~I am a self-taught artist based in Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom. I specialise in portraits and have a passion for detail. I love to work in acrylic on canvas, although I can produce digitally designed content for either web-based use or computer games.~

 

I started drawing as a young boy and never really stopped. I loved to paint and create and when I was younger this was all I ever imagined doing, even for a job until I was diagnosed with colourblindness. This lead to obvious problems as I tried to enjoy my passion, green is pretty much the predominant colour I see, so as a child most things I coloured tended to be green. Or green-ish. Providing I picked the right crayon.

For many years after that I used mainly pencil, drawing portraits of people and never having to worry about colours even though I thought about them all the time and how light interracted with various materials, bouncing off and affecting other material's colour. It was safe and didn't make me feel embarrassed, at least I wasn't producing a pencil drawing of someone's face in green!

I tried painting and experimenting with acrylics and was happy with the results, getting a few commissions etc but had never tried to paint on canvas, my confidence had been shaken by a careers advisor, who when I was still at high school had told me to forget any notions of becoming an artist or graphic designer as it was impossible due to me being colourblind, and that I should become....a Florist. Flowers are REALLY colourful, and don't come with colour identification labels on them...unlike paints. That guy was an idiot. I have met many a colourblind artist and graphic designer, for those who may have been told something similar, DO NOT listen to any careers advisor who tells you that colourblindness is a hindrance, Beethoven was deaf and he still produced lasting classical music that will stand the test of time. You have creativity and a willingness to produce, that is is all that is required.

After a few years of sketching and watering down acrylic to produced a layered style of work upon board I decided to buy several canvases (40" x 30" in size) and sat down to experiment, employing the years of thought I had gathered on mixing techniques, surface material, brush technique etc etc. Then one week I produced my Darth Maul Portrait and then shortly after that my Lord Maul portrait. I never went back to sketching. I have been painting on canvas ever since.

I now produce paintings regularly on canvases, my 'disability' is only a formality in the creative process, I must ensure care is taken on choosing which paints to mix with, a good session of preparation will always get me through that.

I've got nothing against flowers. I just can't tell what colour they are.