Evolution of CRW

Hey guys!

I've asked a few of my friends what they would want to read about, and one of them said it would be interesting to see and read about my growth as an artist. Hopefully, you will find this interesting too.

If you read my first post, you know that I started out drawing Disney characters while I was sick and stuck at home. I started drawing some of my favorite princess characters, and then moved on to the side characters, which led to me practicing facial features and very basic anatomy. Honestly, drawing Disney characters seemed to come easily to me. This helped boost my confidence, and persuaded me to challenge myself. I took all of my doodles, and drawings to the art teacher at my high school to see if I could join AP Art my senior year. She agreed, and then that's when my style started to shift.

One day in art class, our teacher decided that we were going to learn how to paint sunsets. That was the very first time I had ever painted. (Aside from the basic painting in elementary school.) At first I hated painting. Learning to mix colors and making sure everything was scaled right really frustrated me. My teacher encouraged me to practice, and basically let me paint whatever I wanted. This helped me learn at my own pace. I started out painting things I thought were really colorful to help me learn how to mix, and at first I only chose obscure landscapes. After painting a few things, painting got a lot easier for me. I wasn't struggling as much, and I started to prefer it over drawing.

After I graduated high school, I kind of put art aside and went to WVU to study Occupational Therapy. After only one semester, I knew that Occupational Therapy wasn't what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I came home and started going to WVUP (West Virginia University of Parkersburg) in the meantime, and started to do artwork on the side again. I painted a few things for friends and a mural in my old bedroom. I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I wanted to do something with art or art history. It was just something that I never got tired of. I was looking for colleges close to home that seemed to have a good art program. Someone suggested Marietta College, so I went to check it out. The professors that I met were definitely the reason I ended up going to Marietta College. Everyone in the art department was very nice, helpful, and saw the best in every student.

While at Marietta College, I took a solid and flat design class my first semester and got to create sculptures out of things like cardboard and Chinese food containers. That was the first time I actually got to make something that wasn't flat. As much as I enjoyed the class, I was really looking forward to my drawing and painting classes.

Even though I had been painting on my own outside of class, taking a painting class helped me explore new techniques, and it lead me to discover a genre of artwork that I have gotten noticed for; pet portraits. Since I took my painting class I have taken on twelve pet portrait commissions. It's been a great learning experience, and it is so wonderful to see things that I can create making people happy. (Some of my commissions were gifts and the unveiling videos made me tear up.)

Currently, I am still taking commissions and also focusing on growing my knowledge of art history. I'm hoping to go back to school (since I had to take a medical leave of absence until I could get back on my feet) and completing my art history degree. I'm hoping that I can continue to hone my skills, and be able to advance further.

See below a time lapse video of one of my most challenging commissions. Don't mind me sitting on the floor... I didn't have the proper set up to use my easel. (I do now, and it's so much better!) Also, check out my portfolio site at crwalters94.wixsite.com/home!