In three words how would you describe yourself?
Haha only three? Full Blown Scorpio, or the ever so artistic, reliable, and outgoing. 6 words and I would use all of them haha. Or conceited, confident, and caring, my three C's
What is your definition of art?
My definition of art would be that I don't have a definition for art. To define something, means to give it meaning, a permanent meaning. Art is too open and free flowing and never ending to actually define you know? How can you put a definition on something that can constantly be changing all the time? Art is whatever you, as an artist or individual want it to be. There are no rules or definitions and never let anyone tell you that, "that isn't art", tell them to fuck off.
Your style is so realistic, what mediums, techniques, or preliminary concepts do use? For those who are still in Art 101, what is the most unique medium that you have ever chosen?
Haha.. sometimes my style is super realistic, other times it is so trippy and out of this world that I'm not even sure how I came up with it when I'm done. Depends on my mood. Usually when drawing realistic photos, I first look for a good reference picture. I guess I'll get into my process here too, kill two birds with one stone. Speaking on stone, I am stoned. Anyways, I'll usually spend some time looking for a good reference photo, mostly females, including you miss cleo, I've captured you on paper the most. Once I find one that peaks my interest I go into this OCD obsessed mode, where all I can see is the finished product in my head then usually start right away on it. Prisma colored pencils have always been my go to medium of choice. I only used to work in black and grey because I loved the way the dark shadows would look on paper. I realized that with color I can achieve a higher lever of realism if I take my time, which I'll admit, I'm really bad at taking my time sometimes haha. Once I select my medium I will line the entire drawing with a micron pen so I have a solid black outline to start. Most of the time I'll free hand my portraits, but if I'm working on more than a couple, I admit to using my light box just so I can line them all faster. Once lined, I start the long, usually 20+ hours of coloring. I usually will get burnt out half way through and have to take a break for a few days. I'll obsess over it not being finished and finally get it done. My only special technique that I use is that I always draw the eyes first and the mouth last. The eyes tell the story, I can't count how many of my drawings have not made it to completion and have only the eyes set. I'd have to say, even though its not very unique, clay was awesome. So many endless possibilities, if you haven't played with clay, I suggest you go get some Sculpy (oven bake clay) and let your imagination run wild.
You are so talented, was there a specific moment that you knew you had artistic talent or has it always just came natural to you?
Thank you.. I wish I could say I was always naturally talented at drawing, but that wasn't the case at all. I would doodle occasionally as a kid, but nothing serious. I never thought about becoming a full time artist up until my senior year of highschool. I had no drawing skills prior to that year. It was my last year and I had no idea what I wanted to do after highschool. That summer I sat down noticing one of my album covers from a cd, HIM (Razor blade Romance to be exact). Any HIM fan will remember that photo of Ville Valo in that fur coat with pink eye shadow. It caught my eye, no pun intended. Anyways, I spent all summer working on a portrait of that, then I ended up finishing it the first week into my senior year. Not trying to brag, but for the first portrait I had ever drawn, it turned out amazing! My art teacher was really impressed so we had a talk about my interest in art school after graduation. I figured I had nothing to lose because besides art class, I hated everything else about highschool. I'm glad I had all of my credits to graduate at that point because I was able to take art class 3 out of 4 hours a day, only having to take one "normal" class every quarter. So once I realized I was going to be spending a lot of time in the art room, I dove right in. I made it an obsession to learn how to draw my pictures as realistic as I possibly could. The work I was handing in at that time was "above and beyond words" my teacher would tell me. I had finally found something that I was good at! The best part about all of it, was that I was only setting myself up to get better and better. That's what really has motivated me to pursue art and all it has to offer.
Most of your work is high contrast either with black & white or with radiant colors. It is easy to stare at your pieces to only get lost in the detail. Does this mastery just come to you or are you influenced by a particular piece of work, artist, or band?
