I was born in Perth, Western Australia, and have worked as a freelance illustrator since 1974. I now work from my home in Yanchep, on the coast north of Perth.

Training
I completed a Commercial Art Course at Perth Technical College, Western Australia, followed by a 3 year fine art course with honours (Surrey Dip.), at West Surrey College of Art & Design, Farnham, UK.

Scope of my work
My work has ranged from advertising artwork; through book illustration and associated merchandise (including developing the contemporary illustration style for Thomas the Tank Engine); creating cartoon-style characters and backgrounds in 2D and 3D for my proposed animated TV serial, Nemesis; to designing and painting postage stamps and first day covers.

Postage stamps and first day covers
In 1984, I began to design and paint postage stamps and first day covers, many of which are on this site.  I have completed work for over fifty countries from Antarctica to Zambia -  the list is still growing.

Media I use

Until 2002 I worked predominantly with gouache, but also used other media including: airbrush, colored pencil, graphite pencil, ink, and line-work. I started experimenting with digital art in the eighties and in 2002 chose to use this media exclusively for all my World Wildlife Fund Conservation Stamp Collection artwork and for other agencies throughout the world. This site features only my digital work for postal products. At first I scanned-in my line drawings, but now I draw with my 'e-pen' (stylus) on my Wacom graphics tablet no more paper and pencil!) then apply color - which I like to think of as painting with light (instead of paint).

Technical information
I design stamp artwork, at 4 times the size it will be when reproduced, using layered files (PSD) at a resolution of 300 dpi. The software I use is Corel Painter in conjunction with a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet and stylus. I use Autodesk 3D Studio Max  for 3D modelling.