My History with Art (Shoshi Week 6)

 

My first experiences with art dates way back to first grade when I was so obsessed with the idea of going to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. I was so in love with fashion, for my bat mitzvah I even drew outfits based off of each of the megillot I learned. Not long after, I was introduced to the wonderful world of painting through the soothing voice and easy instruction of Bob Ross. Inspired, I began painting with, what I now know are, pretty crappy, cheap acrylic paints. 

In school, we didn’t have a permanent art teacher until I was in middle school, where we could only have art through an elective. From seventh grade until COVID happened, I took that elective and it was always the highlight of my week. Along side it though, I took up digital art and taught myself to draw, sketch, and create new things through an app called Procreate. Inspired by gorgeous fan art, comic books, animations, and many other amazing works, I continued on my journey of self teaching. 

In all honesty though, doing art saved my sanity throughout quarantine. I was doing school completely online and I had little to no sense of even what day it was. So I turned to painting to keep myself occupied. I made four painted pieces, painted ten  seashells, and made countless more digital pieces, some of which I still continue to sell. 

Once I started school last year, I knew immediately that I wanted to join art. While I was surprised by parts of the class, and missing some of the basics after being self taught, I had great fun and already knew by the end of second semester that I wanted to do AP Art. Last year, getting to learn how to create portraits, in both acrylic and pencil, was a huge reason why I picked that I wanted to improve on my anatomy this year.

While I have evolved from thinking I could be a famous fashion designer, my new goal, being an illustrator with a specification in character design, feels only a little more achievable. While most people say they can’t even draw a stick figure, it isn’t true. All artists start somewhere, and it’s usually not a place of instantly being Picasso. Art, just like most skills, takes practice, patience, and time. My challenge to you is to go out, find something you want to draw, and take your best shot at it. It might not be good, and that’s okay.