Haha you should get lost in them on a good dose of LSD, am I allowed to say that? I would say the black and white portraits came to me naturally because I'm super observant and I just loved capturing the expressions on people's faces. I feel like using black and white or even grey, makes it look very powerful. All of my colorful bright radiant things honestly come from past drug use and smoking weed. LSD really changed the way I looked at colors and shapes, that's when I started incorporating a more "trippy-3d" look into my colored pieces. I never have an idea in my head for my colored drawings. I usually will just get high, start drawing, let my mind wander and my hand do all the work.
Now this may not be a favorite topic of yours, but previously you have taken art classes. From what I remember a professor said something specific about the work that you do, could you elaborate on that? Was there anything specific that you took away from art classes, positive or negative?
Hahaha oh gosh, I hate that guy. I remember texting you during class and shit telling you how he was talking shit on my art, he was giving me the hardest time everyday. Yeah he always said that my drawings were too "stylized" which I kind of understood, but not really. I understood that he wanted to see things on paper represented a certain way, but like, you can't force people to draw a certain way unless you physically draw it for them. My artwork has a very unique style such as, hard lines and dark contrasting colors, but I was graded down because they weren't drawn how he would have drawn them, so that was really frustrating to deal with all the time. As bad as this is gonna sound, I can't say I've taken anything positive away from art school so far. I feel I wasted my money sometimes. I don't know, both schools I went to, no one really cared you know. They all were just there to do there job, collect a check and go home. That's why I dropped out both times, that sounds horrible haha. But there's no point wasting money on something that I wasn't passionate about. But that's just my opinion. I'm not going to go back to school until I know it's exactly what I want to do. Sometimes I felt like I was only going because it's what "I had to do".
Social Media and the World Wide Web have obviously created their own medium, do you use either to display your art? In an Internet based world do you find it lessons the intentions, or realism of your creations?
Social media has completely taken over the world haha. I mainly will post my artwork on Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. I feel like it's good and bad sometimes. It's good for promoting and everything. But I like seeing things live and in person you know? Sometimes I wish the Internet didn't exist at all.
Fashion and Art go hand-n-hand, one encourages the others style. How would you describe the evolution & correlation of both your work and personal fashion choices?
Haha the more and more I got into art the more I started to care about my appearance and all of that. All of my tattoos have been drawn by me with the exception of one, so that's pretty cool I think. Wearing my own art that I've created on my body. I'm obsessed with tattoos, drawings on your skin, the perfect canvas. I just like to be me you know? Blacks my favorite color, it goes good with everything, paint looks awesome when it accidentally gets dripped and smeared haha. But yeah, art plays a huge roll in all of that for me, like even when I'm wrapping my dread, I'm thinking of different patterns to wrap the hemp, different color schemes, all that.
Being a Mid-West native, how has moving out West affected you as an artist?
I'll be honest, since moving out west my artistic motivation has dwindled down a bit. I think it's because I went from living in Grand Rapids, MI; a town that was all about the arts. I loved it there. You could just smell the oil paints walking outside everyday. It was great. Then I moved back in with my mom and kind of got sucked into a rut. I got diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and that has made it hard to find motivation to do anything lately, let alone draw. I'll usually get a bunch of ideas in my head every couple months or so and have a rebirth so to speak. Lately I've been trying to get back into the flow of things. This interview is definitely motivation for sure.
You currently live with your girlfriend who is also an artist (who also is worthy of her own interview), do you find that you motivate each others artistic style? I visualize you two sitting in your mysterious apartment watching movies or listening to music while sketching and critiquing each others sketch book, is this something that you guys tend to do?
Living with my girlfriend is amazing. I can't say enough, how hard she works and goes out of her way to make me happy and putting everyone else around her first. I'm proud of her and I look up to her for sure. We make art and stuff when we're not being lazy and can drag ourselves out of bed on her days off. Just little projects here and there. We've painted half of our kitchen like a black chalkboard and the other day spent some time making, well she made, I attempted, to make origami haha. I've showed her how to make space paintings and such, but I will try and help her if she asks for it. We both go into our own little art world when we're making art together, so it's like the music playing and some giggles every now and then. But I wouldn't trade it for the world, it's the best haha.
