Drawing

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On Art & Illustration

While the popularity of High Fantasy and so-called animé styles of illustration among casual dabblers–and the resulting glut of lower-quality works–has led to a misguided antipathy in the art community towards the forms themselves rather than a thoughtful consideration of the merits and shortcomings of individual works, there remains an undeniable appeal and fascination. As for the drawings herein, they are merely expressions of a desire to give tangible form to mental pictures and notions, to share those ideas with others and hopefully convey a sense of wonder, and spark imagination.

Influences

Akemi Takada is my favourite artist; her gentle, flowing imagery is breathtaking and perhaps the most significant source of inspiration for my drawings. Elements of the works of Franklin Booth, John William Waterhouse, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Michael Whelan, Larry Elmore, Jonathon Earl Bowser, Brian Froud and Tony DiTerlizzi (to name a few), also all contribute to my style.

On Nudity in Art & Mermaids

I have always been fascinated by the casual sensuality and beauty of the nude or scantily-clad figure in Fine Art; it symbolises freedom and innocence, a lack of shame. Its admixture of a rose-tinted sense of humble purity with eroticism creates a poignant, untouchable, idealised sensation for me. The acceptance of these not-fully-draped figures by a society which in other contexts decries the display as obscene also interests me. The imaginative settings in which the figures reside futher set them in an otherworldly 'place beyond', and accents my interest in the subject.

Mermaids, to me, are a particularly potent representation of the beauty and capricious nature of the sea and quintessential femininity; their feminine charm and graceful forms are an almost ostentatious embodiment of symbolism – of wild, untamed sensuality contrasted with the demure modesty of the traditional form's lack of genitalia and unashamed presentation of unclothed breasts that imply an innocent, maternal aspect. The mermaids I usually draw, however, are half-dolphin, as the combination of two mammalian forms both makes more sense and amplifies the sensuality.

The overwhelmingly female nature of mermaids, with the accompanying characteristics of a tempestuous amorousness that is at the same time somewhat chaste, fairly well speaks to me as a metaphor for lesbianism as portrayed by the popular media of Western society, something I've adopted in a few of my drawings.