Illustration - Design
 

Bio

Being an "Army brat", I was born in South Korea, with stints in Colorado, Maryland, and Germany, before my family finally settled back in Chicago - which has always been home. My high school years were mostly spent drawing and working backstage building and designing with the theatre crew, making art school a logical next step. So, in 1998 I entered the American Academy of Art on a scholarship. Initially, I studied Advertising Design, earning an Associate's Degree. But, at the end of my sophomore year one of my favorite teachers confided in me that, while he loved being a part of the advertising world, he had always regretted not pursuing his passion in drawing; he didn't want me to suffer the same fate. With this knowledge, I decided to switch to being a Fine Arts major, focusing on Life Drawing. This, I accomplished, even spending a semester in Italy at the Florence Academy of Art during my senior year to study the old masters' techniques. Since then, I've been building my portfolio via a mixture of freelance and personal projects. Recently, I've explored my love of movies through contributing art direction and design to a number of short films and music videos.

 

 
 
 

Artist's Statement

Ever since I can remember, I've been creating. My main focus has always been illustration, which is probably a symptom of a childhood obsession with cartoons and comic books (typical of an 80's kid). Another love of mine has always been movies, accounting for the fact that much of my work is inspired by cinema and pop-culture (Star Wars, Classic Monsters, Comic Characters). I've always loved to explore new techniques and various media to work in. Over the years, I've focused on many different ways to produce my art and am now proud to be able to provide my skills in various techniques. From traditional drawings in charcoal and inks, paintings, digital work in illustration as well as graphic design, to providing art direction and prop creation for films and music videos, my passion is to create and I love to do it in any way I can.