Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: How long have you been a professional artist?
I started drawing professionally in 2004. I resigned as the National Director of Quality for an Aerospace company in Ottawa in 2003 to follow my passion for art.

Q: What type of pencils do you use and what grades?
I use Derwent Pencils. I generally use a 2B pencil only - it is rare for me to use any other grades. 

Q: What type of paper do you use?
I use only Stonehenge drawing paper.   

Q: How long do you spend on any one drawing? 
An average portrait takes me about 17 hours. Landscapes and architecture take longer. The longest that I have spent on a drawing is about 40 hours.

Q: Do you work only in graphite pencil?
No. I also use charcoal. If I require a high degree of detail, I use graphite but if I want the drawing to be very dramatic, I will use charcoal.

Q: Do you work from photos? 
I work almost exclusively from photos. I generally take 30 to 40 photos of a subject and then choose the best one. I like to work from digital photos so I can import them into photoshop and remove all colour. Changing them into a grey scale photo helps me to visualize it completed in graphite as a drawing. Working in photoshop also helps me to crop the photo in order to create the desired composition. I then print it out at the same size as the final drawing to use as a reference when drawing.

Q: How do you start a drawing?
I always do a full line drawing first. I then do the background. If it's a portrait, I do the face at the end after I do background, hair and clothes. If I am working in charcoal, I usually start in the top left hand corner and work my way down to the lower right corner because I am right handed. 

Q: How  do you get the fine white lines in your drawings?
I cut an eraser to a chisel point with a utility knife and then use it as a white pencil. As long as you haven't pressed too hard in the area that you are trying to erase you will get a fine white line.