dark Wanderer in this thread: Farewell Dark Wanderer... Or make an image dedicated to him and share it at the Gallery like Halcon89 already did: EN HOMENAJE A DW
HALL of FAME
A place of special tribute to Heromorph's most legendary, talented and gifted artists
He was a friend. And a Teacher. And the driving force behind the Secret Santa and some of the best challenges we had here at HeroMorph in the last few years.
He really loved Secret Santa and this site. So much that when he become a moderator, he made it his personal quest to host the best Secret Santa every year.
He was the guy that made sure that every participant got its own gift, filling in for the no-shows and overdue entries in order that everyone had a gift on Secret Santa posting day.
BUT...
He was so much more than that.
Long before he was a moderator, he was already one of the first to welcome new artists to the site. And to help them grow and evolve by sharing his knowledge with them, leaving constructive and helpfull comments on their art...
Although in recent years he was mostly known as a 3D guy, that was not all he was as an artist.
He was also a skilled manipper and a 2Der artist...
And as you can see by his personal rank, he was very proud of those days when he mastered the way to create metalic textures on manips.
Take a look at the work present in his gallery and you can see all his talent!
For Dark Wanderer's many contributions, friendship and simpathy to this community, we'd like to show our appreciation as we add him to our list of legendary members in the HeroMorph'sHall of Fame!