My Journey

Age 8

 Age 9

Age 11

I took my first ever art class this year. I learned how to smudge, trace, and work with charcoal. I was really happy with a boot picture I did indipendantly this year, and a horse I drew in class.

I hated drawing people.

 

Age 12

This is the year I took colored pencil classes. I learned a lot from those classes. It was an inspiration  to me and I drew pictures to illustrate the stories I was writing in my free time.

Age 13

I started a new (more intense) school program and was to busy to do much  drawing.

 

Age 14

I began to understand how important shading was when drawing people. 

Age 15

I became exposed to art online and saw lots of amazing art that easily surpassed my abilities. Up to this point I had been mostly in my own little bubble with little influence from other artists.

This is the year I really pushed myself. I drew on an almost daily basis and there was improvement in almost every drawing. I drew mostly in pencil, but I tried charcoal, watercolor, and pastels as well. I entered the State Fair for the first time and got a Blue ribbon in watercolor (The Owl) and a Red ribbon in portraits. 

I also entered Focus on the Family's International "How Great Thou Art" art contest.  I placed first in my division.

I really learned to draw people this year, and began to experiment with other mediums.

 I also started mentoring younger artists.

 Age 16 

My year was busy with my family's trip to Africa. I drew some rough sketches but didn't tackle any huge art projects. Looking back I feel like I wasted opportunities after so much growth the year before.

However, I did enter an HSLDA art contest and made it to the finals. 

I also drew in pen and crayon, I learned a lot from both attempts. I also was able to get Britt Nicole to sign my Crayon drawing.

I learned that kids love having someone draw them their own custom coloring pages.

 

Left Hand vs Right Hand

 

 

Age 17

So far I've done a lot of experimenting this year. I've done several custom shoes, taught myself how to sew, and opened an Etsy Store. I started taking art classes and messed around with multimedia, and Expressionism. I've taken a step back from drawing people and have been working more with animals. I know I'll go back to drawing people, but I can't seem to get motivated past the first sketching phase.

Music has been a huge influence on me this year.