At the age of about 14, I was selling and painting fantasy figures for Games Workshop and selling my dioramas
( Sets created using balsa wood, Miliput, and Tetreon )

My Work has been published in White Dwarf and I have won many competitions as a teenager which was subsidizing my sugar rush, well actually me and my friends.

Straight from college, I was snapped up by a model-making company, where we worked for the MOD and the Airline industry producing full-size Missiles for bomb disposal to disarm, and for Trainees to practice loading onto aircraft's, Top Secret Projects and NDA were commonplace.

As well as this we produced New Livery designs and rebranding across most of the major airlines, there was always something new to learn and it was an adventure every day and for that reason, I was there for 10 years!

During this time we invested in CAD as well as other software that formed the backbone of what I do and uses today, back then there was no content much on the internet like there is now it was book after book and experimentation, fun times.  

We worked with hundreds of companies, notably British Airways, Saatchi and Saatchi, Virgin Atlantic, MOD, Rolls Royce, and USAF.  

This same company did all the Models/Props for Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Space 1999 actually.

But like every journey there is a start and an end once I had learned all I could I made the decision to travel, I took a year off to travel to Australia and re-evaluate my career.

On my return, I got a job working for a Beverage Branding company in London, it only lasted for a year, for me, the job of Artworking and Designing was too rushed and fast-paced for me, although I meant some amazing people and worked on some amazing projects the constant commute and the pigeonholing was not a good fit for me.

We worked on all the major drinks brands including Bombay Saphire, Yaegermeister, Jonny Walker, Absolute, and Guinness to name a few.

Interlude

My career life journey certainly cannot be called linear, you might be reading this and think "Yes it is" but I assure you I was doing lots in the background, training my self in 3D and multiple other packages and taking on lots of private jobs and again building connection, I joined a few networking clubs as well.

 End Interlude

On leaving the beverage industry, I decided to move from my hometown in South West London to Canterbury and started a design business mainly websites and branding, but as a side job painted people's pets a very interesting time indeed, the funniest commission was to paint someone Goldfish!

I also started to then train people in using software I did this all over the UK it was very well paid, it was then that I realized I was good at teaching people, I developed a knack to emphasize with people, I think having to learn the hard way all by myself I felt it important to over-deliver and form connections.

The software I was teaching at the time was Adobe Dimensions, Quark, Dreamweaver, HTML, Microsoft, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.

At this time I then got the opportunity to work for a PR and Marketing company in charge of Digital Media and SEO, producing mainly for the Micro Electronics sector the job allowed me to work remotely and you know what "I liked it, it was my first taste of self-management in a job role".

I was paid a salary and had lots of free time between jobs so I started to help people by producing free videos on YouTube as a kind of hobby never realizing where it would end up, simply put I did it because I like it, and I realized there was a need to quick access to information, I guess I felt bad for people having to go through what I did.

Although we worked with hundreds of clients, notable companies I worked for in this time period were Omron, Fujitsu, and Sartorius  

Roll on another 10 years...  

The company I worked for folded due to some big clients leaving me unemployed, to be honest, I really did not mind and in a way, it happened at exactly the right time, as these things often do. Forcing a change, as already mentioned I was already doing private jobs so it became a natural progression. I also moved from Canterbury back to London.  

For about a year and a half, I was doing a ton of different job roles which looking back brought in a very diverse selection of clients, websites, Design and illustration, Branding, Video, Photography, Games assets/Visuals, and a whole host more.  

I worked on a lot of smaller startups and established companies from Stocktraders to Plumbers, companies of note are Coca-cola, Google, Lionhead Studios, Bizarre Creations, Ubisoft, Vector Racing, and British Airways.  

Me and my wife decided to uproot and move to Cornwall for a better lifestyle, I had always wanted to live beside the sea, in the beginning, I was thinking maybe Brighton as there are still good routes to London and I did not want to lose my London connection with work and clients. But my wife said, and this always sticks with me "If we are going to do it let's go to the most beautiful place regardless of distance" so we did and ended up as west as you can go St Ives!! as it happened I actually made new clients and never lost the old ones.  

Now something I never mentioned was I had started adding courses to Udemy and they were bringing in money and it was getting better and better, I could market these directly to Facebook groups and my YouTube channel and word of mouth took over at first the courses were bringing in a little residual money but over the course of two years, the scale was turning until it tipped allowing me to spend more time on the courses.  

This brings me to the present day where I spend my time running workshops helping people in various groups and producing more courses. I still work in design and have about 9 different ventures actively bringing revenue in, I also keep up to date with the latest developments even 3D Printing which goes hand in hand with my 3D work I even now offer courses on it, if your interested in 3D Printing check out my top ten tips!

But and this is very important I only take on projects that I love and no matter how much money is involved if it does not excite me I do not do it. That is something that I have always lived by if I do not enjoy it I don't do it simply!