The theme that I have in the back of my mind is fantasy and nature.  I imagine various hybrids of animals, and the environments that they live and spend their time in.  

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As I create my creatures, I come up with a storyline for them and imagine their actions, and interests. I give them special abilities.  I imagine my drawings coming to life, and eventually becoming animated shorts.  

 

Whenever I travel with my family to countries such as South Africa or Vietnam, or take trips within the United States to Alaska or especially the fully inspiring Disney World, I acquire more interesting experiences that are inspirational to me for my future drawings of fantasy worlds.  The animals that I observe in person on my travels or from searching online, from TV shows that I watch, and in my familiar surroundings, feed my drawing ideas for hybrid animals. For example, when I saw an image of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth, I sat down to draw it thinking about its furry body and speckled tail.  I combined these details with another creature I was interested in - the mythological hippogryph - and took some features from that as well. 

 

Creating art makes me feel satisfied.  Especially because I can see that my drawing ability has improved so much over the past couple of years. I truly enjoy putting all of the ideas I have down on paper.

 

I love experimenting with various color schemes when I create different environments.  I feel good while I am making art, and when I look at my completed pieces. If I have a tough or stressful day, sitting down and drawing helps me to block out everything negative so I only focus on what I am in the middle of drawing.  I enjoy seeing the different characters I come up with, and what comes out of my head.