Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'll be resuming the daily drawing challenge after the holidays. 

Day 11: Turning Point

Day 11: Turning Point

This one is gonna get a little personal. Its how I realized I wanted to be an artist. This image gives you the shorthand version of the specific moment when it hit me.

I’ve always loved drawing, ever since I could hold a pencil. My parents have home videos of me at around 2 years old falling asleep at the desk while drawing circles and squares. (There are multiple videos of this). My parents had a paint program on the computer before MS paint that I would play around with all the time. And I also played with ms paint. My dad was teaching my brother how to draw and I insisted he teach me too. As I grew older I never stopped drawing. But it never really occurred to me that this is what I could actually do with my life.

I started playing piano when I was 11. It turned out I was pretty good at it and was able to get into performing arts school for middle school and high school. It seemed like music was what I was going to do. But I liked so many things! I loved music, acting, drawing, movies, cartoons, comics, reading, writing, math (yeah, I enjoyed if for a while).

There wasn’t a certain movie that made me just “know” what I wanted to do with my life like most people. It happened one summer I went to CIY. Its a christian conference/camp held at christian colleges around the country for high school kids. I had gone before but this specific summer was in between 10th and 11th grade. I had brought my sketchbook and pencils with me and decided I was going to reflect each day with a drawing. One night while I was drawing for the day, I heard some of my fellow youth group mates singing a song.  I’m terrible with names so I don’t remember what it was called but if you ask me in person I could sing it for you. It inspired me to draw an image for the song. I showed it to them and they wanted to have it up on stage with them as they performed the song they were singing in the talent show. It was really cool seeing someone else like my artwork and want to use it to share with other people. 

The day after the talent show, the main speaker for the week says he had to get on his soapbox and share something with us. I think he actually stood on a box too. This wasn’t the normal time for schpiels to be made, but he had something important to say that he felt he really needed to share. He starts to talk about how some of us have really awesome creative talents. We can sing, write, draw, play music, etc. And if we are lucky to have that gift, we NEED to be using it. God gave us these gifts for a reason so we can’t hide these things and shove them off to the side. At that moment, I felt like he was talking directly to me. I never thought of my art as anything more than just something I do for personal fun. But my gift and passion was meant for more than just my personal gain. It was meant to be used and shared. Just like what just happened with my drawing and the song. I have a gift. This is what I’m meant to do.

I started sharing my art with more people, shared it with my youth group and youth leaders. Immediately they wanted to use my talents. I began to use my art to help people. I used it to deliver messages. I used it in church, I used it in school. It became the thing that I do and what people came to me for.   

College was close, so I began to search into what I wanted to do with my art. I took all of the things that I loved to do (drawing, comics, movies, cartoons, music, acting) and discovered that what I wanted to do was right in front of me the whole time. ANIMATION! Everyone seemed to be growing out of cartoons but I never grew up. I knew that its people’s job to make these movies and cartoons. I had watched a bajillion behind the scenes dvds. So I found my college I wanted to go to, Ringling, and got cracking. Taught myself as much as I could about art, made a portfolio, and miraculously got in. Never thought I would make it in since I never had any art classes. 

This story isn’t really over. I’m graduated now and I’m still striving to become the best artist I can be and use my gifts to their full potential. There are some exciting things in the works that hopefully I will be able to tell you about soon. God has been with me every step of the way and none of this would have happened without Him. I could talk for hours on how my life has been proof of that. Yes, I am already a focused and driven person on who fights for what they want. But I can honestly tell you that these things did not happen of my own doing.

In short, this one summer at camp, I found out my life purpose was to be an artist.

Available as print : http://society6.com/KBowser/Its-cold-outside-zsK_Print

Day 10: favorite candy

Day 10: favorite candy

Twix. 2 for me, none for you.

Day 9: Favorite TV show

Day 9: Favorite TV show

I have a few, but currently Gravity Falls is one of my favorites. So here is me as a Gravity Falls character :)

Still fiddling around with sketchbook pro. Like it so far for sketching but still cant find a way to color that I like.

Day 7 and Day 8

Ah! I totally missed yesterdays so here is day 7 and 8 comibined.

Favorite movie and favorite animated character. Well here is a collection of both. In a few cases, movie and animated character are the same :D

Day 6: Favorite Book

Day 6: Favorite book. uh... totally blanked on this one :(

I used to be all into reading everything until somewhere in highschool. Things got busy, then I got into the whole art thing and haven't really gotten back into books except for Art books. I've been so deep into visual stuff that books tend to make me sleepy now and its really hard for me to get into one unless its absolutely amazing. I know, I'm lame. maybe when life chills out for a bit I can get back into reading...

Dream

I had a dream last night and it went a lil something like this….

And here is a lizard thingy. Just because

Day 5: Your Friends

This one was hard because I have so many awesome friends!! So here are just a few of my friends. Yay friends!

Day 4: Favorite Place

Day 4: Your Favorite Place

I love the beach :) especially when the water is the purest, prettiest blue ever.

Day 3: Favorite Food

I.  LOVE. LASAGNA.

Day 2: Favorite Animal

Day 2: Favorite Animal

Sorry today is a little more sketchy/unfinished. But its all I had time to do for today.

I love dogs. I also love horses but the one I started to draw basically looked like a dog so I gave up...
Dogs are so funny, cute, sweet, loving, caring, entertaining, fun, yay doggies!!

My dog is Mushu. He is a min pin and he is the best doggy ever and I miss him very much right now! He's back at home cuddling with my parents while I'm all the way across the country :(

Next to him we have my brother's dogs, Optimus the greyhound and Chloe, who is also a min pin.

Nacho is my mom's future dog! He is a min pin/chihuahua mix. They are super cute and tiny! My mom will be getting him at Christmas and Mushu is going to be his buddy :)

30 Day Drawing challenge: Day 1

I've decided to participate in a 30 day drawing challenge! I've been needing an extra drawing boost, so hopefully this will help :)

Here is the challenge if anyone else wants to participate:

And here is my Day 1:

I did this in Sketchbook Pro. I'm still learning how to use the program but its really fun to use. Great for sketching! This is what I look like today. When you zip up that jacket its a Darth Vader Suit :)