1. Ever since reading Fighting Fantasy books as a child I have been inspired to produce imaginative realism. I have studied the realistic drawing of faces regularly from a plethora of visual resources, but most notably the Andrew Loomis books, since 2008. 2. Andrew Loomis, John Buscema, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Burne Hogarth, Marco Mateu-Mestre, Mark Schultz, Jack Kirby, and James Gurney have had a significant influence on my approach, among others. 3.Some of my favourite visual resources may be seen in the accompanying photos. 4. I have completed a Bachelor of Education Secondary Art and Design, and a Bachelor of Visual Effects and Entertainment Design, as well as having taken online classes at Watt’s Atelier, Schoolism, Gnomon, and NMA. I have also learned through trial and error what is practically useful during 15 years of Secondary School teaching. 5. Many of my favourite artist are old school ‘pulp’ illustrators and comic pencillers such as John Buscema, Frank Frazetta, and James Allen St John.

@Natasza Zurek Thanks so much! I love my quiet space, although I could always do with more room. It is an enjoyable space for working diligently. I have two larger drawing desks, which I hope to get out of storage soon, so I can begin using my whole arm when drawing. Thanks for taking a look and commenting! :-)

@Chris Legaspi Cool! Thanks for sharing your process. My favourite aspect of this work is the very pleasing vertical and horizontal structure which supports the more visually chaotic mark making. The visual sentence communicated through shadow shapes combined with your figurative knowledge and ability to interpret the model on the fly is an obvious lesson for us all. My perception is that you have developed the ability to combine a multitude of skill sets to create a joyful and whimsical space for your artistic self to explore, all within the limited amount of time allowed for such works to be made. I appreciate that drawing and responding creatively to a live model is a very different skill set to laboriously using reference to achieve visual accuracy. Thank you for demonstrating the artistic freedom that can result from years of repetition and constant dedication to your craft. Bravo! :-)

@Chris Legaspi Thanks so much! I produced these during a time when I was drawing daily for eight hours a day or more, albeit at a computer. When I was younger, I drew for at least twelve hours a day at my drawing desk. The good old days! The major learning curve for me when making these characters was refining a very personalised version of the character design process itself. These characters are, quite literally, visual metaphors for storytelling purposes. Containers of meaning. I look forward to revisiting this narrative soon.

@Chris Legaspi Thanks so much!

Here is the homework for Portrait 1 Module 2 I completed in the drawing and painting accelerator.

This is the in-class assignment I completed for Portrait Foundations Module 2. I am enjoying experimenting with the page layout as I transfer homework from the Drawing and Painting Accelerator to this new forum.