I was born in Dubuque Iowa, 1984, the son of Roxie Hammill and Mike Hendricks who would later move me at a young age to Roeland Park Kansas. I started drawing when I was really young. I don't really know why. I watched a lot of cartoons, so maybe that's what got my creative juices flowing.
I used to draw Ninja Turtlestm and other fanart a lot. I think the show that did it for me was Commander Mark on public television. (Commander) Mark Kistler would teach you how to draw in perspective and make cool cartoony looking murals and little worlds. I used to draw along with the show. It warms my heart that there's a website for his show now after all these years. My other inspiration when I was younger came from cartoony-type stuff like Garfield, Farside, and those Highlights books. I wanted to draw cartoons so bad I even had my mom enroll me in a cartooning class one summer.
When I got to highschool I stopped drawing so much and focused a lot on other things. I took Japanese and even went to Japan my sophomore year. My highschool only had a limited number of art courses. One of my teachers was a hippy and allowed me to just draw whatever I wanted all class but my other teacher was the polar opposite. We had to copy master works, do homework and it was all rigid and structured. It kind of turned me off a little bit to drawing and art as a career choice. By the end of highschool I was a little confused as to my future plans. I thought about going into international business and continuing my Japanese studies, but something pulled me towards the arts. I ended up taking some more Japanese classes but ultimately decided I would get degrees in Graphic Design and Illustration. It wasn't until my sohpomore year that I really got serious about my image making. After I realized this is what I really wanted to do with my life, I became really focused on improving.
Which brings us to today! My work now is mostly digital; however, I do mix traditional and digital media from time to time. I use photoshop and a tablet for digital painting, and traditionally, my favorite medium is graphite but oil paint is quickly becoming a favorite of mine as well. I'm now on the hunt for professional employment and possibly relocating.
So that's me in a nutshell.
