Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

   1.   Start small! Start with an item and draw it everyday until you are confident. When you first do a full picture start with a small canvas so you do not feel overwhelmed.     2.   Break your piece down into individual sections, this will also help you “see” what you are drawing instead of what you think you should see.    3.   Realism is like a puzzle made up of small abstract shapes. Train your eye to look for those shapes.    4.   Do not be afraid to push your values! High contrast usually makes for a more interesting image!!    5.   When starting out, if you struggle with color, work in black and white to get a feel for detail and values. You can always glaze later if you want to.     6.   When working in color, use a view finder if you are having trouble figuring out what color you are trying to recreate. Take a white piece of paper, punch a hole in it and put it up to your reference, this will help you to identify the color more easily.  

Hello everybody and Happy 2017!! I have had a lot of questions lately about how long I have been an artist, and how I decided to get into art. I started saving my artwork and scrapbooking it by the time I was 8 or 9 years old, and since it is a new year, I thought it would be fun to share some of that artwork with all of you. I decided to choose one piece for each year that I have been creating. Even though I have created everything from landscapes, to portraits to animals, I decided to keep the theme to people to keep it more cohesive. There were some years that I did not have a lot of artwork depicting people to choose from, so I decided to share whatever I had, even if it was not my best . Here is my newest YouTube video, I hope you enjoy!!  For more on my artwork or for prints feel free to visit my website!