Where people share and discover artistic talent and more

Where people share and discover artistic talent and more

Born in Massachusetts I mostly grew up in Virginia Beach Virginia. I had an interest in drawing since the age of six after watching my uncle draw a spaceship. I always loved cartoons, mainly “Looney Tunes” as Bugs Bunny was and still is my favorite cartoon character. It was after I witnessed my uncle draw the spaceship that I began to practice feverishly at drawing. Throughout middle and high school I partook in various art competitions and was successful in winning most of the time. The contests helped to drive me to practice more and push for more creativity. It also assisted in getting me to think of more ideas. My strong point at that age and even now, was character design; which I practiced the hardest at. It was in college that I learned of different mediums and fell in love with the ink pen and the technique of cross-hatching. Because of the fact I taught myself how to draw, it took me a semester or two ...

to get used to taking art classes and elaborate art terms the professor used. I had difficulty understanding the tasks that were assigned as an art student and often felt silly. Mostly for the fact that my peers were more experienced and obviously had formal training in the craft. I eventually fit in after a year and excelled in my art classes. In college I took various art classes from painting to figure drawing. I took an illustration class senior year and it was there that I fell in love with the method of cross-hatching. For two years I did a comic strip for the college newspaper titled, “Nik & Mike”. The comic strip centered on main character Nik, who was a mild mannered, cautious teenager, with three other friends as her sidekicks. To this day I still make “Nik & Mike” a huge item in my illustrations as Nik is actually a mirror of me. It was in 2005 that I graduated from James Madison University in Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Studio Art.

As I got older, and entered my twenties my illustrations became more of an outlet to express how I was feeling. One of my main goals as an artist is to get the viewer to feel exactly how I am feeling when I created the illustration. Art is a perfect way to communicate to spectators because I put a lot of emotion into the drawings most of the time. I tend to do this by showing strong facial expressions of the characters, lighting effects, and use of color. My mediums are micron pen, with the technique of cross-hatching. I color my illustrations using Photoshop, which gives my illustrations a vibrant look.

I moved to Massachusetts in 2009 to pursue my dream of being a successful illustrator. I finally got my break when I had the opportunity to showcase my art for the first time in August 2012 at an art gallery in Cambridge, followed by another one a week later. In November of 2012 I had my first art show in Cambridge in which I exhibited twelve artworks. A month later I had the pleasure of having an artist profile about me and my illustrations printed in Shakefist Magazine, which is an online magazine catered giving exposure to artists in the New England area and New York. In January, I had the pleasure of being able to critique my illustrations in a television interview on the “BeLive” television show, which is featured on a local television station in Cambridge. I then was asked to do another television interview a month later.

Nothing would make me happier then to see my illustrations go mainstream. It would be great to see them on billboards, sheets, book bags, or maybe even have a “Nik & Mike” animated cartoon. I am very grateful to everyone who gave me the opportunity to expose my artwork to the public. It has been a hard time coming as I had so many rejections in my early to mid twenties.