Lead in my pencil
I originally arrived in New York City in 1989 with a single goal in mind. To become a fashion illustrator. I had long since been in awe of illustrators and artists like Mats Gustavson and George Stavrinos who's beautiful pencil renderings left me speechless. Antonio, famous in New York as the 'it' illustrator, and Thierry Perez who's stylized drawings were both whimsical and sexy lead the brigade. As a sideline to fashion I discovered artist extraordinaire "Tom of Finland" a homo erotic artist who's flawless pencil work defy logic to this day. But amongst the traditional resources of influences that could be tied into fashion I also embraced the comic book culture, and recognized the amazing talents of Todd McFarlane and Mark Silvestri, artists that revolutionized Marvel comic 'standards' of drawing and created Image comics, a bible for illustration enthusiasts. These things combined led me to create my own form of fashion art my comic book influenced style of illustration. I enjoyed exaggeration. Elongated limbs, wild , angry, dancing women with attitude, with movement. I was convinced that illustration didn't have to be so structured and could be whimsical and fun.
I attended F.I.T in New York for some time and after leaving with some determination to put forth some different ideas six months later my work was published in the annual "Fashion Desk Diary", by New York fashion author Shirley Kennedy, The Diary went into general release in the bookstores. Brentano's on Manhattan's 5th avenue and was to be the venue for the launch and book signing with designers Donna Karen, Betsey Johnson, Wolfgang Joop, Oleg Cassini, Cynthia Rowley, and yours truly, in attendance. I had the sublime honour to sit next to "Count" Oleg Cassini, one of my all time fashion idols, and spent three hours signing copies of the book that I'd spent working on for the past six months doing illustrations for ten of the designers in the diary. I worked on the Fashion Desk Diary for the next four consecutive years, and almost seven years in the industry. Happy times.
I attended F.I.T in New York for some time and after leaving with some determination to put forth some different ideas six months later my work was published in the annual "Fashion Desk Diary", by New York fashion author Shirley Kennedy, The Diary went into general release in the bookstores. Brentano's on Manhattan's 5th avenue and was to be the venue for the launch and book signing with designers Donna Karen, Betsey Johnson, Wolfgang Joop, Oleg Cassini, Cynthia Rowley, and yours truly, in attendance. I had the sublime honour to sit next to "Count" Oleg Cassini, one of my all time fashion idols, and spent three hours signing copies of the book that I'd spent working on for the past six months doing illustrations for ten of the designers in the diary. I worked on the Fashion Desk Diary for the next four consecutive years, and almost seven years in the industry. Happy times.