Growing up, I've always wondered if I had a hidden talent. As I got older, I settled for typing really fast as my skill. When my brother and I were young, he was the illustrator, I was the writer. I would write short stories, which for age 6 weren't that bad. He was always the creative one. I couldn't even draw bubble letters to save my life. Anyway, moving on a few years...age 21..I got my first tattoo..one wasn't enough for me though. My second one had to be original; something no one else had. What better way to have an original than to design it myself. Of course I needed inspiration, so I googled tattoo images. Jeff Bartels was my inspiration. He is amazing. So, me having no experience in this department, I went to the store, bought some beginner sketching pencils, shading tools, and a sketch book. My first drawing took hours. It was an imitation of his. A lot of my first sketches were his. Here is my first one:: none of my sketches look exactly like the originals, which is good. I consider them my own personal style, since I never learned technique.
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| This one literally took me about 4 hours. A lot of erasing | and re aligning details. |
After I did this one I was hooked!...To me, drawing is like my therapy/escape/passion. Some express their feelings in journals; I express my emotions in my drawings. I had a phase where I would spend at least three hours a day 'practicing my skill'. Here are some more of my work inspired by Jeff Bartels::
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| This is my favorite statue sketch I've done. the actual drawing turned out really good. |
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I moved on to trying to freehand later..here is my first(not so great) but the meaning behind it is how I was feeling at the time..The drawing above this paragraph is called "Nobody's Perfect". The woman to the left is beautiful, but unhappy with her body because it's not "up to par" in her eyes. The angel, her Guardian Angel, has the eye over her with a question mark. She is trying to understand and explain there is nothing wrong with her, Nobody's Perfect.
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| This was a father's Day present for my Dad. When I told him I started sketching, he didn't really think I was this interested in it. This drawing is called "Butterfly Kisses". He used to tuck me in at night when I was a little girl and give me butterfly kisses. I always told him when I get married, we are dancing to that song by Bill Carlisle for the father/daughter dance. I have always been..still am a Daddy's Girl. |
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| "Burn Victim" I started from her lips, moved into her eyes, then finished the outline last. She was kind of a learning process of facial features. I really like how her eyes and mouth turned out. |
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| "Falling For Each Other" My ex-boyfriend wanted me to draw him a picture of two people falling for each other. So I did just that. They are madly in love holding on by every means they can(love) as they are literally falling for each other. |
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| "Frankie" I love the rat pack. At the time I had Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Sammy Davis Jr, James Dean, on each wall framed in black and white pictures. I never got a chanced to finish. I was so sick at the time and just couldn't get his hat right. He was my first time portrait drawing. |
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| "Grampa Joe" My Grampa Joe passed in 2006. He was very outspoken, but loved his Granddaughter..(Me). He drove everyone to arguments, but I knew how to talk to him. We had our own language. I found an old picture of him in my Granny's photo album and snuck it home with me. It was my Christmas present to her and my mom, and aunts. I took time and feelings into this, but they weren't taking my drawings seriously yet. I broke down of disappointment because all I wanted was to see a smile of thanks. Of course now it's displayed on her bookshelf. :) Later on I found out I might have inherited my talent from my Granny. She used to sketch portraits all the time, but stopped. I don't want to loose sight of my passion. I won't let myself. |
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| "My Guardian Angel" Another freehand of mine. She is hanging on my wall looking over me near my bed. |
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| "Hiding behind her hair" |
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| "Passionate Kiss" This was inspired by an unknown artist. I love the way you have to look hard to see what it really is. |
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| "Sad Girl" |
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| "Take A Deep Breath" I was going through a real rough time, all I had were graphite pencils, a bottle of wine, and q-tips to shade lol. It helped relieve some of the pain though. |
Growing up, I've always wondered if I had a hidden talent. As I got older, I settled for typing really fast as my skill. When my brother and I were young, he was the illustrator, I was the writer. I would write short stories, which for age 6 weren't that bad. He was always the creative one. I couldn't even draw bubble letters to save my life. Anyway, moving on a few years...age 21..I got my first tattoo..one wasn't enough for me though. My second one had to be original; something no one else had. What better way to have an original than to design it myself. Of course I needed inspiration, so I googled tattoo images. Jeff Bartels was my inspiration. He is amazing. So, me having no experience in this department, I went to the store, bought some beginner sketching pencils, shading tools, and a sketch book. My first drawing took hours. It was an imitation of his. A lot of my first sketches were his. Here is my first one:: none of my sketches look exactly like the originals, which is good. I consider them my own personal style, since I never learned technique. 
