Anonymous asked: What sorts of pieces did you put in your portfolio when you applied to college? What art colleges did you apply to? Were you nervous about getting in? Just curious :)

Screenshot of my portfolio when I applied to colleges. You can see most of the pieces from within the bowels of my deviantart account haha.

I applied to: School of Art Institute of Chicago, Pratt, College for Creative Studies, and Ringling.

And I wasn’t nervous during the application process, but I was right before I ripped those letters open to see if I got in or not!

Anonymous asked: Hey Rose! I was wondering what advice you might have for drawing people? People are the main thing I usually have trouble drawing. Your figures always have such a great style to them!

Ahh thank you so much! Advice would to just keep on drawing them. I struggled with drawing figures from my head for the longest time. And I only recently felt that my constant practicing and figure drawing sessions are finally paying off! Just do a lot of observational study, take reference photos of yourself/friends and draw that. Even if it is not the way you want it to be, do not be discouraged! I promise you that you will get better through a ton of practice and study. ^^

Anonymous asked: i recently got accepted into the art school of my choice and i'm really excited! but i feel like my art isn't that good compared to those around me and even though i draw as often as i can there is always something lacking in my art, whether it's technical (proportions etc.) or just unimpressive artistically. do you have any suggestions for ways i can better my skills/mentally prepare myself before the school year starts in fall?

First off, congratulations! :))

And to kind of answer your question, please read the following:

You’ve probably seen it floating around the Tumblr sphere but it’s important because I finally realized why I was so uneasy with my own art once I read it!

My only advice is to just keep working on it. Because that is all you can ever do. Confidence in your own art is gained through constantly closing the “gap.” But as for “mentally preparing yourself,” just be the best you can be. And be yourself. Work hard, develop good time management, have good habits! And since you are drawing often already, just keep on doing that (or maybe even more?)

I would also experiment with as many different mediums and subjects as you can before school starts. Because I personally do not have enough time to play with different techniques and mediums unless it’s assigned in class. 

Look at artists that you admire, do some study of some masters. One of my professor always advises us to have an art book at hand when figure drawing because we can always be inspired/influenced by someone/styles we admire.

Good luck to you! Freshmen year is going to be an interesting one haha

trigony asked: When you start drawing a picture, do you begin with a basic circles-and-lines skeleton? Or do you just draw and go?

I am currently getting into the habit of doing a basic sketch of the body/proportions, but most of the time, I just go!

mysticadventure asked: What keeps you motivated to keep drawing/creating art? Currently I feel like I'm stuck and I would like to hear your take on it.

It’s that feeling where you don’t feel “whole” without drawing. Sometimes I can go days without drawing/creating, but it’s like a drug for me almost. I lose myself in it. Recently, I have been motivated to draw because I haven’t been drawing, for myself at least. Have been doing a lot of school work and even though I’m doing illustrative stuff, it isn’t the same as just creating for the sake of creating. I just have so much feelings, and art dissipates it.

And looking at other artists really drive me! UGH I LOVE ART.

The hand studies were an assignment, but man did it bring back the fire! 

avocadodreamss-deactivated20130 asked: hi Rose! I really enjoy your drawings, and as a budding graphic designer I was just wondering, how do you draw hair the way you do? I have so much trouble with it! Thanks and I hope you're having a great day :D

It just takes practice. I remember when I first started drawing (even when I was serious about art), my line was so rough. And this continued on for years until my hands felt comfortable and my lines became more fluid and alive!

Now, after drawing hair over and over again, I can draw it without even thinking :)

abitcrazed asked: Hey I've been following you for a while (not literally) and I really like your art work! They're so unique and creative haha. I just wanted to ask you how did you come up with your style? Like did it come naturally and it was what felt most comfortable or was it something you had to work for? I especially like how you do hair:)

HMM. I think when you’re drawing all the time, you don’t see your progress until you take a step back to look at what you’ve done in the beginning of a year and the end. I think you have to work hard for it and it just becomes natural. Like, you can’t not work hard to make something that you like looking at you know? You work hard to make something that you are satisfied with and once you are there, it just comes so naturally to do it over and over again.

Anonymous asked: hello! when did you know you wanted to pursue art as a career and when did you start preparing for applying for art school?

I became serious towards the end of my junior year (that was also the time I discovered ink pens and played around with patterns). And I started preparing for applications the beginning of my Senior year. ^^

This might be a dumb question.. but when you go to an art school do you have to take the basic classes like math history and such.. orrr not?

 Pratt requires students to either take a math or science class and to take art history classes for all four years.

You have a beautiful soul.

O vO <3

are you planning on making speedpaint/draws youtube-style with your new video recorder?

YES!

Lots of people may have already told you this but I’ll tell you again: You are awesome, your drawings are very beautiful!

 Thank youuuuuu!

i showed my art teacher your art, and she really enjoyed it. She said it reminded her of Muccha, if you know who that is. she even printed out the woman in patterns you did a while back. :) where do you draw inspiration from?

