The Valiant Dreamer: Organic Edition; (Photoshop), 2023
A Self Portrait; (Photoshop), 2017
A Shattered Self; (Photoshop), 2017
Kintsugi - A New Beginning; (Photoshop), 2022
Lady Kraken; (Acrylic on Canvas), 2015
Lady Kraken 2.0; (metallic Acrylic on Canvas), 2022
The Valiant Dreamer Logo; (Photoshop), 2020
Benjamin Moore Color of the Year 2020
When I worked at Mallory Paint Store in Kirkland WA over the summer, I was asked to paint a mural in the restrooms. I used the color of the year, so that every year, they can change the color to the new color so that my work can live on.
Benjamin Moore Color of the Year 2020 Bucket
Mallory Paint Store Restroom Mural #1
Benjamin Moore Color of the Year 2020 Brush
Mallory Paint Store Restroom Mural #2
Little Red Riding Hood (2019)
These were done for an environment class, in which we had to take a scene from a story and do something different with it, so I chose a winter aesthetic. For the second piece, I wanted to work on my texture painting work, so I painted a wine bottle and some cake.
Winter Cottage
Cake and Wine
Material Studies (2018)
In one of my classes, we used Photoshop to do material studies. I chose a glass, metal, fur, stone, wood, leather, a bubble, and a skull. The first image is my work-throughs of all of the textures starting with a sketch, then going down to final detail. (The bubble ended up being my favorite).
Process work
Glass
Metal
Fur
Stone
Wood
Leather
Bubble
Bone
Artimas and Erebus (2018)
Painted a portrait of my cats as a Christmas gift. Artimas (left) sporting his fancy new collar I bought him for Christmas, and Erebus (right) wearing his new tie also given to him as a Christmas present. This was printed on some nice, large paper and then framed before being hung on the wall.
Artimas and Erebus; (Photoshop), 2018
Self Portrait; (Photoshop), 2018
Logo Work (2018)
The image on the left titled Lost in Space, was created for a t-shirt design I thought of. This eventually led to the creation of The Valiant Dreamer logo used for this website. The image on the right is the logo I created for my Sophomore Game Team I was Creative Director on at DigiPen to which I called Valiance. The idea of Valiance was that we created great work no matter how stressful it could get. If we felt defeated, we would essentially rise from the ashes and continue on to greatness, thus the reason in which I decided to use a Phoenix as the mascot.
Lost in Space (2018)
Valiance Team Logo (2018)
CyberLight Splashscreen (2018)
The image below was a splashscreen (loading screen) I painted for Valiance's project called CyberLight, a game where two rival players on hoverboards would fight each other at high speeds.
CyberLight Splashscreen; (Photoshop), 2018
Classwork (2018)
Below are some more classwork from 2018 using Photoshop. Image on the right is the first project we did, in which we pick a traditional drawing from a famous artist (in this case the artist used charcoal), and digitally reproduce it to seem like the tradtional medium. The second was a drawover in which we chose a still from a cartoon and added detail, light and shadow, and color. Basically adding more detail to the piece. Being a huge fan of Disney, I chose to use a still from my all time favorite cartoon Steamboat Willie from 1928. I was also the first student to use a black and white image for that project!
Charcoal Deer; (Photoshop), 2018
Steamboat Willie Drawover; (Photoshop), 2018
Personal Projects (2017)
These next ones are all Pre-DigiPen era for me. Painted these before starting, just getting ideas out and trying new things digitally before being taught proper ways of how to paint using Photoshop.
The Prophets of our time; (Photoshop), 2017
The Fear is Real; (Photoshop), 2017
The Fear is Real Animated; (Photoshop, After Effects), 2017
tardis down; (Acrylic on 3ft.x4ft. canvas), 2015
out of time; (Acrylic on 6in.x8in. canvas), 2016
The Journey began here...
Years ago before even trying to attend DigiPen, I created art for commissions and smaller personal projects, and even for class at Grossmont Community College in San Diego, CA. I never used Photoshop or other digital means to produce work before, so taking a digital painting class is really what started me on my journey forward.
The image to the right is called Winter in New York, and was painted using Corel Painter 12 back in 2013. This was the first time ever using a digital medium.
My instructor really liked it and wanted me to enter it to the San Diego State Fair (then called Del Mar Fair) and of course was hesitant being not only my first time digitally painting anything, but also the first time showing my work to a large public crowd.
I decided to indeed enter, and to my surprise I actually won three awards! I was notified I had won 1st Place, Best in Class, and Best in Show. This also drew the attention of Fair-goers and people requested I sold them copies of it to which I did, and that really kick started my digital art career.
Of course the want to create work digitally goes all the way back to high school with me wanting to be a Cinematic Animator for Video Games (changed in 2020 with the want to become a Walt Disney Imagineer animating Animatronics). The reason why I am typing this story, as well as the stories for other pieces above is to hopefully inspire people to step out of their personal fear boundaries and try something new. Go above and beyond, and think outside of the box.
Winter in New York; (Corel Painter 12), 2013