Do you have any advice for other artist, young or old, advanced or beginner, so on and so forth?
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't draw or that that's not art. You're in charge of what's on the paper. It's your world, take charge of it!
Your style is so realistic, what mediums, techniques, or preliminary concepts do use? For those who are still in Art 101, what is the most unique medium that you have ever chosen?
Haha.. sometimes my style is super realistic, other times it is so trippy and out of this world that I'm not even sure how I came up with it when I'm done. Depends on my mood. Usually when drawing realistic photos, I first look for a good reference picture. I guess I'll get into my process here too, kill two birds with one stone. Speaking on stone, I am stoned. Anyways, I'll usually spend some time looking for a good reference photo, mostly females, including you miss cleo, I've captured you on paper the most. Once I find one that peaks my interest I go into this OCD obsessed mode, where all I can see is the finished product in my head then usually start right away on it. Prisma colored pencils have always been my go to medium of choice. I only used to work in black and grey because I loved the way the dark shadows would look on paper. I realized that with color I can achieve a higher lever of realism if I take my time, which I'll admit, I'm really bad at taking my time sometimes haha. Once I select my medium I will line the entire drawing with a micron pen so I have a solid black outline to start. Most of the time I'll free hand my portraits, but if I'm working on more than a couple, I admit to using my light box just so I can line them all faster. Once lined, I start the long, usually 20+ hours of coloring. I usually will get burnt out half way through and have to take a break for a few days. I'll obsess over it not being finished and finally get it done. My only special technique that I use is that I always draw the eyes first and the mouth last. The eyes tell the story, I can't count how many of my drawings have not made it to completion and have only the eyes set. I'd have to say, even though its not very unique, clay was awesome. So many endless possibilities, if you haven't played with clay, I suggest you go get some Sculpy (oven bake clay) and let your imagination run wild.
You are so talented, was there a specific moment that you knew you had artistic talent or has it always just came natural to you?
Thank you.. I wish I could say I was always naturally talented at drawing, but that wasn't the case at all. I would doodle occasionally as a kid, but nothing serious. I never thought about becoming a full time artist up until my senior year of highschool. I had no drawing skills prior to that year. It was my last year and I had no idea what I wanted to do after highschool. That summer I sat down noticing one of my album covers from a cd, HIM (Razor blade Romance to be exact). Any HIM fan will remember that photo of Ville Valo in that fur coat with pink eye shadow. It caught my eye, no pun intended. Anyways, I spent all summer working on a portrait of that, then I ended up finishing it the first week into my senior year. Not trying to brag, but for the first portrait I had ever drawn, it turned out amazing! My art teacher was really impressed so we had a talk about my interest in art school after graduation. I figured I had nothing to lose because besides art class, I hated everything else about highschool. I'm glad I had all of my credits to graduate at that point because I was able to take art class 3 out of 4 hours a day, only having to take one "normal" class every quarter. So once I realized I was going to be spending a lot of time in the art room, I dove right in. I made it an obsession to learn how to draw my pictures as realistic as I possibly could. The work I was handing in at that time was "above and beyond words" my teacher would tell me. I had finally found something that I was good at! The best part about all of it, was that I was only setting myself up to get better and better. That's what really has motivated me to pursue art and all it has to offer.
Most of your work is high contrast either with black & white or with radiant colors. It is easy to stare at your pieces to only get lost in the detail. Does this mastery just come to you or are you influenced by a particular piece of work, artist, or band?
Haha you should get lost in them on a good dose of LSD, am I allowed to say that? I would say the black and white portraits came to me naturally because I'm super observant and I just loved capturing the expressions on people's faces. I feel like using black and white or even grey, makes it look very powerful. All of my colorful bright radiant things honestly come from past drug use and smoking weed. LSD really changed the way I looked at colors and shapes, that's when I started incorporating a more "trippy-3d" look into my colored pieces. I never have an idea in my head for my colored drawings. I usually will just get high, start drawing, let my mind wander and my hand do all the work.
