In all of my illustrated works, I'm inspired by achieving impact through simplicity - making the most of every stroke. My art style highlights broad emotions and expressive characters, inspired greatly by 20th-century American comic strips.

Original Works

Character Design & Explorations

Book Illustration

From My Funny Bone (hopefully) to Yours

by Garret Mathews

Plugger Publishing

(Front cover illustration)

Fractured Country Song Titles

by Garret Mathews

Plugger Publishing

(Front + back cover & all interior illustrations)

Since 2024, I've had the opportunity to collaborate with Garret Mathews - an accomplished author, playwright, interviewer, and retired Metro columnist for the Courier & Press in Evansville, IN on a number of book projects.

For his latest book, "Fractured Country Song Titles", Garret developed over 80 unique parody country songs and invited me to create accompanying illustrations for each one. Here's a few of my favorites:

GARAGE SALE

My first animated short film, "GARAGE SALE," was completed as my senior capstone for Butler University's College of Communication. The short has screened and received awards across several festivals internationally, including CTNX, the Los Angeles Film Festival, WIA NYC, the Milano Indie Movie Awards, and ASIFA Hollywood's Student Animation Showcase.

Description: "An animal rock band breaks their guitar before their first big gig. Their search for a fast replacement leads them to a mysterious garage sale offering the instrument they seek - but they'll have to earn it with "a good song."

Storyboards

By Tim Eterno, Adam Bohorquez (@DeadlyComics), & Jeremy Pena (@jeremy_doofaw)

Concepts

By Adam Bohorquez (@DeadlyComics)

Characters

Shen, Qat, & Cowbell are immensely fun characters to work with. Each member of the trio is distinct and complement each other's personalities. There are equal parts of me in Shen (ambitious and starry-eyed), Qat (artsy and introverted), and Cowbell (enigmatic and nonplussed) - seeing how these characters' ideologies played off of one another felt strangely natural.

Shen

A dynamo of frantic energy, Shen is a dog entranced by the glitz and glamor of rock-and-roll. He's also fairly impulsive, which brings the group to the short's conflict. The band's guitarist and lead singer.

Qat

Qat (the cat) is poetic, intrinsic, and believes in music as an extension of the soul. She's a bit self-involved and possesses a fiery temper that Shen often succeeds in provoking. The band's keyboardist.

Cowbell

Cowbell is an enigmatic goat. He never speaks (minus a quick "woo") and it's unclear how much is really going on upstairs. Nevertheless, his kind nature often places him as the mediator in many conflicts. The band's percussionist.

Animation Style

GARAGE SALE's unique look was heavily inspired by papercraft animation. Shen, Qat, and Cowbell each have distinct single-color palettes that allow them to pop. Hand-drawn in Toon Boom Harmony/TV Paint, the colored outlines are then applied. A texture layer is placed on top of the characters - achieving their paper quality. Finally, lighting and shadow is rendered in Adobe After Effects. The result is visually dynamic and incredibly fun to watch in motion.

Backgrounds

The environment for the film has a distinct, dreamlike feel with its warm colors. It was important to me that the characters' outlines stood in stark contrast to their surroundings.

By Cam MacConnell (@10bullz)

By Nick Kalmar (@markandflops)

By Alex Siple (@alexsipleart)

These abstract backgrounds were created for the film's duet climax and highlight Shen & Qat's distinct approaches to music. In the end - their dueling ideologies clash in a harmony of sound.

By Nix Sharp (@sharpie.dust)