Overview
Ever since I could hold a pencil in my hand I loved to draw! My early influences were classic Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons. As a kid growing up in suburban NJ in the 70s and 80s, I loved creating original characters and creating fun stories for them in comic strips, paintings, and illustrated storybooks. In the 90s I got my BA at the Rhode Island School of Design and began a career in animation and digital graphics in New York City. I became a full-time freelance illustrator in the early 2000s, becoming an approved artist for several kids licensed properties for Nickelodeon, Disney Jr., and other production studios. I’ve illustrated books for top publishing houses like Simon and Schuster, Random House, Scholastic, HarperCollins, and more!
My extensive experience illustrating in many styles and across several genres make me uniquely qualified as an illustrator for children’s books. I will work with you to design the perfect characters, environments, and layouts that will help bring your story to life! I am very flexible and easy to work with. I provide rough sketches for your review before going to final color. I can create original art in just about any style you have in mind, from flat two dimensional styles to fully rendered three dimensional styles. I have designed layouts for many book formats using spot art, full bleed art, double page spreads, and custom designs using interactive elements like flaps and die cuts. Whatever you can imagine I can help make it happen! Thank you so much.
Services
Fiction
Languages
Certifications
- BA degree from Rhode Island School of Design
Work experience
Self-employed
Work as a contracted freelance artist in the following creative design fields:
Children’s Book Illustration - Simon and Schuster, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Harper Collins, Oxford University Press, Phoenix International Publications Inc., Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC, Crayola, American Greetings, Chronicle Books, Shutterfly
• Tested and approved illustrator for the following licensed property owners: Nickelodeon, Disney Jr., PBS Kids, The Fred Rogers Company, MGA Entertainment, Sanrio, Fisher Price, eOne Entertainment, Kideo, Inc., Moose Toys.
• Create high quality illustrations based on licensed properties from popular TV shows, toy lines, iconic brands, website characters, YouTube personalities, and more.
• Illustrate art for book covers, book interiors, game boards, button icons, electronic games, novelty books, video packaging, posters, asset libraries, and more.
• Ensure characters, props, and environments are on model and conform to the property’s brand identity by following licensor style guides very carefully.
• Serve the needs of art directors, designers, and editors throughout all stages of production from concept to final art.
• Provide professional level of revisions, touch-ups, and modifications to the artwork.
Animation and Game Design - Nickelodeon Games, World Leaders Entertainment, Smashing Ideas, Cricket Moon Media, Discovery Bay Games, Ratio Interactive, Weatherhead Experience Design, Playper, Committee for Children, Blue Giraffe
• Animation, games, and interactive experiences created for:
Educational CD-ROMs, Desktop Computers, Mobile Phones, Tablets, Broadcast TV, Musical Theatre Stages, Webisodes, Animatics
• Create high quality character animation, prop design, background design, special ef- fects animation, and user interface designs across multiple platforms.
• Follow style guides, design sheets, and branded source assets to create animation, illustration, and graphics that are on model and on brand.
• Work closely with game developers to make sure all art assets conform to specific graphic formats, file size limitations, and performance restrictions.
• Meet with directors, producers, clients, and team members to brainstorm ideas and solve problems that will create a game which falls within the parameters of the platform while providing a compelling and entertaining experience for the end user.
• Experiment, innovate, and introduce new methods, ideas, techniques, and workflows that will enhance the quality and improve the overall production of the project.
• Implement best practices that are most effective getting the job done.
Visionary Media, LLC
• Led a team of artists in the production of the web animated series Whirlgirl.
• Organized and supervised the entire production process from storyboards, layouts, Flash prep, animation, special effects, lip sync, and post production.
• Held daily meetings with all department heads to coordinate tasks, schedule dead- lines, and make sure the production was meeting all technical and quality standards to ensure a successful episode released every single week for an entire year.
4-Frontdesign
• Responsible for creating and implementing the visual design and user interface for all interactive media and Internet based projects.
• Worked directly with clients to design and generate hi-end TV graphics using state of the art digital compositing consoles from Quantel (Paintbox and Hal).
• Designed graphics, logos, and other design elements for brochures and promotional
• material for print and digital output.
• Back-end web page engineering using HTML, JavaScript, and flash plug ins.
Wanderlust Interactive
• Worked closely with the production supervisor to create animated characters for a series of interactive CD-ROM action adventure games featuring The Pink Panther.
• Pioneered the use of newly released vector based animation software that reduced production time while increasing the quality of final animation output.
• Shared these new techniques with all animators by providing tutorials and training material in the use of Future Splash Animator (the predecessor of Flash).
MTV Animation & Magnet Pictures
• Key member of the layout team at MTV Animation for the series The Head. Designed
scene compositions, created key-frame poses, and mapped out camera moves.
• Assisted the lead animators at Magnet Pictures to create traditional hand drawn animation for TV spots such as Marvel toys and Nick at Night TV show openings.
• Used expert Photoshop skills to assist and take over in-house digital design projects.
4-Front Video Design
• Designed and animated original characters for TV commercials and stadium scoreboards: Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium,The Meadowlands Arena.
• Created detailed texture maps for CGI surface mapping.
• Provided illustrations, graphics, logos, and whatever else was needed by the production team to make their projects shine, pleasing the clients who in turn kept bringing their business back to the company!
Portfolio
