MIXED MEDIA | ILLUSTRATION
ILLUSTRATION TELLS STORIES. In its most familiar format it includes painting or drawing to illuminate a text – often in a book, magazine, or other published work. However, illustration is not necessarily two-dimensional. I consider my mixed media work illustration because I am using these images to amplify and express concrete ideas, stories, and personal writings (even when they don’t accompany the work). The line between “fine art” and “illustration” is a blurry one, and the two are often distinguished by whether the work is commercially viable or conceptual. However, I feel the term Illustration best describes my work.
CONCEPTUAL STORY TELLING
ABOUT THE WORK
Animals and plants are the primary characters in many of the stories I want to tell. Animals especially make great subjects – they are easy to use in metaphor and yet people identify and relate with them intimately. Sometimes it seems people are indeed too personal – the natural world beyond humanity gives us a way to talk about ourselves without any human bias.
I am also deeply fascinated by the microcosm and so medical or scientific imagery often feature in my work.
NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATION | WATER BASED MEDIA
ABOUT THE WORK
This gallery includes more classic book illustrations or paintings that are designed to accompany text. Some of these designs are straightforward commercial work, while others are personal projects that accompany poems or stories.
RELATED BLOGS & TUTORIALS
Faux Live Edge Laser cut Medal Holders Tutorial
In this post, I revisit my race medal holders with a twist. I will show you how I create both the files and the final product.
Cleaning Up Stray Nodes in Adobe Illustrator for Paper cut Insect Illustrations
This blog post includes a real-time video of how I draw and clean up Adobe Illustrator files for Laser Cutting. It also showcases the final paper-cut insect designs I created for this post.
Revisiting Yupo Paper on the Laser at a Bigger Scale
In this post I revisit some previous work at a much bigger scale and share my techniques for working on Yupo paper.