Early Years and Inspiration

When I first started exploring creative expression, I was young and limited to cheap acrylics, watercolor, brushes, and colored pencils like many other artists. Over time, I was introduced to canvas, oils, tablets and different materials in which I could create art with. I found a unique interest in fantasy and dragons in particular. My parents and friends discovered my passion for artwork and these fearsome winged beasts and encouraged me as much as possible. They were incredibly supportive, and their words of encouragement would prompt me to continue along this experimental path. Around 2011, I started to gain an interest in the gaming world. I joined some smaller gaming communities for niche games, and eventually progressed my way to some widely known single player ones. These games were a focus for me throughout the remainder of my time in school and persists until this day. While I loved story and gameplay, I would find myself admiring the visuals and artistry behind some of the unique designs and environments these games displayed. Above everything else, I fell in love with creature design. Playing games only furthered my intrigue and inspiration with dragons and similar beasts and would expand my methods of how I created my own. This era of my life came to a peak when I met Ruth Thompson in 2014. Until this point in time, I had not been exposed to artists who made successful careers utilizing dragons to such a degree. Meeting with her would ultimately shape how I would go about my creations from here on.

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High School and Finding a Path

Throughout Highschool I went through an experimental phase of what types of dragons I liked to create. I took a variety of classes to help improve my skill level which included some Advanced Art Workshops. Around this time, I started taking a special interest in animal skeletal anatomy. During my senior year, I experimented further with creature design. I started experimenting with the idea of seeing my creatures in an animated shorts or games. I had no 3d or 2d animation experience, so I started experimenting with submitting reskin content through the Steam Workshop. I determined that the content was something I wanted to learn in greater detail. What started as a daydream would become a goal, and I started looking at colleges and universities.

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University and The Future

Although I knew next to nothing of Game Art, I applied to attend the University of Advancing Technology in the late spring of 2018. I was exposed to a variety of different programs and ended up taking a liking to Clip Studio, Blender, Maya & Unreal. I have participated in numerous Game Jams and joined various teams for other miscellaneous projects. I love to be part of a team, as it’s a place where we can lift each other up and offer constructive feedback for the betterment of the project. I have concepted, modelled, textured, created UI, set up environments, and offered help with documentation on a variety of these projects. Recently I have been learning about rigging, animation, and motion capture. In the future, I intend to explore Substance Painter and Designer further and expand my knowledge about how these programs work.

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The professors I met along the way have been incredible. I’m very fortunate to have been their student and to build relationships with them. They set the foundation for what this degree path would be and challenged me with projects that quickly set the stage for determined individuals. They challenged me to go above and beyond – to not settle for the minimum but understand what would be enough without going overboard. The professors constantly challenged our class to explore different concepts in our free time which would lead to some fascinating discoveries. I was shown how to explore creating meaningful concept art and to imagine the story behind the concepts we envisioned. We invented worlds and stories and were to share them through forms of documentation and illustrative representation. Our professors also emphasized being determined and being compassionate to our peers - to offer help where needed and to work as a team to overcome challenges. We were given insight on how to create characters which could be anatomically correct and encouraged us to consider the finer motor skills of these characters for animation and motion capture.

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All the skills that I have attained through attending university will in one way or another go towards my goal of creating fearsome creatures to ally with or fight. I know that I want to contribute to creating incredible creatures that inspire a sense of awe when they’re seen. I have a willingness to learn and a need to create, and this determination extends to mediums outside of the 2d and 3d workspace. I wish to expand my creative mind to other hobbies such as cosplay, metalworking, and glasswork. Overall, I want to explore as many creative outlets as possible.