Speakers: Victoria , USA
Victoria : Hi, I'm Victoria from Los Gatos California.
Can you show us some of the Draw Awesome artwork that pleases you the most?
Victoria : Some of the artwork that I have done through Draw Awesome that I'm really proud of. I'll start with my iguana because he was my first pen and ink that was so complex and it was really something to actually get through the assignment and have something beautiful at the end of it! Another one that I was really proud of was the pen and ink on watercolour of the old car and as you can see it's framed. My husband liked it so much, he framed it to put in his office. Since watercolour was something that I had learned to do before, I really enjoyed learning how to add pen and ink to the watercolour with our first portrait of the old man and... doing the frog with pen and ink and... ...my challenge was doing a portrait of my sister and although you don't know this, it's a really good likeness of her right now. I've just started doing coloured pencils which is a new medium for me and there's one of the birds that we have done. So I think it would probably be more effective if I'd started out showing you some of my drawing before starting Draw Awesome because you would really see how much I'd improved. But I'm really, really happy with the progress I've made and I really appreciate all that Phil does teach us.
Before starting Draw Awesome, what was your level of art experience and what did you struggle with?
Victoria : My experience with art before starting draw awesome was mostly doing watercolour. I've taken a lot of watercolour classes and workshops over the past 10 years and felt like I needed to have more experience with drawing. What I really struggled with and wanted to improve on was being able to look at a scene or people and be able to draw them and not just be able to copy somebody else's artwork.
In what ways do you think Draw Awesome has helped you?
Victoria : My drawing skills since starting Draw Awesome have just gotten way, way better. I have so many pictures now that I have - - people ask me if they can have them. I am proud to show them off every time I get one finished and I look forward to every Monday when there's gonna be a new project in my inbox to get started on and I plan a lot of my week on how I'm going to actually get all the assignment done and hopefully, even more. I had never used coloured pencils or pastels, even though I actually had bought some in the past. I didn't really know how to use them and they've quickly become some of my favourite art mediums and I just can't... I can't say how much it has meant to start getting good at at actually doing the artwork.
Finally, would you recommend Draw Awesome to others?
Victoria : One of the things that I like best about Draw Awesome is Phil. Phil explains exactly what he's gonna do - - the techniques... he draws and shows you how he's applying them. And you can follow step by step. A lot of times, artist teachers really kind of miss the boat on how you get from A to B and Phil does just a superb job of of actually teaching you and leading you through the steps to come out with a very accomplished final product. I've enjoyed it so much that I've... ...you know - my enthusiasm has encouraged my sister too - - she is also one of the students. She caught up pretty quickly to being right up with me. And I have another friend in another part of the country, who has also become a student and we challenge each other and we share. So I do highly recommend Draw Awesome to anyone who wants to improve their art skills.
