There’s a certain charm associated with picture books. That artistic warmth can easily get lost in the current digital age, where undo buttons and vectorized artwork can perfect and homogenize all our mistakes. Early in my career I was obsessed with the digital drawing tools that give total control over one’s work, but those same tools were keeping me from bringing my hand into the artwork. I was trying to emulate the work I was seeing in the animation industry, and ignoring what made my ... view more »
There’s a certain charm associated with picture books. That artistic warmth can easily get lost in the current digital age, where undo buttons and vectorized artwork can perfect and homogenize all our mistakes. Early in my career I was obsessed with the digital drawing tools that give total control over one’s work, but those same tools were keeping me from bringing my hand into the artwork. I was trying to emulate the work I was seeing in the animation industry, and ignoring what made my earlier work so charming. Now, I marry my digital work, with traditional paintings. I create textures, paint splatters and brush strokes with physical paint, and bring those into the digital space. What I have found is a style that keeps the warmth and charm of earlier picture books, yet allows me to create the way I like. Making work that is high style and sophisticated, yet accessible. As an artist, aesthetics are very important to me. But at the end of the day, it’s about telling stories. Illustrations are the vehicle that allows me to give life to those stories and that’s what drives me to create. The books I read as a child made me who I am. I want to create characters just as compelling, to help shape the next generation of dreamers.
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