About Dean
I create and paint illustrations of original off-the-wall characters to bring a smile.
It seems that some of my characters have been with me forever, and some are new, but just develop over time just as real-life characters do.
Inspiration
The inspiration for all the characters comes from real-life situations and observations of mainly humans.
I began creating art like most people, and that is as soon as a person has something that could make a creative mark on a surface as a child.
Everybody can learn and create art in one form or another. Some people are born with a gift and some people develop that gift through formal training. Some people just keep at it by self-learning. I don’t remember being encouraged or discouraged as a youngster, but I believe that if it is in you to be an artist, you cannot escape that destiny in one way or another.
After leaving school I was offered an opportunity to work in a Graphic design studio.
At that time, it seemed a safer career option to take an engineering apprenticeship, so the art took a back seat in favour of a period of draughtsman training. Another apprenticeship followed with spray painting which also included a bash at sign writing.
I consider myself a self-taught artist, although I studied at school, attended private lessons, started, and not finished a correspondence course, and spent years studying paintings and books on different styles and techniques, as well as painting canvases, wall, and vehicle murals, cartooning and some sign making. I also signed with an agent as an outlet for the cartoon characters.
Into the artistic mix comes music, and I studied the same way to spend many years playing my bass in bands around pubs and clubs in Essex.
Whether it is a cartoon, illustration, oil, acrylic, or watercolour painting the mix of influences is always there, and the story continues to develop.
Each character has a story, and that story is told with illustrations and sometimes words.