Getting Back into Art
I have always been into art. It has been a huge part of my life since I was a child. Art class was one of my favorite subjects in school and I loved being creative and learning more about different art techniques. When I was in middle school I had the opportunity to make so much art and then put that artwork on mugs and shirts which I thought was super cool. I even entered and won an art contest in my school. The following year I switched schools and got the chance to paint different designs on a school banner. I also learned about pointillism and loved the idea that a larger piece could be made of small dots of color. I had so many art supplies from sketchbooks to paint to colored pencils. The walls of my bedroom were even covered with a lot of my art. Also like many other artists I had a DeviantArt where I posted all of the art I would make.
In high school I was still doing lots of art and even got some of my art published in the school’s poetry and art journal. In college I took one art class and I loved it so much. I had a giant art board and a huge canvas bag with giant sketchbooks inside that I had to carry every time I went to class. I learned more about sketching, shading, line drawing, art perspective, charcoal, and more. I had an incredible professor who challenged me to create amazing things. All of my classmates thought I was an art major which felt amazing and they always were excited to see the pieces I made for class. Outside of class art was a huge stress reliever. I would spread out all my art supplies in my dorm and just spend hours drawing and coloring. I covered the walls of one of my dorm apartments with my Disney art.
My senior year of college I had one of the scariest experiences of my life I lost my vision in my left eye. After several tests I found out I had a cataract. Before I could get surgery to remove it I had to wear an eyepatch because my eye became even more sensitive to light. I lost a lot of confidence in myself and it was hard to finish out the year. After I graduated I had my surgery and discovered I lost a lot of my nearsighted vision when the cataract was removed making my vision worse than it was before the cataract. I was devastated and I struggled to do things I used to be able to do like read and art.
Once I got reading glasses and worked through my feelings of my changed vision I tried to get back into art. I had some rough moments where I got so frustrated because I couldn’t see as well as I used to. That frustration and lack of confidence lead to me ripping up what I was working on. I lost inspiration and confidence in myself. If you have ever seen Kiki’s Delivery Service and remember the part of the movie where Kiki can’t fly and can’t talk to Jiji anymore that is what I was going through. I felt like I could never do art the way I did before.
When I opened my small business on Etsy I tried to do art again but I didn’t think my artwork was as good as it used to be. Art didn’t bring me the same joy that it used to. Then in 2021 I discovered GISH which is The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt hosted by actor, Misha Collins. It is a week full of creative and chaotic fun. The list of hunt items sparked something in me and inspired me to be more creative and try to give art another chance. I participated in ever hunt and mini hunt until GISH ended last year. For a several months I thought I lost my spark. My mental health wasn’t doing well especially at the end of 2022. I had fallen deep into a dark hole that I wasn’t sure how to climb out of.
In the beginning of 2023 I started following artists on Instagram. I loved seeing their progress videos and their final gorgeous artworks. I was in awe of what other artists could create especially with art mediums I’ve never worked with. Each piece I saw as I scrolled was beautiful. You could tell how much time and enough went into each piece and each tiny detail. Even when I came back to a piece of art I found more amazing details that I didn’t notice before. The more I looked at these artists’ incredible piece the more I got inspired. The two artists that inspired me the most are Jennuhlee (@jennuhlee) and Kathryn (@paintpuddle.studios). Their work is gorgeous and spooky and each piece is so creative. I truly want to thank them both for inspiring me to get back into art.
After seeing so many creative artist and beautiful pieces of art I felt my spark and love for art returning. It felt freaking amazing. All I wanted to do was draw and color and I had so many ideas of things to make that I had to make a list to keep track of it all. I first started drawing a couple times a month and then I was basically drawing everyday. I challenged myself to draw flowers and I’ve slowly been improving that skill over the past few months. I’ve been drawing so much that I feel like I need more art supplies. It feels incredible to be passionate about art again and being so creative. I can’t wait to draw more and add more art to my shop as well as continue to be passionate about art. If you would like to see some of my recent art pieces check out my art portfolio. You can also follow my Instagram to see progress pictures and reels.
This is a pretty long blog post so if you read all of this thank you so much. I appreciate you.
Here is a side by side image of how my art has improved over the years.