Growing up my parents always wanted to
provide me with as much possible so I could succeed in my education. They would buy sets of encyclopedias, hire
tutors and also they bought me a computer at the age of ten. For a while I had a computer without Internet
because I did not need the Internet at that age. Today, if you hand a teen a computer they
would give you a dirty look and say, “What do you expect me to do with
this?” But at the young age of ten I
learned the ins and outs of working with a computer without the use of Internet. My favorite software had to be paint; I would
sit in front of paint for hours and draw.
I would draw comics, cartoons and also lettering. My drawings were not only limited to the
computer but I also had a knack for drawing on paper. My parents quickly realized that I could draw
and that their investment in the computer was not going down the route they had
intended.
Some people
will argue, “No art is ever original.”
But, I taught myself how to draw from observing other’s work. My influences on my art came from two very
distinct places. My “graphic design”
skills grew when my parents installed Internet.
Immediately I made a MySpace account and I remember surfing the website
and finding beautiful, custom-made layouts.
People would create the graphics for the layouts and then code HTML onto
their profiles and create beautiful webpages.
I remember that I immediately looked up as much information as I could
about HTML and taught myself how to code from scratch. I then created my own
layouts with different backgrounds and my name lettered across. The layouts
would be created by hand using Paint and Photoshop. Influences would come from all over including
key layout artists I would look up and gain inspiration from their creativity. My art on MySpace was highly regarded, I had
over a 100,000 friends and people would offer me money to customize their
layouts.
For my paper
drawings, I was heavily influenced by one of my art teachers in high
school. I always thought lowly of my
paper drawings because I was not very good at drawing people or realistic items
like fruit. However, my art teacher in
high school showed me artists who defied ordinary like Dali and Van Gogh. Their art fit the other genre, which did not
involve much people or realistic items. Throughout the art class I did get to
work on a self-portrait, which with the guidance of my art teacher turned out
pretty good. My real talent and love was
with drawings that had bold lines, graphic details and a fantastical touch.
Once I hit
my later years in high school MySpace got out of style and Facebook came in
with it’s default, bland, blue and default layout for every user. I lost a lot of my knowledge with coding HTML
but drawing stayed with me. Whether it
is on a computer, iPad or paper, drawing has always been my favorite
hobby. I love sitting down with a full
mind and just letting markers, pencil or my stylus do the talking. Teaching myself how to code web page layouts
not only taught me the power of my mind when I am determined but also showed me
how amazing the human brain is. I was a
twelve year old who knew how to make complete web pages from scratch, something
even adults with degrees in the field struggle with today. It impacted my life because it taught me that
many feats are possible with determination and goals.
Being
literate in drawing and graphic design helps me because I work with middle
school students in an afterschool program.
My boss and I were told by the district to make visuals with our
expectations for our youth and I decided to take on the task. I made all of our posters from scratch which
not only look fun but also colorful and deliver our important mission statement
and message of “respect yourself, others and property.” Other than creating visuals, the journey of
learning how to draw has taught me that if a youth has the right amount of
confidence, support, resources and knowledge they are able to achieve anything
they want in their lives. 
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