Illustration work

I’ve been an artist since the late 90’s, and a published illustrator since 1999, when a couple of magazines featured my work at the same time. Since then, I’ve completed many works for various publishers, from small micro-press publishers up through larger publishers like Subterranean and Cemetery Dance.

I’m lucky enough to have had a piece chosen for the prestigious Spectrum annual, a yearly competition and book for the best in contemporary genre artwork. The artwork was originally for Wicked Hollow #1, a small press magazine, and is titled “Fetal Position”. It appeared in Spectrum 9, and somehow was the only grayscale piece for 20 pages in any direction.

Fetal Position | Spectrum 9

Fetal Position | Spectrum 9

Since then I’ve done work for Subterranean Press’s Night Visions 12, part of the prestigious line of Night Visions books stretching back to the 1980’s.

I did three covers and signature sheets for three of the Maelstrom imprint of Thunderstorm Books: Six Days by Kelli Owen, and The Rising: Deliverance and A Gathering of Crows, both by Brian Keene. I also created foil hardcover designs for the first Maelstrom set, as well as for the 2011 set.

I’ve worked quite a bit with Cemetery Dance Publications as well, one of the premier genre publishers. I’ve been in their magazine several times now, including new work for stories by Peter Straub and Peter Crowther. I’ve also done work for a few of their books, including Dark Delicacies, T.M. Wright’s Eyes of the Carp, and Brian Keene’s Scratch (a video promo of some of the Scratch art is below).

Graphic design

I’ve been a professional graphic designer for as long as I’ve been an artist. The projects I’ve worked on are extremely varied.

I’ve worked on newspapers, book and magazine covers, posters, signs, t-shirts and other screen-printed materials, and a lot more things that I’ve probably forgotten. I’ve worked with many, many software programs, including the Adobe Creative Suite, both print and web, as well as QuarkXpress.

I’m extremely knowledgeable with Adobe Photoshop, having used it since version 4 on just about everything you can imagine. From the technical color-correcting side of things, through the expanded use and creation of brushes and techniques, I’ve done an enormous amount with the program. Most of the art you’ll see on my website was done with Photoshop.

If you check out my Graphic Illustration section, you’ll see that I do a great deal of vector illustration as well. Much of that work is highly detailed, often for construction companies showing off their latest projects. Those projects are not only very detailed, but they must also be very accurate, as the artwork will be published on t-shirts and other materials in front of their peers.

Aside from numerous traditional publishing projects like print ads and page layouts, I’ve also used programs like QuarkXpress and Adobe InDesign for promotional posters, and even directional signs for major events.

Web design, multimedia and development

Since 1998, I’ve also been a web designer and developer. My last several day jobs have been for the web, and are just as varied as my print work. Starting out working for a large newspaper in Fort Collins, I’ve also worked for a large scuba certification agency and a national nonprofit. I also use my web abilities for freelance work when needed, including work for The Reader’s Cove bookstore in Fort Collins, as well as a few authors as well.

I’ve been working with Adobe’s Flash software since version 4, from small promotional ads to complex games and video animations. The video animations have been part of several large, national conventions for my day job and NAI, often having more than 1,000 members participating.

In early 2002, I was awarded the Colorado Press Association’s Special Multimedia Award for Flash animated presentations of news topics, for an online presentation on the Big Thompson Flood. Mere days after the attacks of 9/11, we were also praised by the Associated Press for our online coverage of that event, including the multimedia work created for it.

The nature of my last two day jobs has been focused more on technical work than design, so much of my new knowledge is with programming and IT work. To some extent, that helps me understand more of where projects need to come from, especially if they are multimedia or web. Even just doing design work, that knowledge helps me see where things are going to end up, and take those technical concerns into account before designing anything.

Those positions have taken me through web programming systems like Cold Fusion, HTML, CSS, and even some PHP. I’ve also had to work with database structures, from the simplicity of File Maker and Microsoft’s Access through MySQL, Oracle and Microsoft’s SQL Server. That knowledge helps when working on new software programs and ideas, like WordPress and Mambo/Joomla.

A last bit about me

Really, I just want to go through life being creative at the things that I do. I’m interested in photography, art, video, animation, anything that will let me create and expand on my unique visions further. At the bottom line, I just want to have fun. Also, I tend to write and write and write and…

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