Drawn To Art

- Chantel Rose Smith

As a child, handing over my drawings of dragons and surreal animals is when I first realized I was creative. I would imagine scenes that didn’t even exist, piecing together a drawing. I was interested in the Surreal and Fantasy, artists like Salvador Dali and illustrations by Marc McBride. I remember my parents buying me a step-by-step drawing book by Marc McBride, but instead of following the steps and drawing the one dragon, I would take parts of each one and create my own, placing it in a scene of castles and sky.

As I reached my early teens and my sights broadened, I started to branch out into other genres and away from fantasy art. Handing my drawing to others, such as my parents, they would point out what I hadn’t even noticed I’d drawn. Like the branches through the windows, in the back of a country hut, things that would otherwise go unnoticed. I began to realize just how much I did see and how much others didn’t. Without notice, I unconsciously began to take more notice of my surroundings not just in nature but in people too. I often find myself observing the way people interact with each other, unknowingly staring at a person’s face and personality whom I’d like to capture in a drawing.