So, why art?

So, it's stated in my profile that I considered doing English as my university degree. English has always been a strong subject for me - I got a grade A in my English Language/an A* in my English Literature GCSEs - and I do enjoy doing it. A lot of my time is spent reading; whenever I take a holiday to the beach I have a book in my bag. When I sit outside in summer there's a book in my hands. Before I go to sleep at night I read for around half an hour to an hour depending on how tired I am. I write quite regularly - as a kid I kept diaries/observational notebooks (Harriet the Spy was a heroine of mine!) and wrote numerous short stories on the Atari we had at my father's home, and our first PC that we had at the bungalow my mother and I moved into.

(Just like many of my fellow writing and reading enthusiasts, I'm awful at maths. Even now it takes me an embarrassingly long time to do mental arithmetic.)


So ... why art? I didn't really get into it until I was in high-school. We did do art in primary school, mainly for the front of our Project Books and maybe a piece or two for the wall display, but that's all I can really remember.

Like many before (and after) me, I got into drawing manga when I was about 12 or 13. I had an interest in Pokemon before then and loved the Daft Punk music-videos (and have remained a fan of the latter ever since) but it had never crossed my mind to try drawing something like that. I noticed the AOL kids' forums had a sub-section on Anime, so I went in to see what it was all about. I noticed shows like Sailor Moon and Pokemon being mentioned, and through that sub-forum I was introduced to Bakaneko, and the drawing tutorials on there. (I pronounced the site as 'Ba-kuh-knee-koe' and had no idea what it meant.)

I practised with the tutorials, and surfed the 'nets for more. I also scoured the Sky channels for anything remotely anime, and ended up watching and taping Shin-chan on Fox Kids. I also caught the odd episode of Sailor Moon in the mornings, too.


I then left watching anime alone for a little while, especially as Shin-chan was pulled off air, and just concentrated on the drawings. I branched out into other cartoons too, but manga remained my favourite style. I obtained several books on manga, all of which I still have and flick through now.


When I was fifteen, I got back into watching anime, but by then I was also influenced by other artists as I'd started my GCSE course. We'd had many teachers in high-school for Art, but we didn't really do anything spectacular. It was my GCSE year when my interest really started to take off. I'd stay in during breaktimes to work on my art, I'd do a lot of work at home on it, and I liked to see and take inspiration from other people's drawings (so I signed up to DeviantART).

Skip forward a while to AS-level, when I was sixteen. I gained an A from my GCSE in Art, and it was around then that I knew I wanted to do art. English was good, and I enjoyed it (and took it at A-level, too) but I was more likely nowadays to pick up a pencil and sketchbook than to open Word and get typing on a keyboard.


By then ... I knew what it was I wanted to do. You know when you get that instinctual feeling? I was pulled to Art, not to English (although I very much enjoyed it). Aside from just plain instinct (heh), I also want to make others happy. I want to make others laugh - I'd be awful at stand-up comedy but I have an overactive imagination that often comes out on paper. I want to freak out people, scare them a little, make them feel a few emotions like a friendly shake of the shoulders when they look at my work. I mean, go down a few posts and take a look at the steampunk'd Tropy piece I did - I got a review from a loved one a few days back, and part of it was that Tropy's expression really creeped him out, and I was overjoyed that the quirky freakiness I put into Tropy's pose and facial expression worked on the viewer. Heck, even I was freaked out when I first saw what I'd drawn, surely that's a good sign.


In contrast, with some of my pieces I'd like to relax the viewer, make them feel at home. For example, look at this, The Cat's Whiskers:



With pieces like this, I want to relax. Cats remind me of relaxing, dark blue reminds me of ... well, primary school, but primary school was certainly an easier time than high school, so that's relaxing in its own way, I guess. I was relaxed when painting it; I remember sitting in the Art room. Personally I'm always going to be reminded of midget-gems when looking at it, because I had a large bag of them and by the end of three hours couldn't even look at them because I'd eaten such a lot.

My teeth are itching (is that even possible?) now because just looking at this reminds me of midget-gems and how much they get stuck in your teeth, let's move on.



I know art's a popular subject. I know it's competitive. I know no matter what you do, there's always some art piece better than yours in your eyes (and many artists I've met are their own harshest critics, which doesn't help). But your art piece is yours, you worked on it and took the time to make it. Art is very personal, and nobody can take that away from you.

And if you want to succeed, you'll find a way. It might take a while, it might be hard, but you'll find a way. That's what I was taught. *shrug*



TL;DR: Had a pull to Art, do it to make others feel happy, sad, yadda yadda. Have a nice day!