That Guy Who Draws Things

Yep, that’s me. I’ve been drawing things since I was old enough to hold a pencil (or crayon). It wasn’t until 1998 when I moved back to my hometown of Grand Haven that I inherited my first computer (from my roommate). On a whim he’d went out and bought a cheap desktop model at a wholesale computer store, but he barely used it and so I adopted it. My first computer obsession were chat rooms. I used to sit up till the wee hours chatting with people from all over the globe on MSN (this was when it was free; now you have to pay).

It was during one of these conversations that someone asked me if I could design some graphics for their web site. I’d spent most of my life using pencils and Bristol board to do artwork so I told this person I didn’t have a clue how to do that on my computer. They laughed. I told them it wasn’t polite to laugh at the virtually challenged. For some reason they found this even funnier, then they suggested I check out a graphics program called Photoshop.

Back then Google was in it’s infancy and me being a total n00b I spent about an hour before locating a trial version of the program on the Adobe web site. I had dial-up then and so while I waited for the program to download I was able to do my dishes, take a shower, run to the store, and make something to eat. Once it was done and installed I got my first glimpse at the future of graphic design. I had no idea what to do but sit there and stare at it—the dang thing looked like Mission Control.

It took me about a month before I got up enough nerve to do anything with the program. There is a great learning curve involved with Photoshop; it’s a large and convoluted program that takes a great deal of patience, time, and practice. What helped me the most was joining up with as many design forums as I could find, asking questions, participating in threads, and sending e-mails to designers whose work I admire.

Eventually, I began to design graphics professionally. It was just for a few friends at first who wanted web buttons, guest book designs, and page elements. Pretty soon people started paying me for this and that has led me to where I am today.

For the most part I’ve always lived in Michigan and at the moment I reside in a small resort town called Grand Haven. Below you can see some pictures of where I live and work…

Many people have told me, “Doug, your life is like an X-File.” Well, I can tell you, after forty-nine years, they’re right. Many of the things that have happened to me seem like something Mulder would pull out of his file drawers.

My life started out strangely enough. My clearest memory from my youth is of sitting in the waiting room of a plastic surgeon named Albert Kislov. I remember this room, full of dark wood and golden light, and being both afraid and anxious. Afraid because the majority of my childhood involved sitting in doctor’s offices, and anxious because my parents had informed me that this man was going to create a left ear for me. I thought this was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard.

I had been born without a left ear. There was nothing there but skin — smooth like the rest of my face. The doctor who delivered me had told my mother that this was most likely a congenial birth defect, but in reality the missing left ear was actually a side effect of a rare endocrinological disorder called Klinefelter’s Syndrome, which would not be diagnosed until I was twenty-one years old.

At the age of six my parents started looking for a doctor who could make a left ear for me. I went to a couple different doctors who tried a couple different procedures which failed pretty badly. My parents were quite upset about this (not to mention me). Finally, they took me to see Dr. Kislov.

Kislov was a big German man with bushy dark eyebrows and huge hands with knuckles like the joints of tree roots. In a very deep but soft voice he explained to me how he was going to make my new left ear. He had pictures in his office of the miracles he had performed for other people and the one I remember most is of a man who had lost his thumb. Dr. Kislov had taken the long toe off this man’s foot and sewed it onto his hand in place of his thumb. The man could actually use this toe-thumb just like a normal one.

I was in awe. He was a man with an incredible gift, and even at the age of seven I could recognize this. During the course of seven years (from the time I was seven until I turned fourteen) Dr. Kislov worked on making me a new left ear. To this day no one can tell I have an ear that was manmade, unless I tell them.

It was during this time spent in and out of the hospital that I first began to draw things. I had been drawing since I was a three years old, only now I began to draw beyond stick men and random doodling. I drew out of an inner need to be somewhere else, because it was pretty lonely being up there in that hospital. So I would go down the hall from my room to the play area where all the other kids in my wing would gather and sit in a chair in the corner with my sketchpad and pencils (a gift from my folks) and just draw. By the time I was done with my stay in that hospital the nurses had my drawings pinned up on the walls all the way around the playroom. I left there with a brand new left ear and a sense of wonder and awe at the attention and notoriety my talent had brought me. Large thoughts for such a small child.

I believe my life and my talent both evolved from that single moment in time. My mother always said I was gifted. I can remember her telling her friends when I was three years old, “Look! My son can color inside the lines! He’s a genius!”

I don’t know about being a genius, but I have always had the uncanny ability to conceptualize ideas and images. In school I was always drawing things for the other kids – sometimes it was Snoopy on his dog house chasing the elusive Red Baron, but quite often I would draw my own characters. I was really into cartoons. Cartoons and comics were a big inspiration while I was growing up. My favorite TV series was Underdog. I used to drive my mother nuts running around the house in my skivvies with a towel draped around my neck yelling, “Have no fear … Underdog is here!”

I create personality and character into everything I do. For me it isn’t about flat 2D graphics, but about taking a person’s dreams, ideas, and inspirations and giving them life in a truly unique and memorable way. If you would like to know more about me you can read my interview with Jacob Cass on Designer In The Spotlight

If you have a project you’d like to bring to life then let me know by filling out your details on my Design Inquiry Form. You can visit my portfolio to view samples of the client work I have done or view some of my personal work. If you would like to know more about me or my design services then please send me a message or you can leave a comment for me below.