

I'm an artist and children's illustrator living in Columbus, Ohio who works in watercolor and gouache.
I have mild obsessions with nature, gardening, vintage children's books and collecting old things.*
*I am also in no way a brief person (hence the footnote)
so if you'd like a much more thorough conversation about me and my work, take a look down below!


MUSES & INFLUENCES
My work is greatly influenced by my childhood growing up in the country--hours spent playing in the woods and reading as many stories as I could get my hands on. I'd collect all manner of things from nature--rocks, sticks, leaves, bugs--and turn to my grandpa's library of old books to learn all I could about them. Naturally, I began creating my own fantastical worlds at a young age, often populated with all the woodland creatures I saw on my adventures.
My love for these things has only grown with time, as evidenced by my house full of animal figurines, vintage children's books, field guides and rocks. When I go to draw or paint, these things are often in the back of my mind and inevitably show up in my work.
PROCESS & TOOLS
My favored technique involves building up watercolor washes and layering gouache on top for the details. That is definitely what I find most enjoyable about the process--I've been known to get caught up in painting little bits of moss a time or two.
Here are some of my most indispensable
tools from start to finish:
-
gridded paper for hand lettering and
fine-tuning compositions -
Fudenosuke Brush Marker or Prismacolor
pencil for linework -
hunks of natural sea sponge for applying texture
-
a nice springy detail brush--I've actually started using my face painting brushes for gouache,
they work swell!
I've also recently added digital painting to the
mix, as life with a toddler demands a
certain level of flexibility.


The noodling phase of drawing out my composition--fine tuning lettering and spacing.

Finished sketch and value study for a nursery painting

Featuring my trusty Staedler Noris Digital Stylus that looks like the analog version! I love this thing.

The noodling phase of drawing out my composition--fine tuning lettering and spacing.