My Art Journey

Art is the love of my life. It is a refuge from the demands of school and other daily stressors and provides a space in which I can express myself freely without fear. It is also quite relaxing; there is nothing more cathartic than painting on a slow weekend while listening to music. As you can see, art is clearly important in my life. As I am about to enter a new stage of life where I leave home for the first time, I want to reflect on the thing that helped shape my character and made my childhood and adolescence much more enjoyable (I, unfortunately, do not have many pictures of older works, however).

I started to draw seriously in the second grade. Many of the drawings I did were very "primitive," as they were simply barely decipherable, colorful scribbles on paper. Well, that was to be expected of a seven-year-old with barely any hand-eye coordination. And another thing: I was obsessed with dogs. I don't think I'd be able to count the number of dogs I drew in my life. My "dog art" stage continued until I was in fifth grade, where I gradually branched out (but I still primarily drew animals). Before middle school, I purely looked at art as a form of "fun," and a way to pass time.

In middle school, I discovered two new mediums, which were digital art and (alcohol-based) markers. And I became obsessed with them. Before, I had only used colored pencils, crayons, and regular pencils. My art began to have a vibrancy that I never achieved with cheap dollar store supplies. However, I still liked drawing animals a lot, so I did develop a very "cutesy" art style as a result, because cute animal drawings were very popular on social media. My subject choices were more influenced by social media since I started using it more. During that time, I was quite reluctant to try out realism (photo and life studies) and drawing humans, which were subjects I started exploring in high school.

Freshman year is where I really started to blossom in art. The art classes provided me with more resources than what I had at home- I had access to many more types of media, such as acrylics, gouache, and charcoal. And because I was encouraged to draw a variety of subjects, I finally decided to emerge out of my comfort zone. I started to focus more on the technical aspects of art and drew from real life. As a high schooler, I let my influence from social media dwindle so that I could improve my skills. Out of all the subjects I have drawn and painted in class, portraits are my favorite, since I love the wide range of emotions human facial expressions can portray (and they're so fun to paint)!

A study from my freshman digital art class

Now, as a senior in high school, I am confident in my progress as an artist and as ever determined to keep growing. As of now, I am building a portfolio, which requires me to explore different ideas and push myself further with every piece. And in the future, I hope to apply my skills in a way that will benefit my career.

Something I drew this year!

The life of an artist is an eternal journey; it never truly ends. That's another beautiful thing about art- it's an adventure where you don't know what's next. As a child, I did not expect my art to go in the directions it did. Who knows what I'll be up to in the future? Whatever it is, I will surely welcome it with open art.