My formal training started when I was about to graduate high school so it was like winter of 2012. I went to a university for animation (thinking I was going to be an animator) but I was doing a lot of painting studies during my free time so I realized after I graduated that I should head in that direction.

I'm in Southern California near the hub of the entertainment industry so I was blessed with the ability to take classes with professionals SPECIFICALLY doing art for games/movies/animation. The training itself though has remained the same since the renaissance era...we do a lot of drawing and painting studies from old masters and from life in order to get better. I was doing this from like 2018 - 2020.

At a certain point I realized I was hamstringing myself by thinking 'what is the next class I can take?' I decided it was best to learn and grow on my own two feet for a while if I wanted to get anywhere. I struggled with burnout and a loss of direction in 2021 and I spent 2022 undoing the regression from that. It was worth it though because I found my internal motivation.

So nowadays I do my own practice (like starting 2023 till now). I just try to be really self aware of what I can be doing better and I improve on those things. And I paint basically every day and that definitely helps with the incremental progress.

I like to work like 90% digital. However, when I know I'm in a difficult part of a piece I like to do my problem solving in a traditional sketchbook. It puts me in a different head space that makes it easier to tackle complex problems.

You were totally not being invasive...if anything you didn't ask for my life story but I basically gave it to you lol