I used to draw all the time. It first started with cartoon sketches of people with long, bubble eyes that looked like hotdogs and, thankfully, progressed from there. I was an avid fan of Mark Kistler’s Imagination Station on PBS. He helped me learn about light sources and shading, how to draw figures, and how to have fun with drawing. Somewhere on my never-ending book shelves, I still have two of his drawing workbooks (at least 15 years later).

Eventually, through various high school art classes, I grew tired of art: being forced into certain styles that I couldn’t master was frustrating, and eventually led me to believe I wasn’t “good.” I considered, very briefly, going to school for graphic design. The competitive nature of the field, however, coupled with my disbelief that I had any sort of talent, led be down a different degree path.

Several years have passed since i did any sort of “serious” art. I’ve played around a lot with watercolor and I’ve finally found a style I’m comfortable with. I’ve learned that I can’t force myself to mimic certain styles because I will not be happy with the outcome. There is a delicate balance between learning new techniques and understanding art is a process, and forcing myself to adopt a style that is not my own. I finally got back into art when I was given a project in a graphic novel course I was in: depict a short story in graphic novel form. I took the assignment and ran with it, creating a project that took over three days straight to complete. The compliments I received on the project from local comic artists who had already produced a mass volume of work was overwhelming, and an ego boost to say the least. Since I’ve started putting my sketches online, I’ve gotten amazing feedback, and even a few commissioned pieces.

So, here is a bit of my work:

General images drawn in pencil and ink, photographed, and colored/manipulated in Photoshop. Images from All Summer In a Day project inked and water colored, hand bound into a book, and scanned.