A Bit About Me!

One of my friends featured me as an artist for her art classes, and so I wrote up some facts about myself for her. I've decided to expand on that list a little and share it here, in case any of you are curious about who I am and what I like and where I've been! (I reserve the right to change my mind about my favorites in the future lol)

A Bit About My Life:

• I was born February 27th 1992, I live in Middleville, Michigan, and I've been a professional artist since 2014, full time as a self employed illustrator for 1 year.
• I was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, lived in a tiny farm town called Almont through most of gradeschool, and moved to Grand Rapids for college, so I've lived in Michigan my whole life.
• I've also been drawing my whole life! My parents are both architects so they encouraged me to be artistic. I started using watercolors in 2012.
• I decided I wanted to be a Professional Artist when I grew up after discovering the Art of Amy Brown in 2012.
• I went to school for art and got a Major in Studio Art and Minor in Art History. It was not an art school, so I took a wide variety of classes, from sculpting to oil painting to business classes.
• Though I made books for fun as a little kid I didn't realize I wanted to be an illustrator and a writer until after I'd graduated college. It was 2018 when I started writing books again.
• Most of my work is in gouache, which I started painting with in 2017. I also use a digital program called Procreate which is for the iPad. (I usually use just the HB Pencil brush with the size limit increased, it's one of the default included brushes.)
• I've struggled with anxiety and PMDD for most of my life, and though they cause frequent setbacks I'm proud to say I've managed to do quite a lot in spite of them, and even learned to lessen their influence.
  
  ​Things I Like:
• My favorite games are Golden Sun, Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, Animal Crossing and Pokemon!
• My favorite books are Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, the Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrende, House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones, A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Gods and Monsters by Lani Taylor, Shiver by Stephanie Stiefvater, Mystic and Rider by Sharon Shinn, and MANY others.
• My favorite music is chillhop and video game soundtracks for drawing and writing; the National, Jack Garratt, Gregory Alan Isakov, Hozier, Elton John, Florence and the Machine, and Cat Stevens for when I have to do house cleaning and driving and for playing a little too loudly.
• Some of my favorite artists: Noelle Stevenson, Taryn Night, Larry MacDougall, Justin Donaldson, Hayao Miyazaki, Jung Chen, Heikala, (all of these artists are still living and can be found on instagram! However the next three are no longer living:) Susan Seddon Boulet, John William Waterhouse, Trina Schart Hyman, Beatrix Potter
• Some of my favorite movies: Anything from Studio Ghibli, especially Spirited Away, Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke, and the Cat Returns. BBC's Persuasion 2007, Treasure Planet, Song of the Sea, Pride and Prejudice both the BBC series and the 2005 version, Interstellar, Over the Garden Wall, Box Trolls, Brave, Pretty in Pink, The Brothers Bloom, and lots of others!!!
• Some of my favorite TV shows: Firefly, Steven Universe, Gilmore Girls, Brooklyn 99, Community, The Good Place, Parks and Rec, Castle, Star Trek the Next Generation (and all the others I've seen everything but the new CBS series), Netflix SheRa, Avatar the Last Airbender, Poldark, and probably others but these are the ones coming to mind!
• My other hobbies: gardening, cooking, pestering my cat, hanging out with trees, reading, swimming, biking, yoga, writing!