Clifford J. Ash, alias "CEEJAY" grew up in a small town in Louisiana called Tallulah; but now resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA. Ceejay has been drawing all his life having inherited artistic talents from his father.
The focus of his imagery is from thoughts, opinions and disappointments about people and government, the struggles within himself and the plight of the African American men and women. In his own words, "People are my best subject. I love the detail of the shadows and muscle tone or capturing the full figured female because of the many curves and character of the body. As a media, pencils were my first love as an artist, and I've always been more partial to pencils and pens. I love the effect of pencil colors and pen & ink because I'm able to get the exact texture, feel and look I desire when I'm drawing."
He's also familiar with major art and animation programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Imageready, Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint 10, Corel Draw, Macromedia Freehand, Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Programs such as these have allowed him to maximize the background effects of his imagery. Ceejay is also a certified Web Page designer having studied with Harcourt Learning Direct.
His first job as an artist in 1995 was working for an African American alternative newspaper called the "New Times" as an editorial cartoonist. He has since done hundreds of portraits and cartoon drawings and has won many Blue Ribbon Art Awards. Other examples of Clifford's work may be found at:
About the Artist...
