I paint Imagination

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I paint Imagination

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.

For as long as I can remember, I have had eidetic images in my mind. Beginning when I was four years old, I started imagining people in photographic detail, seeing exact wrinkles and hairs. The people I saw were people I had never met — people who probably did not even exist. However, I could not get these “characters” (as I called them) out of my head, so I started drawing and drawing — compulsively and obsessively — to bring them to life on paper.

Here comes the tricky part: Whenever I tried to draw the human figure, my art never lived up to what I saw in my mind. I became frustrated, disappointed, and sulky, and I proclaimed, “I GIVE UP!”

However, I never gave up. Instead, I realized that I never formally learned the basics of drawing – namely, human anatomy. In realized that, in other words, I was trying to run a marathon before learning how to crawl.
In my preteen years, I started looking at the portrait art of Rembrandt and Karl Bryullov. As a gangling eleven-year-old girl, I became enamored with the beautiful women in these portraits. I loved how their anatomical design was so sensual and fantastically photographic. I wished, if only, if only I could draw like that.

Now, as an adult, I still wish I could draw like that. Thus, I want to learn how to create anatomically correct art. I have recently viewed Drawing Academy’s spotlight on the breathtaking work of Nunzio Paci, and his precise placement of specific bones, organs, and muscles truly humbled me. To be able to combine that level of anatomical brilliance with imagination and fantasy, Nunzio Paci does, has led me to Drawing Academy, as a doorway to improving my art. I have watched the Drawing Academy’s YouTube videos (for instance, about the candle grip and about drawing a realistic face based on the underlying structure of the skull). However, brief videos cannot teach me all that I want (need) to learn.

In my own art, I work with a rare medium: namely, Makeup and Cosmetics. I think that an understanding of anatomy is more important, to me, than the medium in my hands. (I would trace lines through the mud with my pinky finger, if I had nothing else to draw with!)

I think in today’s technological environment of 3D modeling in Blender and digital painting in Photoshop and PaintTool SAI, the questions of “what tech was used to make this?” or “what software was used to make this?” gets more attention than it deserves. I want to turn that tide. I want to help shift the spotlight back onto the things that really count – the artist’s “eye”, a knowledge of perspective, an understanding of anatomy. I want to make traditional portrait art “in” again I want to return classical, traditional portraiture to the level of respect and glamor that it deserves.

This is why I have a heartfelt desire to win the Drawing Academy course, to improve my art skills so that I can create the portraits that I dream of, so that I can finally draw the characters that have so long haunted my imagination.
I would so appreciate it if you, Dear Reader, could help me on my journey. Please vote for me!