I began working on the featured artist posts at the beginning of the school year. As an artist myself, I decided it would be a good idea to start off 2023 by showing some art of my own.
Most of my friends and family have known me to be a skilled writer. Although writing is no longer my main hobby per se, I still enjoy it and have written some poetry to go with some of my artwork, which I did with this piece. I feel that the poetry accompanies the artwork very well.
For most of my life, drawing was initially more of an on-and-off activity, but I started considering it more of a hobby in the past few months. I mainly do digital drawing, and I’ve been doing it much more often since I got a new laptop to draw on. The app I personally use for drawing is MediBang Paint, which is free if you want to try your hand at digital art yourself, but you can opt for whatever programs or materials you find comfortable to use.
As well as drawing, I am also learning to animate. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet, but it is something I have been very committed to and passionate about for quite a while now. I’ve loved making up ideas for as long as I can remember, and I think animation will give me a chance to bring those ideas to life. Since the moment I realized I wanted to be an animator, I have been making a beeline toward that dream. With every new creation, I feel that I improve exponentially. Out of every drawing I’ve made, this one is by far my favorite.
My advice for other artists is to not let yourself feel restricted by any particular set of “rules.” While art does have its fundamentals, what’s more important in terms of making art is doing what feels right. The problem with this is that some people don’t know what feels right, and to that, I say just mess around with it until you find something that works. No two artists share every exact method, and that’s what makes the artist community a beautiful and diverse place. Here’s a fun fact: when I was working on this piece, I didn’t know how to do a proper glow effect for the sun. Instead of scrapping it altogether, I looked up drawings of glowing objects and tried to see how other artists did it. I kept trying and testing out different methods until I figured out something that worked. If you don’t step out of your comfort zone every once in a while — and I feel that this applies to virtually everything — you learn nothing. Do not let yourself be secured by insecurity.
(Artist of the Week is a feature created and compiled by staff writer Rosalynd Phillips. If you know an artist or writer who would like to be featured, email [email protected].)
