YOU MUST READ THIS!! - Interview with the Colouring, Stencil and Do...

Steemit Art Centre Interview with olivia.jpg

Great news, everyone! We have an interview with @coloringiship. I am so pleased she agreed to share her art and her views!

Here is the interview:

Dee:

I see from your Steemit Profile that you joined in June 2017. You already had a strong online footprint and presence with your own site (https://www.redbubble.com/people/coloringiship) and Facebook page (ColoringIsHip Art & Design). Plus you use Instagram, Youtube, Amazon, Artfinder and Gumroad. So what inspired you to join Steemit and how has it helped give you more exposure?

@coloringiship:

First off, thank you Dee for inviting me to be part of your Steemit Art Centre interview series.

I found out about Steemit from @kaylinart. She has been posting about Steemit on her Facebook page since 2016 however I was not interested because I didn't know anything about cryptocurrency. I finally gave it a try in June 2017 and here I am. Steemit has helped me to slowly increase my fan base and since joining last year I have more than 100 new subscribers to my mailing list and I am sure majority of them came from Steemit.

Dee:

You are a highly skilled and talented self-taught artist. How did you become interested in art outside of Steemit and what are your preferred media?

@coloringiship:

I have been dabbling in art as long as I could remember. Like many artists, I always draw when I was a child well into my early 20s and that was when I graduated from the university. It is just something I do naturally but back then I mostly did it for fun. I have always been drawn to portrait sketching and I spent a great deal of time to improve my sketching skills. However, when I started to work (after graduating from the university), I had lesser time to devote to art and I when got married and have children, I stopped sketching/drawing altogether. Life was getting busier with work and family and I found it was very difficult to find time to draw. It all changed when my daughter was about two years ago. I noticed that she loved to color and would spend hours scribbling on her coloring books. So I decided it was a great time for me to start drawing again and also to encourage her to express her creativity. I never stop drawing ever since and my daughter is 8 years old now and a very talented young artist.

My preferred media are water-soluble graphite, watercolors, and markers.

Dee:

Do you have any strategies that you could recommend to other people who would like to teach themselves to be artists?

@coloringiship:

A lot of people come to me and lamented how they wish they could draw like I do. My answer to them is anyone can learn to draw as long as they have the desire to learn. Other than learning using free resources on the Internet, library art books, and paid online courses, I have never attended any art classes. If I can do it, you can too. Personally I think talent has nothing to do with it. If you are unsure where to start, ask yourself what do you want to learn? Portrait? Doodle? Painting? Or do you have a specific medium you want to try? Narrow down your interest so that you don't feel overwhelmed. If you want to draw a pencil portrait, read as many tutorials as you can or watch Youtube videos. Start small. Learn to draw one area like the eyes before trying the nose, the lips and so on. And the most important thing is to DRAW. Reading or watching tutorials is good but you need to get your hands dirty and draw. Draw every day, at least 15 minutes a day. Draw when you are sick, draw when you are busy. Don't stop. And don't worry about the outcome.

Dee:

How do you see your Steemit career developing in the future?

@coloringiship:

I always recommend Steemit to my artist friends because I think it's a great platform for them to build their fan base. I have been using Steemit to spread words about my art and that is why I put links to my sites in all of my posts. I will continue to do this as long as I am here.

Dee:

Over the past year, Steemit has changed remarkably. There have been a couple of hard forks and it has become a viable social media. How do you see Steemit developing in the future?

@coloringiship:

Interesting question. Blockchain is the future of the internet and more and more blockchain based social media sites are being developed, like ONO, Appics and so on.
I think Steemit will continue to grow and attracting good content writers. However, my main concern is the usage of bots to vote for content. I think if there is no regulation on these bots, it might discourage bloggers to write because there will be lesser human interactions because we are too dependent on bots to vote our posts and we can do away with interacting with other bloggers. And eventually, these discouraged Steemians might leave the platform.

Dee:

Could you please choose one/some examples of your art to show us?

@coloringiship:

My main interest is portrait sketching but I don't limit myself to one style of art. Here are some samples of my work:

Portraits:

Stencil:

Doodle:

Dee:

I see that you design and publish beautiful adult colouring books. Were you doing this before you joined Steemit? Perhaps you would like to show us some samples from your adult colouring books with details of where they can be purchased.

@coloringiship:

I published my first adult coloring book in 2015 and my second book in 2016, so that was long before I joined Steemit. The first book is called Sarawak Tattoo Mandalas and it was inspired by Sarawak (Borneo) tribal tattoo motifs. The second book is called Be Encouraged! Motivational Adult Coloring Book. This book contains 30 hand-drawn designs with short motivational quotes.

Here are sample pages from my second book: