Peace, I'm Ballhead.
From a very young age, I knew that art was going to be my life's work. I grew up idolizing Charles Schultz, Matt Groening and John Kricfalusi. Those three gentlemen respectively created Peanuts, The Simpsons and The Ren & Stimpy Show. I didn't quiet understand the scenarios in the shows at the time but it was the animation that captivated me. I didn't know how it was done but I was determined to figure it out.
My early years were spent tracing images in coloring books and that helped me develop basic drawing skills. From there I started borrowing how to draw books from the library but I didn't use them as they were intended. I would skip the step-by-step tutorial, go right to the finalized drawing and try my best to recreate it. I got really good at drawing from reference and that's when I truly began to feel like an artist.
As fate would have it, my animator aspirations came to a halt when I realized that college was necessary for me to go further. With no real guidance, I was under the impression that the collegiate route was the only route available for me to make my dream come true but in my mind, that wasn't realistic. I knew my parents couldn't afford tuition and I wasn't naive enough to fall for the promise of "We'll figure it out." I had also developed a disdain for school by this time and that wouldn't even allow me to attempt to apply anywhere. I was mentally prepared to give up and start searching for something else I was good at but the universe always finds a way to work things out.
My trade in high school was Graphing and Printing Communications, which is offset printing for those that don't know. I was the top student in my trade and that achievement afforded me the opportunity to participate in the work study program and become a part-time student employee at a local print shop. The owner of that particular shop told me that they weren't able to hire me as a full time employee but he knew the plant manager of an envelope manufacturing facility that possibly could. He drove me to the other company for an interview, I filled out the application and a week later, I was hired.
Because I was a pressman by trade, I figured I would be hired to operate the presses on the production floor but my new employer had other plans. On top of learning to run a printing press in school, we had to learn the prepress side of the operation which included film stripping, paste up, and a few basic graphic design skills such as typesetting, page layout and print design. Possessing that particular set of skills allowed me to become the newest graphics team member, thus beginning my journey as a professional graphic artist.
I wasn't exactly where I wanted to be but I like where I ended up because I came to learn that graphic design, illustration and animation are all related and with the way technology was advancing, integrating the three would be seamless. With that in mind, I realized that achieving my dream would still be possible. My love for animation never faded but my focus remained steady on graphic design as I grew to love it more than I anticipated. It was my everyday life and each day brought something new and exciting. However that saying goes about the journey being important and not the destination, that's the way I look at my career. Cartoonist and animator will be added to my resume eventually but for right now, I'm happy with being a full time graphic designer.