I have been drawing since early childhood, doodling on any spare papers and during class at school. I attended every art class I could in school, and I tried to learn everything I could jam into my brain. During that time, of course I explored many different media, but eventually my favorite became graphite pencils.
Once I got into college (not to study art, sadly), the drawing pretty well stopped. I’m not sure why, but I hardly drew anything for 20+ years once the pattern was broken. Then someone told my niece I was an artist, and she started asking me to give her drawings every birthday and Christmas. The first drawing I did for her was a horse in pencil, freehand. I began to experiment with different media, however, to find what I liked. After a number of birthdays and Christmases, she was amassing quite a collection, and I started drawing for myself.
As much as I enjoyed graphite, I found I was quite interested in color. At first, I tried paint, but I found that anything I used to know about how to make paint do what I want was long forgotten. I explored other color media at my disposal. An employee in an art store recommended pastel pencils for me, so I bought a small set of maybe a dozen. I hated them, and eventually I gave them away to a young budding artist. I never heard how she liked them. I really wanted to like colored pencils, because I like the control I have with a pencil, but colored pencils just don’t do what I want them to do. Others can make them do what I want them to do, but I can’t.
Finally, I saw some art, including a time-lapse video, of an artist who was creating work like I wanted to create, and I asked her what she used. She was generous with her answers, and I found myself investing in a set of Stabilo Carbothello pastel pencils like hers. The world opened up for me. Suddenly, I had a color medium which blended nicely and gave me the control that I enjoy over a pencil. I could do fine lines and details and make any color I wanted! It didn’t occur to me for a long time that this was the very medium I had already rejected twice.
I began joining pastel groups on Facebook, which not only gave me access to other artists and their experience and expertise, but also gave me a samples of what I could someday hope to achieve with the tools at my disposal. Eventually I replaced the Stabilos with a more complete set of the same set, and I passed along the slightly less complete set to another budding artist quite recently. He hasn’t tried them yet, but I think he’s one of the guys who has way more control than I do over colored pencils, so that may end up his medium of choice. Anyway, I gain a lot of information and insight into art through Facebook groups.
Now I do commissioned work of pets and people, and in between that and my full time job, I still do art for myself. Almost all my work these days is in pastels, but I do a little bit in more monochromatic media. I thought this blog might be a good way for me to chronicle my art journey, as well as pass on what I feel are relevant tidbits pertaining to art. I hope you enjoy my blog.
Art by Tina Hickman 