My most recent drawing work has been widely experimental. Pushing how many mediums I can incorporate in a piece and observing how they interact alone has taught me so much. I have been rapidly branching out from my groundwork with graphite and paper: working across an array of mediums, such as collage, ink, multi-media, pastels, and charcoal. Naturalism has proven to be my main area of interest. When creating illustrative pieces, I prefer to adopt a more stylized approach. My drawing work is significantly more playful, and I find enjoyment in seeing just how far I can push my craft through mediums and contrasting naturalism with abstraction.

            My creative process begins with journaling. I either contemplate in silence or listen to music that is instrumental or in another language. After recording ideas based off the concept I am pursuing, I determine the media and then begin with small sketches. Thumbnails are usually rendered in graphite, and then larger studies are fleshed out in the media that I will use on the final piece. When working in a more illustrative mindset, I love to exaggerate colors and simplify forms and take liberties with my imagination rather than working strictly from photographs. Naturalistic compositions are rendered either from life or from a photograph. Values are created through cross-hatching, line weight and other forms of mark-making. Out of my work, I am most interested in pursuing figure drawing. I enjoy taking liberties with the environment the figure is in and distorting it into a surreal-like landscape. The figure is displayed in an environment that projects their possible mental state, along with showing the nature in which the work was created.

            Through my work I hope to display the playfulness that is a component of all artwork and how it has developed my craft. It is a direct product of my interests, education, and growth as an individual and an artist that continues to teach me more about myself and my environment. Without approaching new mediums with a playful, experimentative mindset, I doubt my body of work would be nearly as diverse as it has become.