BIO

Born in 1976, I was drawn to art at early age. Lots of things in life have influenced this evolving process. Cartoons strips, animations, movies, admired artists, friends, family, my better half, and travels are but some of the things that set me on this path of creativity. It wasn’t until high school graduation that I decided to make a career out of art.  Through the support and encouragement of my family I enrolled myself into a 3 year program in Illustration & Design at Dawson College in Montreal, Qc, Canada. It was fun and exciting times and a great eye opener to the endless possibilities in creativity.  The program was set up in such a way that allowed the students to have sampled tastes of different mediums through out the 6 semesters. Such as: lots of life drawing, sculpting, technical drawing, photography, painting, and computer generated art.  The faculty was great in guiding us in the right direction, but only one teacher influenced me the most, Sharif Tarabay.  Teaching part time and freelancing fulltime, he made me develop a great appetite in hyper realism illustration.  Since childhood, comics and cartooning was all I knew, and realistic drawing and painting was a painstakingly struggle and breath of fresh air.

My past work experience started off at local small publishing house. It was there that cg art was introduced and photoshop was the main tool at hand back in 1997.  I took part in designing and illustrating multiple educational children’s wildlife books, and a sports visual encyclopedia that covered every sports discipline on the face of the planet. After 3 ½ years of publishing I ventured into advertising where a freelanced numerous times for a local studio.  I then was convinced by a graduating friend, to make a move in gaming art.  I started off as a character texture artist, and then made the transition back into illustration work and concept art. In my ten year experience I’ve been in gaming for close 5 yrs now and have no regrets.  There’s nothing more rewarding and exciting then the endless creative possibilities that this entertainment industry has to offer.

My inspirations and interests in art are pretty broad.  I love drawing, painting, and designing just about anything.  Be it organic or man made, realistic or stylistic. Privileged to have lived in 3 different countries due to the careers of my parents, I was greatly exposed to lots of landscapes and cultures which greatly inspire and influence my work till this day.  Born in Saudi Arabia, mental snapshots of the deserts and the red sea fauna remain in my mind.  Being half Greek, my family moved to Athens for 2 years but visited every summer before living there.  Lots of camping trips along the coast line and islands, and many visits to archaic temples and museums were great inspirations.  And finally, I currently reside in Montreal for the past 21 years. An epic place to live where the cultures from all around the world intertwine, live and thrive.

My other interests apart from what I do for a living, is sports. Specifically, those that are adrenaline driven.  I skateboarded for 14 years, and continue to ride hard on the slopes with my snowboard every winter for the past 21 years.  Fast riding, stomping nice big floating airs off 30-50 ft table tops, riding deep powder, and occasionally dropping 35 ft cliffs (when I make my way out to the Rockies) gets me charged up.  These activities also greatly influence my work.  The philosophies I live by in my professional life are derived mostly from these activities.  They are creative, can be as extreme and technical is I want them to be, and progressively just plane fun.  Having spent a good part of my childhood by the sea, snorkeling and scuba diving is also something that sooths my soul which I plan, and take advantage of during vacations down south.