The Artist

The first figure I sketched in this sketchbook was a girl with long hair, big eyes, and pointy ears.  I was always drawn to these characteristics due to my love for Tinker Bell. I also fell in love with my high school sweetheart around this time. I loved his smile and adventurous spirit, so much so, that I used his photo for my first ever portrait. This is when I began to really enjoy my craft and experiment with other forms and art styles.

I downloaded "How to Draw" apps to help expand my imaginative draings to plants, animals, and other fantasy creatures. I ventured into the digital art world by creating small animations on my Nintendo DSI's Flip Note Studio.  I was inspired to write my own poetry after watching the short animated film "There's a Man in the Woods" by Jacob Streilein. I loved to just create whatever I wanted, but that will power started to fluctuate during my college years.

This career path allowed me to not only experience other illustrative courses but other, more physical, art forms; such as, dance, photography, 3D sculpture and painting. In Dance I did Ballet, Jazz, and Modern; Dance was also the course I chose as my minor. In Photography, I learned about the functionality of a digital camera and After Effects. In my Sculpture classes, I learned to cut wood, cast molds, plaster, chisel and 3D print. In my Painting classes, I learned to prime and color wash the canvas, mix colors, apply finisher and paint brush etiquette.  Finally, in my Illustration courses (which was my concentration), I learned character design/development, Digital Illustration, Pointillism, GIF, Still-Life, collages, drawing with charcoal, watercolor, and ink and nib. My creative palette exploded and my motivation came back. In Fall of 2020, I graduated MTSU with a Bachelor's of Science in Visual and Performance Arts. 

As predicted, it was difficult to find a beginner illustration job. All I was able to find were Graphic and Web Designer positions that were out of my league. Luckily, I was able to work as a Graphic Design Intern for my aunt's company, Mimconnect. Mimconnect, or Minorities in Media connect, is a "digital community and content platform helping professionals of color navigate their careers" [Mimconnect via LinkedIn]. I helped create the promotional graphics for their various social media accounts, mainly Instagram. Working side by side with Netta, I created graphics on pre-made templates, made new templates, and helped with data analyst reports. In return, she helped me build my resume, my online portfolio, and prepared me for interviews. This internship helped me grow into a more professional person, and I'm glad to have experience this along my career path.

Becoming a stay-at-home mom allowed me to pursue WFH jobs. I searched for illustration, data analysts and other graphic design positions, but they were either scams or just turned me down. While continuing my quest to find a WFH job, I also focused on creating more artworks. I created oil and acrylic portrait paintings, reopened my Redbubble shop, and created a new Webtoon account. Finally, in August of 2024, I got a job creating custom-made cards as an Illustrator for a company called Tellinga, which is "the world's first personalized art subscription company and a new marketing channel that utilizes handcrafted cards as an advertising medium while prioritizing philanthropy" [Tellinga.com]. I was gaining work around the holidays, but the flow drastically slowed down afterwards; to the point I was only getting one request every 3 months.