Speakers: Elizabeth , France/USA
Elizabeth : I'm Elizabeth and I live in France in Normandy, but I'm from the United States.
Can you show us some of your Draw Awesome artwork that you're pleased with?
Elizabeth : On the wall and you can see two of my favourite projects as far as how they came out, from Draw Awesome classes and the lower one is a portrait of a man smoking and it's done with watercolour and ink and it's one of the first portraits I've done that I actually felt excited about and felt like it was a likeness of the photograph that we started with. That was kind of a big step forward for me. And then the one above it of the boat is made with pastel pencils, which is my new favourite media, which I had never used before the Draw Awesome course and I just still look at it and think "did I really draw that!" I'm very pleased with how that one came out.
Before starting Draw Awesome, what was your level of art experience?
Elizabeth : Before starting Draw Awesome, I would have judged myself as an intermediate artist. I definitely had experience because I taught elementary school and middle school and sometimes that included teaching some art and so preparing lessons to help children experience art and the beauty of art - - anywhere from ages 4-14. But for myself as an artist, I felt like I could only copy and I never had enough time to take for myself to become better at creating my own art. And so that was probably... I most struggles with, was creating time in my life to practice and learn and use more different mediums.
How do you think that Draw Awesome has helped you?
Elizabeth : Draw Awesome introduced me to a number of media that I hadn't worked with before, particularly the pastel pencils. And despite having even taught elementary school art, I'd never really learned to layer coloured pencils in the way that we've experienced through practice with the Draw Awesome program. I would say my confidence in art is... ...continues to grow. I would have been comfortable showing things that I do, to other people, but now I much more enjoy showing the work that we're creating as a part of the course. Some friends are commenting that I should start sharing my work and I don't feel comfortable doing that because basically I'm learning along with Phil and I just keep saying what a great teacher he is and how my confidence has grown a lot. And the one of the neatest things about the structure in Draw Awesome is that you do three weeks usually with a new medium and some projects, you get some experience with that and then there's the Challenge and in that... ... that's where I really am struggling the most and making probably the most growth is trying to apply the techniques that we're learning in those first three weeks to a piece of my own. That's really my own. That's the art that I hope in the future will show the improvement. Anyway, I'm really enjoying the class a lot.
Finally, what do you like most about Draw Awesome and would you recommend it to others?
Elizabeth : I would recommend Draw Awesome to other people. I actually have to my sister and other friends that are interested in improving their art. One of the things I like a lot about the classes, how there's a group of people doing the same work and you learn from each other. I've thrown a picture that I've been working on out and said, I don't like this or this about it or I'm not sure how to fix that. And then in the comments, I'll get suggestions of how to maybe try something a little bit different. Plus, I feel like no matter what you post, there's a great support for the parts of maybe what was successful about the piece that you worked on. So there's a real camaraderie with the people who are learning alongside. And, it's just that Phil is a phenomenal teacher and I feel like I've grown a ton as an artist and so appreciate the support and also the motivation to practice more often, which is, I started out thinking I'd do my 100 bad sketches and some of them have turned out really well! So anyway, thank you Phil...
