When I began showing my work at art shows back in the early 2000s, I was woefully unprepared to be bring my work to the public eye. I had so much to learn about creating art that would sell, reproducing my art since I was a digital artist, pricing it appropriately and learning the craft of doing art shows. I loved what I was doing but mistakes were made. It took time to find a grove and become a successful artist. It has been a chaotic journey full of unexpected highs and disappointing heartbreak. But I’m happy to say, in the end, it has all been worth it.
WHERE I BEGAN…
Drawing on my Wacom Cintiq 2025
I have been painting digitally since 2005. In the early days, I would scan my pencil sketches and then paint on top of them digitally. Nowadays, the process is easier where I can sketch up my work on an iPad then transfer it over to my Wacom Cintiq to render the final art as seen above.
I began my career as a color pencil artist. However, the time-consuming process of that medium limited me to producing only a few works each year. With a background in graphic design, I began exploring digital art as a solution. It provided the same ability for detail as the pencils did, but the work could be completed in about a third of the time.
Today, I use Procreate on my iPad and Photoshop on my Cintiq to create my art. Both provide a tactile experience since you are using a pencil/stylus and drawing right on the screen. Even though the work is digital, it can still be a slow process of building up value and color since it is all done one stroke at a time. Each illustration can take anywhere from 20-50 hours to complete, depending on the amount of detail, but some have taken me as long as 100 hours. .
MY ART PROCESS
Tempe Art Show 2008 with my son
My goal is to create illustrations that make you smile. Growing up I loved to draw cartoons. I spent my time filling my imagination with the works of Richard Scarry, Charles Schulz and Gary Larson. I was fascinated by their ability to pack so much humor into a single panel of art. Their work still puts a smile on my face to this day and I try to carry that inspiration over into my own work.
In addition, my mother was an oil painter. She painted a lot of still life, like flowers and bowls of fruit. I would look at her work and say to myself, “It would be really funny if there was a group of lizards in that painting trying to steal the fruit from the bowl.” Thus my sense of humor found a home. I was also drawn in by richness of color that painting offered and I knew that I wanted to make it a part of my own work, so I began rendering out my sketches with color pencils.
If I had to describe my style of art, I would say my illustrations are simply fine art cartoons. I love juxtaposing the silly, and sometimes the absurd, next to rich colors with lots of detail.
MY INSPIRATION
Studio shot 2014