My Journey

I have enjoyed drawing ever since I can remember. I used to try to copy my older brothers sketches and feeling a sense of satisfaction when my sketches actually had some resemblance to his, and especially when the rest of my family appeared to be impressed with them. It encouraged me to continue drawing. I somehow made it through that age period around 10 to 12 when most people give up drawing because they think they can’t draw realistically enough. I continued trying to improve my drawings.

When I was about 16 or 17 years of age, our family took a trip. While traveling I got bored and decided to draw my brother who was sitting beside me. It was the first time that I attempted a realistic portrait drawing. The only drawing supplies I had were a lined notepad and a mechanical pencil. After spending 10 or 15 minutes on the drawing I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my drawing actually looked like my brother. I showed it to the rest of my family and they all recognized who I had attempted to draw. I was delighted and drew my other brother as well with similar results. When we got back home from the trip I began drawing other family members. Here are some of the drawings I created.

Here is a self portrait drawn when I was about 16.

After a few portraits I started becoming more confident.

I attempted another self portrait.

a few more drawings.

A few years later I bought a course online on drawing realistic pencil portraits. I learned a lot through that and made what I felt was a major improvement in my art. Not only did it improve my portraits, but also everything else that I attempted to draw.