I remember my first couple years as a professional artist. Doing the convention circuit, sketching and signing for fans. I sat by Mike many times and was in awe of his beautiful sketches, not only were they awesome he'd also do them so fast! I'd look and struggled along drawing one face as he'd drawn 3-4. So I asked him "hey Mike how do you draw the faces so accurately but so fast?" He broke down the profile shot for me with five simple lines. At this point in my artistic endeavor there were many things I struggled over but when Mike showed me this technique it blew my mind with it's simplicity and is something I still use today. Every profile shot you see me draw, those are Mikes lines.

This past Friday the industry lost an amazing talent. He gave everything he had to this industry we love even though the steps were painful he did it all with a smile. He truly was a hero and someone to look up to in every sense of the word. His outlook on life and positive attitude was something we all wished we had a bit of. This past Friday the industry lost an icon, a lot of us lost a friend.

We miss you Mike.