I love stories and I am at my core, a storyteller. Likely a result of my early love of comic books and the artwork on pulp, fantasy, and science fiction novels that I absorbed as a young kid, a substantial part of my work involves telling stories through drawing and painting. For me, these disciplines present a universal language that is uniquely human. Whether my aim is to entertain or inform, at the heart of my work is the desire to communicate.
I generally work in a combination of digital and traditional media. I have always been partial to working in graphite or ink with a brush or pen for my drawings. For traditional painting, I lean heavily in favor of transparent or semi-opaque media; so watercolor, gouache, and acrylic are my primary media of choice there. If it serves the image or the goal of the project, I’ll take my traditional work into a digital space as well. I tend to work with my materials and subject matter in layers, I build up the image, through multiple applications of paint to build form and bring out detail. I enjoy experimenting with any other vehicle available to me that allows me the opportunity to challenge my preconceptions or overcome a creative obstacle. In this vein, I usually target a medium that I find most intimidating and tackle it head-on, because even if the resulting collision is catastrophic, there are always deeply valuable lessons in failure.
And through that experimentation, I’ve found myself coming full circle as a creator and using the techniques I’ve learned to create fantasy illustrations and sequential art for books and print. Whether its block printing, digital painting, or working traditionally, I do my best to bring my own stories or the stories of others to life. There isn’t much that I enjoy more than being able to take the environments and creatures my clients have imagined, and bring them out into the world for others to enjoy.
I generally work in a combination of digital and traditional media. I have always been partial to working in graphite or ink with a brush or pen for my drawings. For traditional painting, I lean heavily in favor of transparent or semi-opaque media; so watercolor, gouache, and acrylic are my primary media of choice there. If it serves the image or the goal of the project, I’ll take my traditional work into a digital space as well. I tend to work with my materials and subject matter in layers, I build up the image, through multiple applications of paint to build form and bring out detail. I enjoy experimenting with any other vehicle available to me that allows me the opportunity to challenge my preconceptions or overcome a creative obstacle. In this vein, I usually target a medium that I find most intimidating and tackle it head-on, because even if the resulting collision is catastrophic, there are always deeply valuable lessons in failure.
And through that experimentation, I’ve found myself coming full circle as a creator and using the techniques I’ve learned to create fantasy illustrations and sequential art for books and print. Whether its block printing, digital painting, or working traditionally, I do my best to bring my own stories or the stories of others to life. There isn’t much that I enjoy more than being able to take the environments and creatures my clients have imagined, and bring them out into the world for others to enjoy.