About Me

Hi, My name is Luke, or I like to be called Lukedude which is my professional art name. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. Words are hard, but drawing is sure easy for me.

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I became autistic when I was less than 2 years old. My parents tell me that I could identify and sing my ABCs, count to 10, knew some colors, and would speak in short sentences. Then in a matter of weeks, all of that stopped. I lost my words and my world became painful.

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For some reason I started drawing. Drawing made me feel good and helped my imagination. I would draw on any piece of paper or surface. I drew Ninja Frogs and Wonder Minis (fighting M&M characters). I drew a stick figure boy named Daniel and his Bot Dreamy. Family and teachers began to take notice of my drawings and encouraged me to keep drawing. That made me feel good too. Drawing helped me connect with people when I wasn't really comfortable with words. It also helped people feel like they had something they could talk to me about too. I wanted friends, and there were some people who tried to be my friend -- and my cartoon drawings gave us something to talk about.

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Over the years, I've continued to draw. I can draw still life stuff, but cartoons are my favorite. Several years ago I got the idea to make a sock puppet, and called him Ock the Sock. I also made him into a cartoon character. Later, I developed some other characters – Aldente and Deputy Pete, The Crazy Gourds, Detective K-9, and Ril-E. My parents showed Ron Wilson, a Marvel Comic book artist some of my work when we met him at Comic Con. He told them I was gifted and should get my characters copyrighted. So that’s what they did.

This year, I did some freelance artwork for Warehouse Cinemas and Goodwill Industries of Maryland. Recently, I graduated from Hagerstown Community College with an A.A.S in Interactive Design and Game Development. I also enjoy improving my arts skills by participating in online drawing labs with Exceptional Minds in California.

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