Desiring to broaden my drawing skills, I took courses in drafting as well as art in grades eleven and twelve.  Then, for the sake of my artistic freedom, I went on to further studies in drafting. I figured that by making my living through drafting, I would be able to keep my artistic endeavours free of commercial pressures and restrictions. I graduated with an honours diploma in Engineering Graphics Technology from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, Alberta and immediately found work. However, when I found out how little time and energy would remain to me after my work as a draftsperson for my primary interest: art, I began alternating periods of drafting with periods of painting and showing the resulting pieces in solo art exhibits. As a result I received two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts purchased one of my paintings and chose a series of my illustrations for its traveling exhibition program. I then realized I had to stop dividing myself between what I loved most and what I did for a living. I had to find a way to make a living as an illustrator. After having painted for some years with watercolour on paper and acrylic on canvas, I experimented with various digital means of creating artwork. When I saw how quickly and easily I could create textures I had previously spent weeks, even months creating with real paint, I was hooked. Though I mainly employ 2 dimensional means in creating digital artwork, I do dabble in 3D. After all, I have acquired a fair amount of experience in drafting, which is very much concerned with the 3 dimensional aspects of the real world. The artwork on this page is from my very first solo exhibition of my earliest watercolour paintings and shows my early—and as it turns out, enduring—interest in art of a fantastic and/or surreal nature. The largely blue painting at the bottom left is the first in a series of seven.