I divide my time between painting, comics and zines, and commercial design and illustration work. I work from an old shipping container that I have converted into a studio on my parent’s farm in Cornwall. I collect action figures and old comics. I have to pile everything into boxes that are stacked everywhere.
I’ve shown my paintings worldwide including San Francisco, Portland, Aberdeen, London, Porto, and Bristol.
I’ve been reading comics since I could read. I started out on the Beano and Dandy, and then got given loads of annuals, 2000ads and deadline magazines from my comic loving family as I got older. I gradually started to get into alternative comics, I really got into Charles Burns, Dan Clowes and Robert Crumb.
I’m really inspired by pulp science fiction and horror, I can’t get enough of the posters, the films and the costumes. I love Kaiju, 8bit computer games, silver age comics, British and Luchadore wrestling too, and I try to mix this into my work when possible. My favourite films are David Cronenberg’s the Fly, The Thing, Blue Velvet, Delicatessen, Alien, and these have had a huge effect on me.
Gary Baseman, Gary Panter and Ryan Heshka are really inspiring. I love how their work can span across so many different formats, they paint and put on shows, they create editorial work, they release comics, they don’t limit themselves. They have a great sense of colour and playfulness and they all have a totally unique style.
Medieval art and woodblock prints have had a real influence on my work. They have great narratives within them, and I love how both cultures don’t concern themselves with perspective, it makes for some really interesting pictures. Aside from that hieronymus bosch absolutely kicks ass, I love his creatures and the sheer detail in his works.
I have several processes and they have all been informed by my time at University. I really wanted to make the most of my time at uni and spent a lot of time in the print room. I was obsessed with silkscreen, and this really started to influence my work. I treat photoshop in a similar way to print with layering and limiting colours. I draw up a final image and then break it down into different colours and shapes, which I scan, colour and place in photoshop, much like a collage or cut paper picture.
I paint in a similar way. I paint backgrounds first and then work onto the foreground and characters, after this I add in the details.