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. His smile and adventurous spirit is what I love the most; 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 styles of art.

I downloaded "How to Draw" apps to help expand my imaginative drawings 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.

When I started college at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in fall of 2016, I knew I wanted to go for Art, but I didn't know which specific form to take. I loved to draw figures but I knew that finding a job where I could JUST draw, would be difficult. In order to advance in this growing digital world, I thought about a career that is in constant demand for: Graphic/Web Design. The Graphic Designer's  journey was smooth at first, but it gradually got difficult when I had to use Apps I've never used before and learn new materials that I could not grasp. Typography was the worst! This path drained my creative flow. After two years of studying this field, it was time for the Portfolio Review and it did not go well. Even though I had failed the review, all was not lost. Instead of kicking me out of the Art department, my professors recommended that I take  on another major: 

Visual and Performing Arts.  

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. 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, I learned character design/development, Digital Illustration, Pointillism, GIF, Still-Life, collages,  and 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 an 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 promotional graphics for their 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've searched for Illustrators, Data Analysts and other Graphic Designer positions, but most of them were scams. 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 (for the third time), and created a new Webtoon account. Finally, in August of 2024, I landed my first Illustrator job creating custom-made postcards for a company called Tellinga, "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 lots of work around the holidays, but the flow drastically slowed down from 3-4 requests per month to 1 request every 3 months. After waiting for so long and then realizing that the company was moving more towards AI art, I left that position and started my search all over again. 

After several months of combing the internet for my next big break, I eventually stopped searching and focused more on my side hustle: creating art for the hell of it. I worked on my Webtoon stories more, got rid of my Redbubble shop for good, set up a Printify shop, joined the Inktober and many DTIYS challenges, and created a commission board along with this website. When I am not working on these, I explore other creative ideas; such as making crochet dolls (amigurumi), creating holiday themed digital illustrations/promotional graphics and anything else that I can create within the moment. Little by little I had established a brand and when more artists started to follow me, I finally felt seen. 2020 was the threshold for my Art career, but 2024 is where I made my grand entrance with a halo of creative light.