bio My interest in art has spanned my entire life. As a child, I always wanted to draw my favorite comic book characters and work in the art industry. Fortunately, I get to live my childhood dream every day, and my projects are always different, which keeps my job interesting and exciting. Some of the artists who have played a major role in my artistic development are Drew Struzan, Andrew Loomis, Alphonse Mucha, and Norman Rockwell - they have all heavily influenced me in terms of composition and illustration. Jack "The King" Kirby, Will Eisner, John Buscema, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Ross, Alan Davis, Adam Hughes, Ryoichi Ikegami, Steve Rude, Kevin Nowlan and Mike Mignola are my major influences from the comic industry. I also love newspaper strip art, by artists such as Charles Shultz and Jim Davis. My personal favorite of the funny papers is Bill Watterson. What do I do when I'm not working? I spend my free time with my beautiful wife Jenny. I am very fortunate that she is willing to pose for and help me take all my photo reference for me. This is why she is an extremely important part of my whole creative process. We live very close to the beach, so we frequently spend the day by the ocean and then have a nice evening in downtown St. Petersburg. We're annual passholders at Walt Disney World, and we try to visit every week or two. I also enjoy working out and meeting new people at the St. Pete cigar bar. I have been often asked to give advice to young artists. I always answer the same way - you learn how to draw through repetition. It's important that young artists not simply follow the current hot trends, but work on developing their own style. In my own work you can look at it and see a little bit of those who have influenced me, but you see mostly me in the work. Remember, there is nothing wrong with being influenced by an artist, but creating my own style has made me who I am today.