I’m a digital artist, non-digital oil painter, city-dweller, plant-lover, recluse, and observer of humans. I enjoy art that combines color, expressiveness and energy. My art varies between: simple silly graphics, fantastical sketches, surreal digital collages, and expressive abstract layering of color and scribbling. I also just like drawing little rubber ducks!
Process
A lot of my work bounces from the analog to the digital world and back again several times before it’s complete. I think that switching it up simply helps me make better art. I find it easier to add gesture and life in real world (non-digital) mediums. But the digital realm lends itself well to brainstorming, creating structure, editing, and quickly experimenting with color. Even better, viewing a work in both forms allows me to step back and see it from a new angle. For small things like greeting cards, that may mean printing a design, scribbling in pen, and then scanning the work back to digital form. For more complex paintings, it might mean starting with a physical work in paint or charcoal, and then using a photo of that piece as the base layer for a digital work.
Background
I’ve taken a few art classes both at Hunter College, and at the Art Student’s League of New York. I haven’t followed any formal program at either school, and both institutions would probably vehemently distance themselves from this website if given the chance. However, believe it or not my silly little sketches do apply some of the skills I picked up in those classes.
Hunter College has great art classes and studio space available even to undergrads and non-degree students. CUNY is a great deal, too, at least if you live in NYC. From Hunter, I think I picked up a greater willingness to experiment in art, and a few basic drawing skills.
I’ve had a pretty varied experience in different classes at the Art Students League. Classes are really different; I don’t think there’s a canonical League class. I particularly enjoyed workshops (by a few different artists) that focused on capturing motion in drawing. I’ve also studied color and light, and gesture drawing. (I won’t claim that my figure drawing skills apply to the works on this page, but quick gesture drawings? Absolutely. Even in silly comics, it’s good to focus on conveying a lot in a few lines, capturing a subject and their pose as simply as possible.)