Well, after school I studied Graphic Design at Hastings College and rode my BMX every day. Somewhere along the way I rediscovered my love for drawing and decided to go study illustration at Kingston. I learnt a lot there and soon realised that I really wanted to be a professional illustrator. Just before I was about to start the third year I got my first commission, from the New York Times Magazine. I remember the excitement and fear that I went through whilst working on that job and I loved every minute of it. After graduating I worked hard to get my work out into the industry anyway that I could and after a little while, the jobs started trickling in.

Bright colours, flat textured shapes and tight lines all held together hopefully, by a smart idea.

I start with lots and lots of drawing and sketching out thumbnails. I make lists and write down any words that relate to the article in anyway. This can sometimes help the ideas flow and help find a direction early on. I normally try and send at least 6 different ideas but often this number can vary more or less. When a concept is picked I do more drawing until I’m happy and then I can get to work on the final image. I use a mixture of hand drawn elements, line work and graphic shapes to lay the foundations and then colour and finish the image with some computer trickery. It’s quite a quick, playful process that I’ve developed over time to deal with short deadlines.

Pencil and cheap paper, light box, 00 brush and ink, Acrylic paint, Spray paint, Scanner, Wacom tablet, Photoshop and Illustrator.

Yeah it happens sometimes, I tend to get stuck a lot when I’m working on personal work. I often have to write lists of subjects and themes to try and kick start an idea. If that doesn’t work then I take a few days off and watch some old films, listen to music or if I can, go to a museum or gallery.

With commissioned work it’s different because there’s no time to get stuck. It happens but you have to draw and think yourself through it. I definitely notice that my best ideas happen after a long night of desperation and frantic sketching. The pressure and fear of messing up tends to dig out the real gems.

The idea of being able to make images and have fun doing it for as long as possible sounds good to me.

I never listen to anything when I’m coming up with ideas, I can’t concentrate and get stressed out. Whilst I’m actually working though I listen to a lot of podcasts, radio and go through my fair share of audio books. Anything sci-fi, apocalyptic or western related works for me.

Music wise, I mostly like listening to heavy instrumental stuff like Mogwai, Mono, Red Sparrowes, Pelican etc. Movie scores are always good too… I crack out the soundtrack to ‘There Will Be Blood’ a lot.

Do work that makes you happy not what you think people want to see.