• How did you get into art?/ What was your first experience which led you to making the art you’re making today?: I have always liked drawing, but didn’t take serious until after high school. What got me started was always trying to draw the Saturday morning cartoons I would watch. I don’t really think it was the cartoon characters themselves, but more of the bright colors that got me hooked on liking them. I guess that was one of many great experiences of growing up in the 80’s.

  • How would you describe your personal art style? What inspires you? What mediums do you use?: I consider my art style a mix of modern and classic with a mix of street. In all honesty, it depends on how it starts to look on paper. Sounds stupid, but I can’t draw what I’m thinking of. I lose focus quickly and just scribble until something looks cool to me. I guess you can call me a one and done artist, because I won’t be able to redraw anything I finish. It may look somewhat like it, but nothing identical. Originality is what inspires me. My biggest inspiration in art is Brad Lambert (Bloomonkey). He is the guy that did all the old band merch for Korn, System Of A Down, and Static X to name a few. The style they were drawn in was really cool and unique, plus it was all traditional medium such as copic markers and pens. That is where I would say my darker side of designs comes from. Oddly enough for me, it’s easier to draw evil looking things, than cute stuff. With evil stuff, at least for me, I don’t need to worry about how it comes out in the end, because even if it looks bad, I can still make it work in the design. I like bolder line art and that doesn’t always work well with softer art, at least for me. At this point in time, I have gone completely digital in my workflow. I use Wacom products such as a Cintiq and Wacom Companion ( draw on screen tablets). For the programs I use, it is Clip Studio for sketching and doing hand drawn line art, or Adobe Illustrator for vector art. The only reason I got into vector art, was because a contest I entered years ago required vector art. Needless to say I didn’t win since they were my first vector drawings, but it got me into vector art.

  • How did you get the inspiration for the art you've made for Skateboards for Hope?: My inspiration was broken bones. Sounds dark, but that’s what I think of when skateboarding..lol along with the art I would see in old Thrasher magazines I had. Always wanted to get something in their mag, but never took the leap to do it. 

  • Tell us why you decided to donate some of your art to our charity? I’ve never done charity work before, and since it involve me being free in my creative process, I said why not. Hopefully someone will like one of the pieces.

  • Any connection to the skateboarding world? Any stories you may have or thoughts about skateboarding and the whole skateboard culture? How art plays a role in the culture, etc… The only connection I have with the skateboarding culture is the various styles of art that’s connected with it. From mixture of people and what they listen to, and how it influences them to make something for themselves and others in their community of skaters is amazing. May it range from a simple tag to promote themselves, or putting up some clean looking graffiti.

  • If you could give any words of wisdom to a young aspiring artist or new artist, what would it be? Learn as much as you can while you have the chance. By doing this, you will have more time to perfect your skills, than trying to do so at a later age. There is so much information easily accessible now to help improve it crazy not to take advantage of it. Also, don’t let peoples negative remarks discourage you, because you will never be able to please everyone. It’s one of the hardest parts of being an artist, that’s why it helps to connect with people to learn from and figure out what style works for you.

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