WHO AM I?
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in the latter half of the 1980's & the first half of the 1990's. My mother likes to brag that I "drew a recognizable stick figure at 18 months old."
I began creating my own comics early on, though usually the characters were very similar to the Marvel & DC characters of which I was such a fan. But as I grew older and experimented with different art styles, I began to create more and more original characters. Eventually, in my mid-teens, I began to develop the Japanese anime style I use to this day (which I'm still honing, even in my mid-thirties).
I have battled with arthritis over the last decade, which makes traditional art somewhat painful, but have found second life (and vastly improved my skills even for traditional "ink & paper") with ProCreate for the iPad, and have done more new & varied artwork in the past 4 years of owning an iPad, than I had in the 10 years prior to discovering it. (Don't judge me on my choice of tablet, though, anti-Apple people, it's just what I was taught on & got used to, haha.)
I have done everything from portraits to wedding invitations, both digitally & traditionally; all in my distinctive cartoony style.
WHAT HAVE I DONE?
I have illustrated a children's book, currently on sale for Amazon Kindle and am working with the author to try to get physical copies made; I have contributed a pin-up/chapter heading for an upcoming independent graphic novel about a fellow artist's struggle with cancer; and I do fan art of everyone's (& my) favorite pre-established characters.
WHAT DO I WANT TO DO?
I have been refining my own multiple comic book series with my own original stories & characters for almost 20 years, as well as some picture-less novels, all of which I would love to begin sharing with the public, instead of apprehensively keeping them a secret.
Though I never stopped drawing, and still did commissions here & there in my younger years, I have only been pursuing this the past three years since discovering smaller conventions, where I've sold prints of my fan art; but the goal is definitely to do some of the bigger shows, not even just Midwest, but to be able to travel to others as well.