Thumbs

"It's difficult to write about yourself without making yourself sound big headed. . .But I'll give it a shot. I was born and raised in west london and I spent most of my teens skating and being pretty unsuccessful in school and with girls. I quit school at around the age of 16, or rather "I was asked to leave" and coincidentally my uncle was just opening a skate shop at the time so he let me go and work for him there. Working at halfpipe skate shop turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to me. I was always into art and working in a skate shop meant I was surrounded by skate graphics, not to mention I met tonnes of cool people and got a good idea of how a to run a business. It was there I got my first gig designing boards and stickers. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember but I fell a little out of love with it when I was in my 20's. A lack of direction and drive meant I didn't feel like I had a reason to draw. I always remained creative but had nothing to aim it at. I met my wife through the shop and she was the one that pushed me to do a graphic design course. So I enrolled in a local college and juggled my job and course work for a couple years. When I finished college, I started drawing more and I stumbled into crossover artwork while putting together work for my portfolio. I posted more drawings on social pages and people seemed to be really into the parody pop culture work I was putting out, so I got some stickers printed. They went pretty well and that expanded into pin badges and shirts. I was hand printing my first shirts on an old magic touch heat press that was so old it looked like it had been built at the turn of the century. Demand got a little too much for me to be using that old machine, so I decided to take some risks and invest in getting my shirts properly screen printed. Getting to the position I'm in now where I can design and make art full time wasn't without it's risks. I had to invest in materials and merch, spent a lot of sleepless nights at my computer and had to eventually quit my day job, all of that's pretty scary to do when you have a family to support. It's not been completely smooth sailing, making it as a full time artist can be pretty tough! But if there's one bit of advice I could give anyone who's thinking about starting something up on their own: just do it! Take a chance on yourself man. Nine times out of ten the main reason for not trying something new, is your own self doubt. So brush that aside and take a gamble on yourself. What's the worst that could happen? As time went on, I drew a lot more I honed my skills as a designer. Different brands approached me to design for them and I'm proud to say I have worked with some really cool companies, including some large studios like Disney, Warner Bros and Universal. Getting to the position I'm in now where I can design and make art full time wasn't without it's risks. I had to invest in materials and merch, spent a lot of sleepless nights at my computer and had to eventually quit my day job, all of that's pretty scary to do when you have a family to support. It's not been completely smooth sailing, making it as a full time artist can be pretty tough! But if there's one bit of advice I could give anyone who's thinking about starting something up on their own: just do it! Take a chance on yourself man. Nine times out of ten the main reason for not trying something new, is your own self doubt. So brush that aside and take a gamble on yourself. What's the worst that could happen? As time went on, I drew a lot more I honed my skills as a designer. Different brands approached me to design for them and I'm proud to say I have worked with some really cool companies, including some large studios like Disney, Warner Bros and Universal. I travel a lot with my art and I'm happy to have been included in some amazing art shows and also the Pow! Wow! Family. If I'm not drawing I'm usually trying to be a parent to my two daughters; Lola and Maggie (totally named after Maggie Simpson) or watching movies with my wife (not named Marge). I'm available for hire if you have a brand that you need designs for or if you want help with an existing idea that needs to be made into digital art. I studied graphic design and I can help with most designs, logos or branding. If you have any questions feel free to give me a shout. Anyway, I hope you dig what I do. . .thanks for checking me out!