I was always "the kid who could draw". As a young child, you could give me some toilet paper rolls, egg cartons and some craft glue and I'd be set for days. During primary school, I was the kid who rocked up to school with a colourful poster filled with drawings and fancy block lettering... for my maths homework.

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In High School, I would find any excuse to spend my day in the art/design rooms, even if I was supposed to be in another class... I would sit at the back of the art room and draw. I even started selling graphite portrait commissions and advertised my business by putting pamphlets in letterboxes and hanging up flyers at my local supermarkets and community noticeboards. My art teacher had suggested that I could potentially make art my career, but I always assumed that it wasn't a reliable profession. 

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After school, I stopped creating art for a few years before I realised that I wasn't happy unless I was creating artwork, so I slowly got back into it and I can't imagine my life without it!

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When I started taking drawing and painting more seriously, I discovered a lot of people using materials that aren’t archival or lightfast. This was a problem because their artwork has the potential to fade/flake/discolour/crack over time, due to the art supplies they were using.

 

On the other hand, there were artists using professional supplies, but they spent 50 to 100 hours on a single piece of art… which would drive me insane!

Or there were oil painters who seemed to be speaking another language they must have acquired from their fancy art school…

 

I couldn’t find many artists using archival art supplies, creating realistic artwork and also explained what they were doing, in a way that was easy to understand. I soon developed a passion for helping other artists with the same problem.

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More recently, I've been diagnosed with a chronic illness called POTS (a form of dysautonomia) which has affected my life pretty dramatically, along with a new diagnosis of ADHD. Since sharing this on social media, I have had a lot of other artists and followers reach out and share their stories about their physical and mental health journey and how creating art has become a huge part of their lives. Art has helped so many people feel joy when they are going through a tough time, and there is a huge community of people out there who will support each other and share their creative journey - and this motivates me to keep creating!

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This is the reason I now create easy-to-follow, realistic art tutorials so you can relax and enjoy creating professional fine art that you feel proud of!