Woa.... Lots Happening now!!

By the time I got to the first year of college, I already planned the direction of my career and was on the verge of choosing where to start. Pretty much on the first week of college, I joined the on campus newspaper Nux, and began doing design work for them. I guess I did feel rather inclined to offer more than that, so I opted to start comic section.

Drawing purely from motivation, and strong spiritual influence, I called it Salvation.

Suddenly I found myself sitting with something that I never really thought I had. A new dream- film animation!! Ah, just last year and already so much has happened. With many mistakes along the way and loads of procrastination, apart from God, my biggest motivation now had to be the reality-I needed money. So making up my mind, I decided to open up a little business venture. Shooting events on film for people! Got myself a camcorder, a few nifty pc/ windows based applications and soon realised how much one could actually do with a camera! Art-wise however, and through colleagues and the classes I had joined, the most valuable lesson I learnt was never compare yourself to anyone. This came about with the idea of how most people never really like to get out of their comfort zones and in a way get too comfortable with their skill.. "I'm good" or "I think that mine does look better than yours".

Although my colleagues were mostly producing work that was mandatory for the class, I understood that being around folks who are better than you ,can in most cases, very positively effect your learning of new ways to do things- All it takes is willingness to see this.

Towards the latter of 2006, I received a scholarship to Japan(my biggest highlight to date) which marked the turning point in my perspective.

I still think that one of the most enriching experiences thus far is being around different people-

you just learn SO MUCH!

Later years before now- Beginnning of a new era

Towards the end of high school, I entered the National Arts Youth Festival. Although They weren’t very fair in choosing who was to walk away with the gold medals in each of the age groups that entered(I never really expected to win I guess) but the thrill of being part of something that size was motivation enough to create what I called "Garison" and The "Power of Prayer". In a way, through these week long pieces, I saw and gained an understanding of the pinnacle of this new style I’d developed and I like it. The nicest thing though, is that I had the opportunity of doing a 3 year diploma whilst still in school at the Centre for Fine Art Animation and Design. Although it was only basic photoshop, freehand and flash skills that we did learn, it was a taste of the real world. Being the youngest there, I found it a little difficult to adapt at first. In more instances than one I felt myself alone. That’s when I began noticing one of my newest and soon to be most predominant styles. ‘The graphic reality of Western comic books coupled with a far eastern/ Japanese twist’. Perhaps my biggest influence at the time was a man by the name of Leon, who seemed like the nicest guy with the sickest skill! I probably still have only one of his art pieces, which I hope to locate and post soon, but in a way Leo became my unofficial mentor! Take a look

Progression of skill through high school

Perhaps most of my biggest acrylic paintings were done in 11^th and 12^th grades of school. In all sincerity, and although others saw me as being proficient at it, I never really like painting very much. It always seemed to be so cumbersome and probably because of the sheer size of the works that we were doing, in a way the idea of ‘colourful worlds’ was incentive enough to keep going.(These would mark the stage in my future development of ‘digital speed paintings, comic colouring etc.)

Discovering and Defining skill

As far as I could possibly remember, my best friend was always my pencil. I suppose that over the years, one does develop skill in areas such as these. Me personally, I loved to draw. As my interest for illustration grew, it began opening new doors of opportunity through which I gained the capacity to learn. Taking into account that one isn't merely born with something like this, but rather is nurtured into it through influence. Most of my early works began through comic books. Being in an environment that was not in the least saturated with content that I wanted to relate to, the skill I posessed seemed rather isolated from that of which others had.