 Yes I know Mucha, I really enjoy his work! Inspiration-wise, I draw it from my emotions, experiences and things that catch my eye in the world! Mostly nice colors and pretty contour lines haha.

have you heard of/draw inspiration from artist Alphonse Mucha? their work really reminds me of yours.

 Refer to question above! ^^ And thank you, that is really flattering.

how do you scan your pencil/traditional works? my scanner always seems to bleach and clip the image like it’s trying to turn it into crisp white/black linework.. even when I do turn off auto settings and futz with everything :(

 I scan it in with image capture and I modify the levels in Photoshop to make it look a lot cleaner. I’m not really sure what is up with your scanner. Maybe try a different one to look for different results?

Do you ever have problems with people taking your work/ not crediting it?

 Of course. It’s rude and disrespectful towards the artist. But I never go ballistic over it. But that’s the price I pay with using the internet and not putting in a watermark.

Your art is amazing! When you post pictures do you use a scanner? XOXO

Yup!

hi there, I’m an illustration student too and I would like to know if you have a blog from blogspot..¿ so I can follow you there, (I cannot put my adress here, tumblr don’t let me) your work is stunning!!! :)

No I do not, I was planning on making on eventually haha!

You seem to have an ongoing theme with your work. What was your root inspiration? And how would you categorise your work? Fantasy?

I’m not sure if I can just categorize or give a theme to my works thus far. It’s a little more emotional/conceptual/surreal. Just a mash up of that I guess haha. And my inspiration comes from what I feel and want to express on paper. I soak in the energy from my life and what catches my eye. That is my inspiration.

Where do you get your art work printed?

iprintfromhome.com! If you get an account, tell them I brought you there :D

What is your dream job? Or what do you plan to pursue after Pratt? :>

My dream job is to do huge art installations. Like painting on walls and such! I would love to see my art in public spaces or galleries.

I have no current plan after Pratt. I want to do many things and I am doing my best in school so that I can prepare myself for the art world. I feel like my art will take me somewhere. I don’t know where, but it’ll be okay.

oh wow Rose! i just stumbled upon your blog a few days ago. Your stuff is ridiculously amazing. no, that doesn’t cut it.. it’s super dooper awesome in every way. Anyway you get my drift. I love it. Every bit of it. ANYWAY i just wanted to say that i love how wonderfully nice you are with responses to everyones questions, it makes me warm and gooey inside :3 and to please keep art making forever and I think you should just go ahead and write your own book with beautiful pictures already! <3

I ran out of charcters in that last ask hah but I also wanted to add a comment about someone elses comment a while ago: about the ‘naked nun’ being offensive and I’d like to point out that personal art should be whatever you personally feel like doing and that, that nun was beautiful and skillfull regardless. To be honest there are way too many offended people to even consider worrying about it! Make art for arts sake! It’s supposed to be contraversial, that’s the only way it moves forward! <3

ps. I also go to art school.. except on the other side of the world to you (Australia) and absolutely love it :) also if I wasn’t having trouble logging into my account this wouldn’t be so anon hah anyway have a lovely day/night/whatever time it is there.. now I feel like a creep for posting lots of things at you hah oh well <3

Thank you for this wonderful message haha! I really don’t know what else to say. It’s really really nice hearing people like and believe in my art.

And that nun thing was a figure drawing session in class. I didn’t make it up lol.

Thanks again sweet anon! Glad to hear you are enjoying your school. :)) I like it when people enjoy their school.

So last night I answered an anon question but I seriously couldn’t sleep because  I was thinking of a more honest/personal answer to it. So here goes.

when you draw something that you’re not exactly proud of/didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, how do you bring your spirits back up?

As an artist, there is always the comfort that you can redo something and make it better. You could probably redo it a hundred times until you are finally satisfied with it. So that is why my spirits can never be brought down to low, because I know I have the time to continue with it. And I know that I am never obligated to finish a piece of art, so if I feel like putting it down to work on something else, I will. If I feel like it’s not going where I want it to, I either just let my hand draw ridiculous things on it (that usually won’t let me down like hair or patterns), or I drop it. Sometimes I feel it’s because I lack the skill or technique. It’s not the idea, it’s just me. But that won’t bring me down because if it’s a good idea, I will go back to it once I do have the skills! And there are some pieces that I have gone back to. 

Before I let my spirits go down for pushing through a piece I’m not proud of, I nip it at the bud. Then, sometimes I make something to eat, take a walk, talk to my friends or watch something.

Yeah there are times where I can’t get past the “ugly stage” of development. So then I look at other artists and study them, trying to visualize their process and apply it to my current one.

But if I do really push through one and I am not happy with it, I draw up sketches for a new one. Different compositions and even different mediums. The road to bringing your spirits back up is not to be limited to the same piece that you are growing frustrated for, but to start something new and keep moving forward.

(Source: rosewong)