Growing up, I was fascinated by computers and video games. One of my first memories was learning how to load a tape cartridge into a Commodore computer, and playing the "spaceship game". I am old enough to have played the original Nintendo when it first came out, and, several generations of consoles since then.
I had a talent for drawing when I was younger; I paid attention to the details. So, drawing different frames of animation from the original Super Mario Bros. on graph paper in colored pencil with my older brothers led me into understanding computer graphics--it helped that one of them showed me the ropes in several computer programs as we grew up, particular BiNed and Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint II--Yes, that EA! They made more than just video games back then. I was in awe of that wonderful program--it was a superb package. I animated several fights of the included martial artist against a palette swapped version of himself in backgrounds that I digitally painted by hand using my own custom color palettes. With every successive battle scenario, I grew more bold in my wordless stories, learning to animate effects, making lengthier scenes, and exploring the software to learn new tricks.
One game in particular influenced my art style more than any other in my life--Out of this World (or, Another World). The polygonal rotoscoped art was forever embedded into my mind. My brother helped from time to time, showing me new ideas, and encouraged my art. Over the years, this led to creating animated intros to the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns that I ran for my friends in the style of Out of this World.
Around the age of 16, we upgraded our computer and I stopped using that program. All in all, it was about 7 years of practice with CG, animation, and gaming on that old computer. It's where it all began, and, I wouldn't be who I am without that experience.
The next computer was a Pentium powered Compaq with a better monitor. Mom bought CorelDraw Suite, which led into my self-taught graphic design phase. I didn't know what Adobe Photoshop was at the time, but Corel Paint and Draw were great programs, so I got a leg up on vector art before I left high school. I took to it like a duck on water, creating art for clothes for my "raver" friends. I also silk-screened several Nine Inch Nails shirts that were pretty popular with the alternative crowd at school.
As I was using my newly found vector skills designing rave flyers, I began downloading free fonts from the web--I became inspired by creators such as Chank and Larabie fonts. After a short time, I decided to find out how to create fonts, and it turned out that CorelDraw could do just that; either through creating them directly in the program on a 720 pt grid, or, scanning intricate sketches and vectorizing them. My wildest creation was named "Villain" (heavily inspired by Uck N Pretty by Rick Valicenti), which features two layers that stack by placing the uppercase letters on top of the lowercase ones in different colors. Fontography is my favorite hobby, and, something I'm going to start to do more seriously. Two of my free unfinished fonts are being featured in commercial brands and products. ISL Andvari in the upcoming Despicable Me 3 movie. ISL Jupiter has been used by Ralph Lauren for the new Polo Sport brand, in Pacific Rim Uprising as background/set dressing, and, in video game interfaces.