LETTERING ARTIST + ILLUSTRATOR + NFT CREATOR
I was so stoked and proud when I saw my first published illustration in 1990, on the cover page of the Life section for the Toronto Star. One of Canadas largest newspapers at the time. From then on I have always worked as a freelance illustrator, whether I was working in a full-time position or not. So needless to say, it has been a long journey for me as an illustrator and lettering artist. I have spent the last 30 years working in the graphic design and advertising industry in multiple roles functioning as a creative director, art director and designer. Through out all those years my passion for lettering art and the ability to draw and illustrate never left me, in fact these skills are what allowed me to create award winning work for my clients and the agencies I worked for. Today and over the past 8 years I have focused my attention full-time onto illustration and lettering art and I feel I have come full circle, but with way more passion than I had in the 90’s
A LIFETIME OF LETTERING
It started when I was in High School way back in the 80’s, I was the kid with artistic talents who was usually called on to create posters and flyers for dances and parties, whatever was needed. Usually the posters were mostly type driven designs, hand-drawn. Then photocopied and distributed. It was always fun creating them and my pay was free entry! But from then on drawing lettering art became not only a love, but also became a central part in how I would earn a living. Today I get called on to create logos and branding design as well as title treatments for animations and video productions as well as custom lettering for advertising and marketing.
30 YEARS FROM PRINT TO DIGITAL FREEDOM
As I said in the intro paragraph, I began my illustration journey in 1990. I graduated from college for illustration and design, and majored in editorial illustration. Throughout the 90’s and into the 2000’s I had numerous illustrations published in most Major Canadian news papers and a few magazine publications, with a hand-full of advertising jobs thrown in for good measure. I used to paint and draw , producing my work totally analog until the digital world came. Which was fine with me because I spent 20 years as a digital CD. Which kept me up-to-date on digital technology and I have been using the digital tools of the trade since they were developed. Today I create with a digital set-up which I love. Drawing and painting with a digital pencil and apps that were made for drawing and creating visuals has not only made the process easier, but for me it has opened up way creative freedom than I have ever felt.
CREATING ON THE BLOCKCHAIN
I have been developing my style of illustration and my drawing ability over the last 3 decades. I would draw at night and filled numerous sketch books with drawing of crazy characters for years and years. Fast forward to the summer of 2020 an opportunity came up to create a generative art collection minted on the Ethereum blockchain ERC-721 NFTs. Not really understanding how the web3 – NFT space worked. I saw it as an opening to showcase my illustrative style and get my character art into a new community of creators and builders. 1355 of my Babylon Misfits have been minted since they launched Feb. 2022, there are 600 owners of my NFTs and they are in 16 different countries. Today I continue to create in the web3 space. I have collaborated on 3 more NFT projects and have released 2 NFT for my community on 2 different blockchains. As an artist and creator, I now love the Web3 community so there will be more to come in the future.
FOR THE LOVE OF MOTION
I have always loved animation and have dabbled with adding motion to my work for years. It has always been something I did purely for the fun, but also for a need to expand my creative abilities. The more I learn the better I get, and from utilizing tips from my animation friends, and spending hours creating animated pieces, I know I will only continue to create motion pieces with passion.
Thank you for scrolling through my work and learning more about myself and who I am as an artist. I am available for freelance and I am always open to collaborations. I am currently searching for representation and would love to discuss any opportunities that might arise. Please feel free to contact me.
