My History with Art

Writing is my life’s work. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do for a living and the skill that I’ve practiced and strengthened the most. My hobby, though, is art. It’s what I do for fun, for creative expression, and to unwind. I’m not a great artist, and in a way, I’m glad that I’m not. Because I never felt the need to develop it into something that could be monetized and turned into work.

We all need pursuits that don’t result in some fame or monetary goal. And for me, drawing, painting, and crafting is my escape from the personal and professional grind.

However, as I’ve gone back through the pieces of art I’ve made over the years, I’ve discovered that my subjects are tied to my love of storytelling, and the different types of art that I’ve made have reflected a different era in my life, my interests, and my moods. So below, I wanted to share my personal history through my art.

Early drawing years

I was never considered one of the artistic kids in school, and my art projects were never anything impressive. Drawing was something I did just because I liked to do it. I liked to color and paint because it simultaneously felt productive yet cleared my mind.

In the third grade, my friend showed me the magic of tracing. We would trace images of Disney characters from our folders and picture books and then color them in. It made us feel like professionals, and we even made plans to sell them to our classmates.

Unfortunately, the business never took off, especially after a kid told us we could be sued for copyright infringement for trying to sell images of characters we didn’t own. I didn’t want Disney to come after us and the dozens of notebook pages filled with their intellectual property. No one needs a criminal record at age 9, and somehow, they would know.

At some point in my preteen years, I decided to start trying to copy book and movie covers to see how close I could get them without tracing. I was surprised by how well they came out just by looking off of the picture and not tracing them. My lines were a little wonky, but you could tell what it was.

I began to check out drawing books from the library. I also had more supportive art teachers. They showed me techniques with working with different mediums, tips on how to draw faces, and offered tips on shading. I wanted my drawings to look as realistic as possible. And even if I personally wasn’t satisfied with the end result, I liked when people told me, “That looks good.”

High school years

I continued to doodle throughout my angsty high school years. Most of my art this time consisted of black and white pencil drawings mixed with some colored pencil drawings. I didn’t want anything to bleed through the giant sketchpad that I got for Christmas. And I made use of every page, filling them with individual drawings before eventually dedicating a whole page to one particular image.

Looking back, both my stories and art from that era were dark. I was definitely in a depressed state of mind, like most teens. And I liked to torture fictional characters or explore tragic and terrible situations. My art looks like a cry for help and attempt to grasp for control and let my anger and sadness out.

This tragic theme began to run through my sketchbook too as I began to dwell on sad and terrible situations. You can see how dramatic my human characters posed. I liked to see them in states of distress as they fought both internal and external battles. At the same time, I felt like I was super creative, packed full of ideas that I wasn’t afraid to explore. I created a lot of my own unique creatures and worlds without critiquing them, or myself, too harshly.

I’ve always gravitated towards dark things. But in those teen years, I definitely embraced them and wasn’t afraid to go overboard. I came up with horrible scenarios and tried to picture how I would handle them or what they would feel like. Ultimately, I embraced the adrenaline rush that came from living through these situations in my head, like watching a horror movie. But with age and more personal experience with terrible and tragic situations, I became more sensitive to my fictional subject matter through both my art and writing.

Lonely college years

In college, there wasn’t much time for art except in the summer. I didn’t work in the summer except for some odd jobs here and there, and I had lost touch with my friends. So, I spent a lot of time on my parents’ back porch writing and drawing and preparing short stories and poems for the semester ahead in between fishing, swimming, and going on vacation.

But it’s tough to come up with material when you’re not having any experiences. I don’t know how shut-ins like Virginia Wolfe and Emily Dickinson could find the inspiration they needed when they were cooped up at home all day.

I would try to write poems or draw pictures of this backyard area. They would be bright and cheery pictures carefully colored in with colored pencils or pastels. But when I look at them, I’m reminded of lonely summer days where drawing was a fun escape from the mundane rut in which I found myself. At the same time, I miss having all of that free time to be creative.

I also loved to copy covers and images of my favorite movies during this time. Diving into these worlds made me feel safe and comfortable. I often stayed up until the early hours of the morning watching the films on my laptop while drawing pictures of my cinematic heroes in my bedroom with nothing but a dull string of pink rope lights to illuminate my paper.

In my final semester of college, I had to create a poetry chapbook. Because I wasn’t much of a poet and felt out of my element, I was drawn to the idea that I could incorporate drawings into my book. It made the entire process feel more comfortable and, working ahead, I was able to come up with several drawings for the book, including this cover image:

This project helped me to personalize the experience of putting together a book. In a class in which I felt I had no control over what I wrote, I was able to take back some of that control and put my own spin on this project in an otherwise intimidating and confusing genre of writing.

Art therapy in adulthood

Once you grow up, get a job, and go out into the world on your own, your free time becomes scarce. I would tape and eventually frame and hang my old artwork on my bare walls to personalize the walls of my apartment and eventually my home. But rarely did I actually create any art.

After a particularly tragic year, I found myself looking for some kind of therapeutic task that I could do to get my mind off of things. That’s when I turned to watercolors. I picked up a watercolor kit and devoted a few hours one night to just learning how to control the paints and play with color and perspective.

This experiment worked, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was paint. I would work on three or four paintings at once, focusing on the driest painting while waiting for the others to dry. I began to obsessively buy art supplies. My paintings got cleaner and less muddy as my confidence built and my control increased.

Further art education

In 2019, I enrolled in a painting course sponsored by the community college in a local elementary school called watercolor silhouettes. The class was, admittedly, terrible. But it gave me an excuse to go out and paint with others and to devote time each week to practicing watercolors.

I could see improvement as I practiced. My colors became less muddy. My images became clearer. And I found myself taking my time, not worrying about getting it done in one sitting, and being proud of my work with no expectation to share, sell, or use it to get attention or approval.

My favorite kinds of art to make these days consist of landscape paintings. I still branch out and will occasionally decorate a birdhouse, buy a paint by numbers kit, or make holiday decorations or gifts.

Final thoughts

I’ve always been a workaholic who feels like every waking minute needs to be productive. It can be an unhealthy mindset. I still overdo it and still feel that pull to be productive. But more often, I now tell myself to stop and take a break. Work on a painting, start a new project, or even just do nothing.

Art as a hobby is just as valuable, if not more so, than art as a job. It requires focus and concentration without all of the brain power that writing requires. You don’t need a quiet space or a ton of room. It gets you away from screens, unless you’re following along with a YouTube tutorial or using an online image as a reference photo.

Art clears your head and gives you something else to think about. And what comes out of you is this subconscious imagery that can surprise you, not only with how well it turns out, but with what it’s trying to say. And that’s really the essence of my need to be creative: to communicate, to release that pressure valve, and to have fun while still being productive.

What is your art history? Do you make art for fun, or do you want to do it as a career? What are your favorite subjects and mediums? Leave your answers in the comments below!

Also, check out my blog post, Acrylic Painting a Landscape on Canvas here!

Buy it!

Buy a copy of How to Draw: 53 Step-by-Step Drawing Projects here, and help support local bookstores. This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales!

Pin it!