Everyone experiences their own personal journeys. Most of the time, they are extremely long but worth the work. This is how I feel when it comes to art: body anatomy, backgrounds, animals… Those are only a few of the many skills in art. My journey has been going on for years, and there is no such thing as a finish line. 

THE ORIGINS 

   In the fourth grade, at around 9-10 years old, I had an artist friend who I thought had some of the most beautiful pieces at the time. I had looked up to them because of how experienced they were in the field. Eventually, they motivated me into creating my own art, designing my own characters, and sharing them.  

    I began to write my own characters and give them unique yet plain character designs. My art style started off stiff, and the clothing on my characters was quite boring and repetitive. One of the first characters I ever created was Caterina, or her older name, Candy. She’s one of the creations that I have kept since forever and cherish dearly. 

SHARING WITH THE WORLD 

     I was introduced to social media quite early in my life and came across several apps where I can share my art. Around this period, I began to work on digital art on a program called Ibis Paint X and have been using it ever since.  

    At the time, I was in the fifth grade, and I began to use Instagram to post and share both my traditional and digital work with the world. It never got much attention, but it was fun to post all of my pieces regardless. To this day, I continue to post on Instagram and have even managed to get a decent following! 

SPIKE IN IMPROVEMENT 

    A little after the fifth grade, I spent most of my time either drawing or scrolling on YouTube and social media for hours on end. This was when I stumbled upon the glory of many artists on YouTube and the other worldly power of using references. These two options were absolutely life changing for me.  

    I began to grind endlessly, drawing full body poses, experimenting with unique styles, designing even more of my own characters with their own stories. This was a huge step for me, and my mind opened greatly. I began to find people online who were also artists, and they inspired and influenced me like crazy.  

    I’ve kept this habit for as long as I can remember. Pinterest has been an amazing inspiration for my art and great references for what I need to focus on when it comes to improving. Thanks to this, I have been improving a ton.

RECENT YEARS (HIGH SCHOOL) 

     I feel like the most memorable time of my art journey was my freshman year of high school onwards. During that time, I created a bunch of universes for my characters, even producing plot lines and backstories to go along with them. These characters helped me with my personal identity and helped me deeply connect to friends with collaborations and art commissions from them, expressing deep love for my illustrations. It’s one of the many reasons I keep up my progress in this journey as an artist and step out of my comfort zone to get even better.