Muse and Mischief

You might be surprised to know that my first degree is in Art. It’s true, I wanted to be a working artist. Of course my genre of art changed over the years. When I graduated high school I wanted create stories like I found in the X-Men comics I collected throughout high school. 

I spent my freshman year of college at the Savannah College of Art and Design as a Sequential Art major and it was an amazing experience. I never had an experience like that in school since. It was just so amazing to be surrounded by other artists. For the longest time most of my best ideas were discovered during my time there. 

Being in that environment exposed me to other mediums. While I had dabbled with painting in high school, I was primarily a pencil drawer. But my Drawing I class had me using charcoal which was carried into my Drawing II and Life Drawing I course. 

I found that when it comes to drawing the human figure I strongly prefer charcoal, especially vine charcoal because for me it just seems easier to create the subtle gradients of skin tone. 

During that year is also when I got better at using acrylic paint, which I stuck with throughout the rest of my undergrad career at the University of the Incarnate word.

I tried using oils a couple times but I didn’t understand how to use them properly. I still mean to take a course on that. I did find slo-dri mediums to add to acrylic paints that made behave a little more like oils though. 

My third preferred medium is oil pastels (soft and hard), which I used a lot in high school. I think they are like the middle of the road when it comes to drawing and painting. 

It has been awhile since I’ve seriously focused on creating visual art, which is one of my goals for 2026. I am aiming to complete 365 sketches and 5 paintings this year, which is ambitious, but it is one of those shoot for the moon end up in the stars things. 

I’m going to be tracking my progress with those two goals on my Instagram if you want to follow along. 

What about other artists? What are your favorite mediums to work in?