Illustration

In 1996, after working for years as an art director, graphic designer, and professional retoucher, I set my sights on illustration. It was through my years spent as a retoucher that I began to explore the creative possibilites that Photoshop had to offer, simply because I was frustrated and bored. Once I began to work on my first piece, it just felt so right. There is no better feeling than creating something and getting so engrossed that you become lost in what you're doing. Time stands still and the rest of the world disappears, that's when I know that I'm on to something good.

My initial illustrations were a combination of original photography, traditional illustration, and digital art. These first few pieces were born entirely out of boredom and frustration with everything art related I had done so far. Anyway, I thought the results were impressive so I began to enter digital art and illustration contests. After winning a series of awards, these early works caught the attention of art directors and the phone started ringing. The commissions rolled in and I have been illustrating full time ever since.

I don't know if I have a short attention span or maybe some sort of ADD, but I simply can't do the exact same thing over and over again. That is why, when you peruse the galleries on this site, you'll see such a range in style. I simply find diversity interesting and am always up for trying something new. Now I know that traditionally, an illustrator is supposed to create work in the exact same style over and over again. But I think the downside to this is that many illustrators eventually end up being parodies of themselves. I simply can't end up that way. And although I think all of my work has some sort of underlying style to it, I just have to try new things from time to time, to keep it interesting.

Experienced art directors tend to understand and appreciate this. But every once in a while I run into someone who says I shouldn't be doing it this way. And for those of you who feel this way, I'm sorry, you'll have to call someone else. I just don't want to end up becoming bored with what I do.

Writing

In the winter of 1999 I recieved an e-mail from Philip Cheesbrough, who was then the Art Director for Computer Arts magazine. Computer Arts was then, and is now, the best art magazine on the planet. Trust me on this, it's true. Phil asked me to illustrate a cover for them and this led to relationship with Computer Arts that continues to this day.

Soon after that Garrick Webster, who was the editor of Computer Arts at the time, asked me to write a tutorial for them. Once I said yes, everything changed for me. Somehow I became a writer. I began to write regularly for Computer Arts, and soon other publications like Digital Camera, Practical Web Design, .Net, and Digital Photo Effects, began to ask for written contributions. I started to write more and more, realizing that I liked writing almost as much as I liked illustrating.

It seems that book publishers in the UK and USA read a lot of magazines because they took notice of my articles. It wasn't long until they started asking me to write chapters, walkthroughs, and entire books. So just like that, I became an author. Sometimes it's funny how things can snowball like that.

Freelance

I work out of a studio in my home in downtown Toronto, Canada. I like to refer to the studio as my lair because I spend so much time there. I have done a lot of work for leading advertising agencies as well as corporations, but these days I try to focus on editorial work because that is what I'm most passionate about . I consider myself fortunate to be a contributor to leading magazines around the globe.

Those of you who wish to employ my services, please don't hesitate to give me call or drop me an e-mail anytime. Sometimes people will have questions about reusing some of the images on my site as stock. If you're curious about a particular image, please don't hesitate to ask, and if you're after something you don't see here, ask about that too. I have a lot more illustrated works sitting here in my archives.