DrawingAcademy

Artwork from Sandhya

Hi! I’m Sandhya,

I love sketching and drawing portraits. I spend hours doing art and can do it from morning to night.

Story and artwork from Adrian Lupu

I began drawing two years ago, with nothing in mind other than an occupation that would give me some comfort and relaxation. In time, as my work has become somehow better, I became interested in art in general, other artists and the criteria of this type of activity. I draw once per day, so at the end of the month I have a pretty high number of drawings, and that helps me analyze the results and improve.

Story and sketch from Ron W.

Growing up, I always had a bit of an adversarial relationship with art – a combination of cheap art supplies, and a lack of structured instruction made me quickly lose interest in “art classes”, and pushed me to focus on other, more rewarding interests and topics. I, like many others, came to believe that the ability to represent the world around me was a talent that I lacked. About ten years ago, an artist I met finally got it through my thick head that art is a set of skills that can be learned like any other. Since then, I have off-and-on, studied and taught myself, learning that while quality materials do not make you a better artist, DO make the experience of making art more enjoyable, and thus make it more likely to want to continue practicing, learning, and creating art.

Story from Adekola Taiwo

My name is Adekola Taiwo am a visual artist. I make pencil portraits and also digital drawings.

Story and artwork from Monetta Damure

The ancient Greeks had a word eidos, which means “form” or “idea.” Eidos, in turn, gave rise to the English word eidetic — referring to a mental image that is unusually vivid and detailed.

Story and artwork from Zuri Dreamer

Hi, I’m Zuri. And I am a Dreamer.

I am the granddaughter of women whose grandparents were slaves. Both of my grandmothers toiled under abusive husbands in the rough conditions of what we Americans call “the Dirty South”; each feeding a quiver-full of children on withered breasts, educating them despite troubled minds and spirits. I come from a lineage of survivors, practical people who did what they had to. Stern faces and glinting eyes all swearing by the Bible and western principles as the women surreptitiously “laid hands” (as healers) on their community, doling out remedies that transformed every life they touched. My single mother, like many of her generation, lost the magic of non conformist spiritual dialogue and bought completely into the promise of respectability politics, the American Dream and the western standard of worth.

Story and artwork from Christopher Alaimo

My name is Chris.

I have been a professional musician for most of my life and somehow at 40, I became a sleep tech. At 56, playing instruments is difficult due to my living situation and a dislocated shoulder. So I took up art as a pastime and now it has become an obsession. Music has form and texture, light and shadow if you will.