A Greeting Card Dreamer

Over the past 3 years, I have found that no greeting card says what I want to say and how I want to say it. Usually, I want something meaningful but funny. So, I began creating my own greeting cards with "sharpie" markers. They bled so I trained myself to keep the color in the lines, but I knew that if I ever wanted to submit a card to Hallmark or any other card company, I would need to actually learn how to draw cleanly outlined characters with real facial expressions!

At the beginning of June, 2010, my 8 months pregnant wife, CA, and I moved to Cincinnati, OH. I found I had a lot of extra time on my hands since my wife was too hot to go outside in the 100 degree weather. So, we began going to the library. She was checking out pregnancy books so I decided to check out a few cartooning books. My favorite one was Mark Hart's "Big Book of Cartooning" (My cartoon pictures you see are inspired by his book). In time for Father's Day, I made my first "real" Greeting Card and realized I that actually enjoy drawing a lot!

Within the next month, I bought a pack of pencils, erasers, a pencil sharpener and a pad of paper; this became my official hobby. I began drawing every night and found that I needed darker pencils. I picked up a pack of graphite pencils and began drawing black and white with more detail. Then, someone tipped me onto something that changed everything: using a ballpoint pen to outline my pictures. It made all of my pictures have a little more POP to them than before.

But as I continued to draw in black and white, I began longing for color. I also wanted to start drawing that "Sailor Jerry" tattoo style, so for my birthday on July 10th, I got myself colored pencils and my wife bought me water colors, water color paper and an assortment of paint brushes.

Since then, I have checked out over 50 books from the library on pencil sketching, drawing, water color painting and a few tattoo books (my favorite right now is "The Tattoo Bible vol. 2").

I am hoping to start painting with acrylics soon but I promised myself I would try to master the media I'm still working on before I dive into a new one.

With this blog, I am hoping to find people that are learning how to draw or paint. I am also hoping to receive some constructive criticism from more advanced artists, since I am self taught; I would love some expert advice on my paintings and style!

Thank you for looking at my blog. I hope you enjoy what you see and again, please feel free to offer any comments you have on my pictures and thoughts!