I found my voice in drawing in drawing 199

I really enjoyed the drawing class this semester - looking back all the drawing I did over the semester, I'm surprised how much a semester and 100+ hours' of practice can do! When I was in primary school, I would drawing 3-6 hours every week. Only sculpture sketch though. I remember me the little girl sitting there wondering why I needed to draw the same boring sculpture, from different angle, for multiple times. I couldn't sit for three hours because that kind of drawing didn't intrigue me. I didn't know how to draw like all the other high school kids sitting around me, who are preparing to get into art schools. I thought that was what drawing was about, was never very interested in it, and thought what I did in that studio was all I could ever do with drawing. 

During 199, we were encouraged to draw things that interest us, and do add our own styles to the drawing. When I first drew in the class, I kept doing what I did as a kid simply because that was the only way I knew. In the class, however, I saw people draw expressively with charcoal, and saw people drawing with their own styles. I was inspired and decided to step out of my comfort zone. I started to draw with charcoal a portrait, and of pictures of Hunger Games. I learned a lot from looking at drawings by other students that were put up on the wall and tried incorporating their technique into my own drawing. The other day I saw a very sketchy piece of drawing and was very drawn to it (and I thought, wow, I could never do something that's even close to that). In my last assignment I tried relax and just sketch when drawing the characters, and it worked out! The result looks so much better than I thought it would be and I never knew that I could actually do some sketchy drawing and never expected that I would be so comfortable with it, even it was my first time!!! I felt as if I discovered I could speak a language that I didn't learn! How much of my own potential do I really know? Examples like this where I push myself out of what I already know to try doing what I have never done before are my favorite part of the class. I remember looking at other artists's work, and thought "wow, I'd never develop my own voice in art". Now I think I will, I got started in this class!

Besides, the class also helped me appreciate drawing more. Drawing is a great way to observe, analyze, and create. The essence of drawing, to me, is really similar to the essence of everything else that I'm passionate about - Math, entrepreneurship, music etc.