Artist of the week: Raven Boone

I met the talented Raven on curlynikki.com and I am glad I did. This is what she had to say and share….

 

I have been drawing my entire. I always liked drawing. I remember sitting in my grandmothers house in our old neighborhood and drawing her vases and fake flowers. I remember in school when I was in 2nd grade everyone had to take art and we had this art teacher named mr.voltz. I remember him showing pictures of his art students and I never thought it would be possible for me to draw that well. We had to do a skeleton one time for class and I remember distinctly thinking about how much I thought I actually did a pretty good job. When I was 13 I decided i wanted to be a fashion designer. I spend nearly every hour of the day drawing and I went to school to study fashion, but after all my struggles I realized I did not truly love fashion, I loved art. I loved creating things and that’s why I never learned to sew. I just wanted to draw and I assumed when I went to art school for fashion I would learn to draw well. This never happened. I met my boyfriend who is a phenomenal, painter,and tattoo artist. I was always ashamed to ask for advice, I always assumed what I drew was good because I liked it. Through him I learned about other amazing artists. I seriously never knew it was possible for one to be so great at art. He opened my eyes to a new world. I asked a couple people for advice including him and they all told me things I did not want to hear. As I stated I thought art was good just because I did what I felt and I liked it, but I was wrong! I stopped believing in myself for a long time, and I was struggling for 2 years to try and make myself become someone that I am not. I spent hours doing brainless exercises trying to create the perfect piece to impress my boyfriend so he could see me as a great artist just as those who inspired him. 2 years ago is when I started to become serious about my artwork, and discovered that i do not need college to learn art. There are hundreds and thousands of tutorials via the worldwide web! Still I struggled to make my art like others who i thought were great and this was a big part of my mistake. I learned that I have something inside of me that cannot me taught. I have ideas. I am my own inspiration. My ideas come 100% from my brain. I do not copy others. I have ideas for days.I probably have 1000 fashion sketches purely my ideas. Inside of my head there is a great and beautiful world I could never ever explain to anyone else. I love being able to express how I feel on paper. It is amazing that one can immortalize life forever using various mediums. It is amazing that one can recreate life realistically on paper, canvas, or whatever medium they choose. I see art in stains, I see mountains receding into the distance when I look at the sunset. My imagination is something that can never ever be taken away from me, and style is something that could never be taught it is something one is born with. My skills have greatly improved in 2 years and I will continue to work until I die to show the world through my eyes.