Ron Rockwell is your teacher for the Training from the Trenches™ series of courses and projects. During his career, he started out with on-the-job training at a print shop. From there, he worked in "job shops" where the next project was always a surprise, and advertising agencies as an art director. Since 1974 he maintained a freelance art service, and went whole-hog into the computer revolution when the first Macs came out in the mid-eighties. After a stint as a marketing director for a major aerosol manufacturer, he returned full-time to freelance illustration. Along the way, he became very proficient in professional photography and it still occupies a good measure of his time. He's a real type-freak - falling in love with type faces while still in high school, and not even knowing it! His true (work) love is black and white line art, followed closely by cutaway or phantom views. Any kind of illustration is an obsession with him.
Ron was very instrumental in helping Macromedia FreeHand users on their forum, and he wrote a book about the program that's still selling! More recently, he developed the FreeHand course for sale on this site. FreeHand's move to Adobe and it's ultimate death led him to the present Illustrator courses. He lives with his very supportful wife of 25 years in rural eastern Tennessee, with nine cats, a dog, a bird, and his collection of stringed instruments.
Yvonne is Ron's wife, and is your contact when it comes to anything positive or negative about the site or your order. She's responsible for order-taking, shipping, and creating all the disks. She's an accomplished piano player, and a very devoted animal lover - even spiders get a polite exit from the house instead of a heavy heel! Ron and Yvonne spend most evenings sitting on their porch playing their musical instruments and wishing they didn't have to work the next day.
Ron has been working in the graphic arts industry for more than 40 years... yeah, he's an old goat. But during that time he's amassed a monster bag of tricks that he willingly shares with you so that you can continue the time-honored traditions he's learned. As an art director, board artist, illustrator, photographer, marketing director, inventor, author, and teacher, his experience can't be matched by most people or companies producing training materials.
Ron's philosophy is that too many books and video training courses come from people who know the software, or are really good at paraphrasing the help contents. Instead of treading down that worn out path, he teaches you why to use a tool, when to use it, and when to leave it alone. All the while, he has you drawing real-life items, not squares, stars, and goofy shapes or cartoonish animals. He wants you to learn how to make a living at illustration, not just get by.