A little feedback is always welcome.

Welcome to Flycatcher Graphics.

This site is devoted to photographic and computer graphic images created by Flycatcher using a variety of software.

All art-work displayed here is original and of my own creation.  Some images use resources such as 3D meshes, PSP Tubes, etc. in the public domain that have been downloaded from the internet.  Where possible, the attribution of these has been given.  However, my records are incomplete and some remain uncommented.  If you spot any of your own resources included here that have not been acknowledged, please let me know and due credit will be given.  Hopefully most accidental omissions will be covered by a site reference in my Links page.

What's New

Use the links below to jump straight to the first of the new images added in a particular site update in any category.  From there you may follow the Next links to view the rest of the new images using that same software; use the Home button to return to this page to pick up the link to the first new image in another software category.

About Flycatcher Graphics

Hi, my name is Bill Hardwick, aka Flycatcher.  Why Flycatcher?  Because my main hobby interest for the past quarter-century has been entomology, nowadays specifically the study of flies, which takes up a great deal of my time.  Digital photography and computer graphics are recently acquired interests adopted over the last 3 years or so.

I live in the UK originating from Yorkshire, but my home has been in Cheshire now for over 30 years.  I am and always have been by nature and choice very much a loner, though my companion for the last few years has been Arthur - don't jump to conclusions - an alpha-male white cat that used to live next door but decided to move in with me and now rules the roost.  

I took early retirement from computer systems management in 1994 at age 50.  This is a course of action I have never regretted for one moment, and I warmly recommend it to anyone out there contemplating it themselves.  Only problem is, there still doesn't seem to be anywhere near enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.

My previous artistic endeavours were restricted to programming a few fractal and pattern generator programs, programming being another adult lifetime interest that I have only very recently abandoned since getting involved in digital arts.  Otherwise my artistic training and background are both nil - 40 uninspiring minutes a week for 2 years at secondary school hardly seems to count.  What little I know is self-taught, as also are what few skills I may have acquired.  I digitally paint and model purely for my own pleasure, with no commercial or other goal in view.  However, having received favourable reactions to a few posts I had made on other sites, I decided to set up this site to share more of my output with others who may be interested.

I began using Paint Shop Pro creatively in 1999, and continued to use that program more or less exclusively for 2 years.  I then discovered Terragen, and had one year of extensively using it alongside continuing with PSP.  I next acquired Vue d'Esprit, but after only a couple of months with that decided I wanted something with more modelling capability.  I first tried Blender, but found the interface impenetrable.  Then I discovered and purchased ZBrush.  Ironically, although it was the modelling capabilities of this program that first attracted me, I have actually done very little 3D work with it to date, having been mostly seduced by its 2/2.5D painting features.  More recently I hav begun to use Wings 3D (freeware and highly recommended) for creating models for use in other applications such as Vue.  My most recent acquisitions include XFrog, Painter 8, Carrara Studio 3, Poser 5 and Cinema 4D 8.5 XL.  Being a graphics junkie, I also have a range of other graphics freeware and older, now free versions of commercial software, that I use far less frequently and consequently considerably less competently.  I do not take a purist view with any of them, and am happy to treat them as all part of one big toolbox whose features I mix and match in images as required.  However, inevitably one program plays a dominant part in preparing a composite image, so I have chosen to organise this site by software base rather than by subject category, except for fractals.

Optimal Browsing

The site has been optimised for Internet Explorer without the standard buttons bar showing at a screen resolution of 1024x768, or higher resolution with or without the standard button bar visible.  Under these conditions it will be possible to view the entire image on the screen without scrolling.  (Many of the originals were created at 1280x1024, but have been reduced in size and compressed for these web galleries to better fit the more popular screen resolutions and to reduce download time.)

JavaScript should ideally be enabled, but is used on the site only for the advertising banners and the button rollover effects.  Unfortunately Netscape users will not see these, and there are other slight changes in appearance under that browser.

The images in each software category are posted in roughly chronological order, with the newest ones appearing LAST in the list.  Each gallery has one or more index pages.  Clicking a thumbnail there takes you to the corresponding image.  From there you may proceed either by returning to the index page, going to the previous or next image, or by picking any of the images in the entire software gallery from a drop-down list.  The What's New section on this Home page will also contain direct links to the most recently added set of images in each gallery as they are updated.

Copyright and Usage Restrictions

Copyright of all material and images posted here is asserted and declared by Flycatcher and all rights are reserved.  © 2002  LW Hardwick (aka Flycatcher).  The contents of this site are protected by British and international copyright law.  You are welcome to make digital or printed copies of any of the images or other resources here for your own private use, but please do not claim them as your own, re-post them on other sites (including your own) or newsgroups, print them for distribution in any form, or use them for any commercial purpose without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.  Any infringements of copyright will be taken seriously, and may result in legal proceedings against offenders.

Linking to Flycatcher Graphics

You are welcome to add a link to Flycatcher Graphics from your own site if you wish.  Buttons for this purpose are provided below.  If you would like me to place a reciprocal link from my site to yours, please email me with the URL.  However, please do not link directly to images or other resources on this site.

Contacting Flycatcher