FAQ

Yes! My parents agreed on it back in 1997.

Owings Mills in Baltimore, Maryland.

I listen to music much more often than I draw, but when I am drawing, sometimes I don’t play music. It seems like a requirement for me to play it while I’m drawing portraits for a few—or several—hours straight. It helps me cope with whatever may be in my head distracting me from focusing on details, and it’s a total vibe when I’m drawing who I am listening to. I discovered and practiced art for much longer than I have “grown up” with bands I love, but I cannot put one over the other as I wish for both to coincide, as they should. Hopefully one day, I will be drawing more for my day job.

I’ve been loving digital painting on Procreate lately, but I find myself becoming more patient with quick design methods on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The more often I have to “Save for Web” during exports on those as opposed to InDesign’s straight up exporting, the easier it becomes to remember which quality name matches with the pixels I want, whether to use Anti-Alias or not, Resampling methods, etc. I am unsure if I want to use mechanical pencils for my artist book portraits in the future or if I want to just stick with digital painting like the 8″ x 10″ and larger ones I’ve done. 3D is more challenging and frustrating, but I have learned quite a bit in my concentration that I feel I won’t forget after several sleepless nights.

I have quite a few, if you have noticed on my artist books about the author (me) pages. Green Day was my favorite band of all time for years, and I still like them now, but they have become my favorite punk band. Now, my favorite band of all time is Ice Nine Kills. They were the first group of musicians I have met in person. There’s more to them than just “cheesy horror” getups. I also like affiliated bands; ones they have toured or collaborated with, like Fit For a King, Motionless in White, Veil of Maya, and August Burns Red. Lately, Born of Osiris, Blessthefall, Deadships (and Dead Things haha), What Lies Below, Kingdom of Giants, and Set for Tomorrow have been my jams, too…but that’s a very small fraction of what auto-plays on Spotify which I love—mostly progressive metalcore, but some funny old ska, punk, and hardcore in between.

I love eating vegetarian meals! Rennet/enzyme-free dairy/cheese if all possible (my favorite is Cabot’s Vermont), limited eggs and cow’s milk, and no meat. I enjoy red lentil pasta, soup, many plant-based entrées, like some from Gardein and Impossible. I’ll still occasionally eat junk food and things with zest, like gravy, but avoid ones with certain ingredients like beef/chicken stock. If I’m not eating food that I cook myself or warm up, I’m enjoying some Panera or some fancy vegetarian (or vegan) place out of town.

I enjoy watching movies and documentaries on Prime Video and Netflix, checking Instagram and Discord, and finding random news on Bing. When it’s nice outside, I like going to the mall and restaurants every now and then. I’m not a frequent concertgoer, but I have attended Inkcarceration Festival the most. I would love to attend more conventions and meet people I’ve talked to online for years more often.