Teefury

The movie 300 is a favorite of mine. I wondered what it might look like if the Spartans weren't so um... naked and had a really cool club or workout shirt that they sported around town after a long day of kicking Persians down their water wells.

Originally from Tyler, Texas, but have been living in the Dallas area for over 4 years now.

As long as I have been an artist, I have always done tiny projects here and there, like designing a team's bowling league shirt. It wasn't until this year when I decided to start trying to have some of my personal works published. Teefury was the company who gave me my big break with my Bill the Butcher design back in May of this year.

My first piece would be draw, draw and draw until you get carpal tunnel, and then draw some more after that. Without spending tons of time with a pencil or a mouse for digital illustration, you're never going to get better. My second piece would be that you be open and helpful to other artists. It's frustrating when you reach out to other artists who you look up to and they ignore you, for whatever reason. Everyone had to start somewhere. Designers and artists should work together as a community to learn and hone their craft.

I'm actually doing it right now! I Conceptually Design and Art Direct Limited Edition premiums and packaging for some of the biggest video game titles in the industry. A part of my job is knowing and playing video games, how cool is that?

They need to be nerfed! (That's just my inner Warcraft nerd voice, pay it no mind.) My favorite thing is

that they are the meat shields you send out into battle to take the first hits, while the ranged combatants stay alive and get all the glory!

I think my setup is pretty sweet right now but my ideal house would include a professional quality home theater room, themed out to look like the Bespin Carbonite Chamber from ESB. The sides of the stairs would be lined with stormtrooper armor on mannequins posting guard.

I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but the Dothraki would have a stormtrooper squadron defeated and building their huts before the weekend even got here. Armor doesn't guarantee victory, it just slows down the inevitable.

Comics ruled my youth, I was reading in the 90's right around the time all of those juggernaut artists left Marvel to form Image Comics. Amazing Spider-Man was my favorite title and Erik Larsen's run was my absolute favorite.

It takes a lot for me to actually bookmark a page and make it part of my daily web ritual, but the few I check religiously are:

- teefury.com (obviously). Not only do I submit, but I buy tons of them myself, great artists, great quality, great price.

- comicbookmovie.com. It's where I get my daily nerd fix.

- sideshowcollectibles.com - Speaking of which, I need to block their URL from my computer, I spend way too much on statues and collectibles.

- sideshowcollectors.com - It's a forum where we go to talk about the thing we just bought that we shouldn't have.