Original Art Piece

My name is Marcus and I have been an artist as long as I can remember. Ever since my mother thrust a coloured crayon into my hand to keep me entertained while she baked.
I’ve tried my hand at most thing’s visual that involve putting a mark down on a piece of paper, canvas or indeed a ‘virtual’ mark on a computer screen.

I grew up in an English city called Wakefield, which is in West Yorkshire. Along with 2 brothers, a jazz drummer father and an artist mother I had a wonderful childhood. Once school was done I left and went to the Technical College of my home town to do a 2 year foundation course in art. Then from there I went on to Wolverhampton University to focus on Design & Illustration for the next 3 years. Armed with a degree, a major hangover and my portfolio I made my way down to London. Wide eyed and ready to go I embraced this fantastic city, and found myself working in some interesting places to say the least ! All in and around the field of advertising I worked at full service ad companies as well as in studio’s full of like minded storyboard artists, illustrators and painters. Great times indeed with the music blaring and everyone running around to get jobs done before the dreaded deadline !

After 15 years in London I decided to move to Canada for one reason or another ! And found myself on the West Coast in the beautiful city of Vancouver. As soon as my work visa arrived I landed myself a job at Electronic Arts (Black Box). A fantastic place to kick start my next adventure into the field of video game concept art. 3 years there doing concepts, storyboarding and a little bit of art direction on award winning titles in the Need for Speed franchise was fun and allowed me to meet and learn from some very experienced people. From there I went to a smaller games company for a while.

Shortly after finishing a game or two there I decided that I needed to do something for myself and so began focusing on various children’s book ideas that had been buzzing around in my head for years. The pirate who lost his AARRR! was my 1st to be published. I still like to fill my time with a variety of different projects, ranging from contract game concepting through to film storyboarding as well as the occasional large painting exhibition. Recently I finished a month-long sketch a day diary of the landmarks and interesting views around Vancouver ( Now a book ). Talking to people as I drew an interesting intersection was a wonderful way to spend a few hours each day during the month of July.

I would say I'm a very passionate artist who will think nothing of going above and beyond to make sure the project I am working on is done to the very highest degree of professionalism and expertise that my talents will allow.

The last few years have been productive to say the least. My house is now full to the rafters with acrylic paintings of varying sizes, and recently I have started to try out other mediums like watercolour and water soluble oils. I'm very prolific and always bursting with interesting ideas and ways to be creative.

Also being English, I am an avid football (soccer) fan, player and coach of a local women's team. GO DEVILS GO!

I hope you have enjoyed reading a little bit about my artistic life. Please feel free to contact me should you ever require my talents. I'm always looking to meet new, creative and interesting people.