Sometime later I watched the movie 'Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimmaron' and found myself drawing all of the horse characters.
When I was about 11 years old I tried to draw realistic fur for the first time with graded pencils. At the time I was quite pleased with the results I was getting.
Later on, I started to feel like my pictures weren't realistic enough, so I decided to go back to drawing cartoons and found joy in drawing Disney characters.
After that, there was a large period of time when I didn't draw anything at all; and it wasn't until I was about 13 that I started sketching animals again alongside trying lots of other mediums like watercolours, watercolour pencils and acrylics.
But it was THIS picture that changed everything ...
I found a tutorial online that I decided to follow along with, I didn't know what materials they used for their picture so I just picked the first thing I saw on the shelf.... Crayons!
My family really liked my finished picture and asked what materials I used to draw it. I said that I used crayons because I didn't know what the artist had used in the tutorial.
We decided to have a look at the description (I don't know why I didn't do that before) and found that that the artist used oil pastels.
Sure enough, this was where my pastel journey started.
I did a bit of research on oil pastels and decided to buy some and give them a go.
It took a bit of getting used to, but very soon I drew pictures of my five beloved cats.
Shortly after drawing with oil pastels I discovered that there were different kinds of pastels; and at the age of 14, I got my first set of soft pastels along with pastel pencils and pan pastel.
This was the first piece I drew:
Click to watch tutorial on Youtube: How To Draw a Cat With Pastels
After using soft pastels I found my niche. I knew this was what I would continue to use for the foreseeable future.
~ View some of my more recent work over in the Pastel Portrait Gallery
Thanks to so many artists on YouTube I have improved a great deal over the past year, so I want to say a huge "Thank You" to all of the great artists that have helped me become the artist I am today!
My art journey doesn't end here! I am happy to say that you are now able to watch me progress as an artist and keep on improving my drawing skills.
I have started sharing the tips and tricks that I've learnt over the years on my new YouTube channel, and hopefully it will help you improve and become better artists too! You'll also find plenty of playlists and videos by other artists that I recommended for you to watch.
I hope my art story has inspired you and encouraged you to take further steps to improve your drawing skills too. For more inspiration, I invite you to follow me on Instagram.