About
Early Years
My first art related memory is in California age four. My mother setup craft time on the back patio near the honeysuckles. That day I learned that you don’t need to paint with bright red water color paint, but that it could be diluted to make various shades of pink.
Not only that, but that you didn’t need to stick with the standard 8 colors it came with, but that you could make your own colors by mixing. This lead to many early experiments with color and built a curiosity. Next memory was the standard lesson of ‘coloring inside the lines’. But mom not only taught me the basics of control, but that you could also press hard and trace just inside the line making the field of color pop off the page. Here’s me getting a huge box of crayons with every color imaginable, but of course I was more amazed that it had a built in sharpener. Sharp points lead to the beginnings of fine detailed line work. Next lesson I remember was sketching and that you don’t need to draw every strand of hair, but that you can give the impression of hair.
I continued to experiment and express myself with paper and anything I could get my hands on. Sometimes late at night I weep for the amount of trees/paper I must have scribbled on (just kidding). I’m attempting to relay that I never lost my hobby of throwing pencil/ink/color on reams of paper. I am not saying I was making masterpieces between age 4-12, but I was continually practicing and trying new techniques of blending colored pencils and shading.
Junior High
It wasn’t until Junior High school that I started to see that not everyone had the confidence in the world of ‘art’. Mr. Kitchen was the first dedicated art teacher I remember, and father of a friend I grew up with. He opened my eyes to pop art, optical illusions and Egyptian hieroglyphs. During one of the required trips to the library I came across a dragon book and was intrigued by the detailed artwork throughout, but the cover really caught my eye. 
The librarian understood my interest in art and suggested I attempt to recreate the cover. It sounded like a great challenge and I got my hands on a piece of paper and got started on it with colored pencils. In the end, I wound up with something that actually looked like a dragon and received several compliments.
High School
On to high school with Mr. Sykes, who taught me about surrealism and lighting/shadow. Also helped me perfect graphite on paper with the use of a blending stump. He also introduced me to my favorite artist M.C. Escher. His use of highly detailed reflection/distortion and tessellation blending to real life, really stood out to me. I took pottery and learned different techniques to make various vessels/art and about glazes. By far my favorite teacher of all time is Mrs. Patterson. Amazing artist in her own right she was very enthusiastic while relaying lessons and constructive feedback. She taught a wide variety of media, subject matter and even ushered in the first computer graphic lessons. I really value my opportunity to tinker with early editions of Photoshop, again peaking my curiosity. Oh, she also taught me to dump the blending stump.
After High School
After high school I enrolled in local community college focusing on art, along with the core subjects. I took graphic design classes, still life, life drawing, water color, and design/illustration classes. I didn’t gain much from the graphic lessons as I felt I was well ahead of most of the other students. The other courses I feel I did learn a great deal and got to experiment and learn various techniques and styles with large selection of ‘tools’.
During college I met someone looking to higher a graphic artist to get a web design business started. While continuing my studies I skipped ahead and self-taught myself advanced lessons. I learn quickly by clicking on everything to see what it does. If I didn’t like the results it was very easy to ‘undo’. I was involved in various projects including CD-Rom development, web design, label/logo creation and animation.
Where did you go?
Then for the next ten years I continued to learn different software and continue to doodle. I freelanced and did webdesign/graphic in my spare time, but wasn’t really involved in anything worthy of mentioning. During this time I was told several times by several people that I should be doing something more with my talents. It wasn’t until late 2016 that I was introduced to print on demand sites.
Most notably, Merch by Amazon. There is a long waiting list to get approved, but once in it’s a great source of passive income. I am able to use my creative skills to create great looking shirts and hoodies with about 25% margins.
In my evening hours over the course of a year I gained great pride and confidence in my abilities. It also afforded me cool toys that helped me invest in me and further develop my skills. I bought a DSLR camera, a Mavic Pro Drone and a Surface Book.
The Surface Book has allowed me to skip scanning in sketches/doodles on paper and digitally enhance them. I can now sketch/concept digitally increasing my productivity and capability. A good friend of mine is a huge concert poster collector and encouraged me to get more involved in art projects. He introduced me to some great folks that I believe will help me achieve some of my goals. I was able to meet a middle man and created some concept art and a full production piece. It unfortunately never went to print, but I was able to show myself that I am capable of taking a concept to full scale.
Today
So, that’s where I am now… looking to future concerts and seeing if I can make some unique fan/lot art that might catch someone’s eye. I have a lot to learn about screen printing, as that is what the collectors are seeking. I am hoping 2018 is a great solid step into my future. My new motto is ‘Create, Share, Repeat’. This site will hopefully put all my top creations in a nice package and allow people to easily acquire my art, or products adorned by my artwork. I have been teaching myself silk screening over the last month. I’ve learned a great deal and made some amazing connections experts in the business. My journey from knowing nothing to making a decent print can be found here. Stay tuned for more learning with multiple layers of color and printing on various materials/products. It’s a fun messy hobby!