Why I got back into Art/Drawing:
Honestly, I don’t remember when I started drawing. I think I started drawing in middle school, but drawing was never something I took seriously until 2020.
Art classes weren’t really my favorite classes, mainly because there were assignment requirements to follow, and those requirements really stunned my creative process. (Plus, back then, creativity wasn’t really a strong suit of mine). However, I will note that my art classes were more relaxing than anything.
I never heavily took an interest in Art. Every once in a while, throughout high school, I would draw something due to being bored in class, but those drawings were mostly sketches on stray paper, like math notes. Mostly, my drawing history is minimal and not that exciting. Looking back, I spent way more time writing than I did drawing.
But how did I get back into drawing?
Before 2020, I had trouble drawing original Art because I could never allow myself to get lost in the art process. I never let my emotions spill onto the page, and I restricted myself to drawing (bad) fan art because, in most cases, that didn’t require me to look into my emotions. For me, Art was simply something to do to pass the time, and since I did it so little, I was so bad at it that most times, I would give up on those stray artworks.
The reason why I got back into drawing was that I wanted to explore my emotions a bit deeper and see what would come up. It was surprising to see a lot of negative emotions popping up, a lot of which I had been ignoring for a while. Knowing myself, I knew that digital Art would be the best for me because with digital Art if you make a mistake, you can undo it. So, I mainly focused on digital Art rather than ink and paper.
Making mistakes was another reason I didn’t dive into making Art more. There was just something about making mistakes on traditional, real-life paper that made me hesitant to practice drawing.
But once diving into digital Art, I found I had an easier time getting lost in my Art. Eventually, at some point, I let my emotions out into my digital artworks, and I started to like drawing. I think that’s why I got back into Art because I saw what my feelings were trying to tell me all this time. I can see the sadness, fears, worries, and happiness stuck inside my head. That kept me interested in drawing, especially when I learned that others can connect with the unseen emotions in some of my artworks.
Future plans for Art?
With digital Art, I’ve become more comfortable with making mistakes. Slowly, this year, I’ve been branching out to more traditional Art and found that I don’t get as scared about making mistakes as much as I used to. So, you can imagine how happy that’s made me. I am slowly improving my confidence in my Art!
So, for future goals for my Art, I hope to do more original artwork on canvases and actual paper. I even thought about diving into projects that can take weeks to make. Though I don’t know if I’ve gotten to the point where I can create projects that last more than a week just yet, I hope that I can one day because I’m interested in seeing what I can make when I take the time to make something.
I also hope that I can take up other types of media. I am someone who gets a little frustrated when I can’t do something the first time, and I know that is also something that holds me back regarding creativity. However, I recently noticed that I am a little easier on myself when I don’t master a skill the first time I try something. So, seeing this small change, I hope I’ll be more willing to try new things. I really want to do artwork with watercolors and clay, and knowing that I’ll be easier with myself when learning new things makes me excited to see what I’ll use next for my art ventures!