Now this may not be a favorite topic of yours, but previously you have taken art classes. From what I remember a professor said something specific about the work that you do, could you elaborate on that? Was there anything specific that you took away from art classes, positive or negative?
Hahaha oh gosh, I hate that guy. I remember texting you during class and shit telling you how he was talking shit on my art, he was giving me the hardest time everyday. Yeah he always said that my drawings were too "stylized" which I kind of understood, but not really. I understood that he wanted to see things on paper represented a certain way, but like, you can't force people to draw a certain way unless you physically draw it for them. My artwork has a very unique style such as, hard lines and dark contrasting colors, but I was graded down because they weren't drawn how he would have drawn them, so that was really frustrating to deal with all the time. As bad as this is gonna sound, I can't say I've taken anything positive away from art school so far. I feel I wasted my money sometimes. I don't know, both schools I went to, no one really cared you know. They all were just there to do there job, collect a check and go home. That's why I dropped out both times, that sounds horrible haha. But there's no point wasting money on something that I wasn't passionate about. But that's just my opinion. I'm not going to go back to school until I know it's exactly what I want to do. Sometimes I felt like I was only going because it's what "I had to do".
Social Media and the World Wide Web have obviously created their own medium, do you use either to display your art? In an Internet based world do you find it lessons the intentions, or realism of your creations?
Social media has completely taken over the world haha. I mainly will post my artwork on Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. I feel like it's good and bad sometimes. It's good for promoting and everything. But I like seeing things live and in person you know? Sometimes I wish the Internet didn't exist at all.
Fashion and Art go hand-n-hand, one encourages the others style. How would you describe the evolution & correlation of both your work and personal fashion choices?
Haha the more and more I got into art the more I started to care about my appearance and all of that. All of my tattoos have been drawn by me with the exception of one, so that's pretty cool I think. Wearing my own art that I've created on my body. I'm obsessed with tattoos, drawings on your skin, the perfect canvas. I just like to be me you know? Blacks my favorite color, it goes good with everything, paint looks awesome when it accidentally gets dripped and smeared haha. But yeah, art plays a huge roll in all of that for me, like even when I'm wrapping my dread, I'm thinking of different patterns to wrap the hemp, different color schemes, all that.
Being a Mid-West native, how has moving out West affected you as an artist?
I'll be honest, since moving out west my artistic motivation has dwindled down a bit. I think it's because I went from living in Grand Rapids, MI; a town that was all about the arts. I loved it there. You could just smell the oil paints walking outside everyday. It was great. Then I moved back in with my mom and kind of got sucked into a rut. I got diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and that has made it hard to find motivation to do anything lately, let alone draw. I'll usually get a bunch of ideas in my head every couple months or so and have a rebirth so to speak. Lately I've been trying to get back into the flow of things. This interview is definitely motivation for sure.
You currently live with your girlfriend who is also an artist (who also is worthy of her own interview), do you find that you motivate each others artistic style? I visualize you two sitting in your mysterious apartment watching movies or listening to music while sketching and critiquing each others sketch book, is this something that you guys tend to do?
Living with my girlfriend is amazing. I can't say enough, how hard she works and goes out of her way to make me happy and putting everyone else around her first. I'm proud of her and I look up to her for sure. We make art and stuff when we're not being lazy and can drag ourselves out of bed on her days off. Just little projects here and there. We've painted half of our kitchen like a black chalkboard and the other day spent some time making, well she made, I attempted, to make origami haha. I've showed her how to make space paintings and such, but I will try and help her if she asks for it. We both go into our own little art world when we're making art together, so it's like the music playing and some giggles every now and then. But I wouldn't trade it for the world, it's the best haha.
Do you have any advice for other artist, young or old, advanced or beginner, so on and so forth?
Don't let anyone tell you that you can't draw or that that's not art. You're in charge of what's on the paper. It's your world, take charge of it!
