People always ask me when did I start drawing? How did I learn how to draw/paint? I do have a very short answer in my bio (About Kris) section of this website. But let’s get a little more in depth:

First off, I definitely have always loved to draw. I’m not sure which side of the family it came from. My Dad is very talented and used to paint when I was very small. I also have two aunts (one on each side of the family) who also painted. I actually have at least one painting from each of them hanging in my house. I remember watching them paint and being fascinated by it. One of my favorites is a project that I did with my dad…although I’m sure he did most of it and I just helped with some squiggly lines!

My Mom recently told me when I was little, I used to ask for drawing and art supplies. Every now and then I would get a drawing pad or some paints, but it never went much further than that. She said she never really took it too seriously. Which I can’t really blame her…I was a little girl and probably wanted everything. Here are a few pictures of some of my early pieces of art; from about 5 years old through middle school. Obviously, I still stick with the same themes…flowers, animals, and people.

When I was in 6th grade (12 years old), we had to choose a semester class…yep, you guessed it, I picked art. I absolutely loved it! Here is the one item I still have from that class. It is actually my second portrait (my first was Grandma when I was 5, but I could not find it). For this assignment we had to choose a picture from a magazine, cut it in half, and draw the other half. I remember my teacher being very unsure about the project I choose…because true to fashion, I picked one of the most difficult things to do. But apparently, I was a kid with lots of different interests…throughout the years it included art, ballet, piano, tennis, basketball, track, hunting, fishing, raising pigs for FFA, and of course being with my friends. So, I guess my attention was really divided.

Fast forward to 2007, I had just gotten into the fire department, I picked up a sketch pad one day while I was at work…and just started drawing again. I guess in the gap from 8th grade to me being a firefighter I always “doodled” on any spare piece of paper. But now I really started drawing. I picked up a book on drawing techniques. Lee Hammond’s big book of Drawing. This got me into the groove! Funny thing is, as I was looking through this book just before writing this blog post, I flipped to the back and noticed there is a nice size section with color pencil and flowers…I never even looked at it back then!!

Sometime later, I saw something painted on a motorcycle and I was fascinated again. I wanted to know how they did that, so the research started, and I learned about the airbrush. I bought an Iwata Eclipse and started learning. Mostly I was self-taught by trial and error, but You Yube videos and Google searches definitely helped! Somehow or another, I started getting better. Then I subscribed to Airbrush Action Magazine to try and learn more. That’s where I found the Airbrush Getaway. I wanted to go but was nervous about it. One of my friends encouraged me to just sign up and go…well, I took her advice. Here is what I painted at that Getaway. Seems perfect for Halloween!

This is also where I met Dru Blair. An insanely amazing airbrush artist. I told him I wanted to attend his class but wanted to get better first. He insisted that I was talking nonsense for a few reasons, it’s easier to teach someone who has not developed bad habits, and he can teach anyone: from someone who has never picked up an airbrush to experts. So again, I took a plunge and signed up for one of his classes…but this one was at Blair School of Realism in South Carolina. While I was there, he and his assistant Kristina convinced me to try and come back for an art internship. I was lucky enough to be able to do that for a few weeks. I probably learned the most as an artist from this man. I will have to write another blog post about the most important things that he taught me. This 1/2 face portrait is my first airbrush portrait, under Dru’s guidance.

***side note: In my experience most people hear airbrush and don’t really think serious art, kind of like T-shirts from a shop while you wait (which is a whole different type of art than I am used to, and those artists are amazing in their field like Gary Worthington…this dude is sooooo good!). So, seeing photorealism created with an airbrush was such an eye-opening experience.

After a while I decided to take another class at an Airbrush Getaway…I think this one was more for social reasons, I wanted to see all of my art family. During this Getaway I was asked to help teach a class for the next Getaway and of course I jumped at the opportunity. I helped Rob Churchill teach a Helmet Painting class. I had such a blast teaching this class!

Doing these events opened a whole new world. I was able to attend SEMA (basically the world’s biggest car show in Las Vegas) 3 different times (2 of the times I was a guest artist in the FBS booth.) Which is whole crazy experience in itself! Just sitting there painting, completely immersed, then you look up and turn around and there are 40 people standing there watching you…very humbling.

I was one of the painters on an episode of Bar Rescue (Muscle Madness, Season 3 E 38, I think they show me painting for about 3.5 seconds). Jason Hullfish who was their main artist, had to paint 3 murals, so he asked Rob Churchill, and they needed one more…I turned out to be the lucky one (or maybe the sucker…that was hard work painting for 22 hours straight!)

I have also had my work or had an artist spotlight in 4 different magazines. Through all of these experiences, I met, collaborated with and learned from some of the most amazing artists!

As exciting as all of this was, I ended up going in a different direction. I did not want to be pigeonholed into just one type of art and one type of medium…and my curiosity about different mediums and techniques got the better of me. I started branching out and trying new things like alcohol inks, markers, resin, colored pencil, pastels, graphite and charcoal…and yes, that includes more research and more You Tube Videos and Google searches. Which brings me to where I am now in my art journey, and it just keeps getting better. Never stop learning!! Never stop growing!! I feel like you can always learn from other artists, no matter their experience level…everyone always has something to offer! And most important…. Never stop HAVING FUN!!

What is your journey? Let me know in the comments below.

***I am not compensated in any way for recommending any of these products or services.