Art school got rid of all my stupid ideas. You have to purge them. I started making large-scale drawings halfway through my first semester of thesis at OCAD. Before that, I was painting. I didn’t even realize I could be drawing. The switch happened when I took Luke Painter‘s advanced drawing class. I started doing large-scale pencil crayon drawings and it was a revelation. It was such a natural way to do work. For two months, I was struggling with a medium-sized oil painting that I wasn’t invested in. Drawing was more intuitive for me. Sometimes, things feel wrong because they’re easier, but that’s when they’re right.

I keep sketchbooks full of doodles. I jot down ideas and the ones that resonate with me, I’ll keep working through until it’s a more composed concept. Essentially, I draw a small version that will become the bigger version. The smaller sketches help me visualize what the final product will be. They’re also fun, little, precious things I keep for myself.

Usually, I take photos of my work as I go along. The kind of line work that I do is optical mixing and it looks completely different when I process it through my iPhone. My phone has become an important tool. It allows me to step back and see the picture in a condensed way. It highlights how the colours are mixing.