Throughout school, the main thing I am known for is art. It has become a large part of my personality, my career choice, my hobby choice, and even my choice in friends. This part of myself that used to be so very small, has rapidly grown into the majority of who I am. 

The process of getting here has taken quite some time, and a subliminal amount of practice. It truly does take some time to see results, which quite honestly makes sense. I did not realize my improvement in art until I pulled out an old sketchbook, and wow… I cannot believe I showed this many people my… “Artwork” at the time.

After pulling out some older pieces, I’d like to take you on a journey with me. About how I ended up improving so much, in only a few years. I will show you pieces with similar mediums, subjects, or simply styles. We can take a moment and examine these together, and perhaps inspire one of you to take a look at your old works. Trust me, if you ever need a pick me up, pull out an old sketchbook. I am sure you’ll feel much better.

Now, I do hope there is little judgement here. We are looking at improvement after all… not my hyperfixations… Though they still do exist. This first piece was made on June 10th, 2017. I was in 8th grade, and had drawn the YouTuber: Markiplier. Bear with me, you will be seeing this name quite often… Even to present day. As you can see, I did choose to use colored pencils and Sharpie. An… Interesting mix. I also chose to use a more “cartoony” style.

Now, this piece is still Markiplier, but just a different character of his. In this piece, you can see I used marker instead, and have used outliners, instead of the thicker Sharpie. I chose to add more details to the face, and SHADED. My goodness, I would avoid shading like the plague. This piece is also more dynamic, with the transitions to the different phases, as well as much more realistic. This was honestly my most popular post on my art account, and I can see why! I am quite proud of it.

Moving onto Freshman year, this is an acrylic landscape painting (made on May 17th, 2018). Nothing too special, however I do say I still adore the color choice. I need to find paint like that again… Honestly, I could have added more detail, and I obviously avoided shading, since I chose to use silhouettes instead. The piece I will compare this to, is another acrylic painting. I believe I completed this… October 2nd, 2020. This piece took much longer than expected. As you can see, I did choose to have a monochromatic palette, which I believe added charm to the painting. I also added many more details, as well as “dry brushed” for shading. This piece is much stronger, and has an infinitely better technique of blending and texture.

This piece was made on December 2nd, 2018. It is indeed a digital piece that I made for a charity event that… of course… Markiplier was hosting. I still adore the poses I chose to this day, however… Many aspects can be fixed. The shading is rough in some areas, and barely existing in others. The anatomy is… Interesting, as well as the facial expressions. However, I was indeed getting used to the digital medium. Now, this piece is not quite the same composition, however I wanted to mess around with lighting, and the shading of the human face. I do believe I have improved in blending, and facial anatomy much better. This piece was made on August 20th, 2020.

I believe that is all I have to share, it was very fun to look back at all my old works, and see the new techniques and aspects I have learned. I do encourage any artists reading to look back at your own works, and perhaps make an article of your own! If you’d like to see more of my own work, contact me and I can give you my Instagram account, where most of my art is archived. Thank you for reading!