My love for art began young with comic books and Disney animated movies.
This love for art was welcomed and supported by my parents through encouragement, being bought countless supplies, and private art instruction. I was exposed early to a multitude of types of art. Encouragement was ever present for me to experience art from different historical time periods, different cultures and different types of art. Although, I always have preferred art from the Renaissance and Baroque periods as well as comic book type illustration.
For my undergraduate degree I obtained a BFA at the Ringling School of Art and Design (recently re-named the Ringling College of Art and Design) in Sarasota, FL while majoring in illustration.
Since graduating I have taught art in the Florida public school system as well as created graphic design and illustration for a variety of commissions. Most commonly I have created for the purpose of marketing and advertising. Both schools I was hired at eventually lost funding and had art removed from the schools entirely.
I since moved to Tallahassee, Florida where a large majority of my family resides. Not finding luck in the marketing/advertising or museum market I decided, with the support (permission) of my beautiful wife of course, to go back to school and obtain my MFA.
I should obtain my Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) degree in illustration from the Academy of Art University (AAU) in December of 2011. I am focusing on illustration for marketing, publishing and the entertainment field.
I would like to pursue a creative career designing characters and creatures for the entertainment industry (movies, television and video games) or illustrate humorous greeting cards. I would also like to illustrate children's books while not at my day job.
Another possibility in my future would be obtaining my doctoral degree in art history focusing on the renaissance and baroque art periods.
I aspire to eventually be a college professor teaching illustration while illustrating Caldecott winning children's books. But I want that to come after a long time in a creative career.
You can also see my art online @;
My Deviant Art page > http://jmarcdodsonjr.deviantart.com/
