My name is Victoria Lynn Smith. I am both immensely proud and humbled that Ross Bachelder invited me to be the first guest artist-commentator for his new blog! This is a rare and momentous opportunity to share with you three of my favorite pieces that I chose for their diverse styles.
My passion for art developed in very early childhood. Drawing was not only fun, but it was what helped define my identity and heal me when I faced years of unspeakable childhood abuse and neglect. With guidance from my new parents—who adopted me two years ago when I was nineteen—I now use art not only as my healing, passion, and hobby, but as a tool that hopefully will help me become a successful adult.
I currently live in the lovely New Hampshire Lakes Region. Now a third-year college student studying Studio Art, my forte has always been drawing with pen and ink, sketch pencils, charcoal, and Prisma markers and pencils. At college, I learned to create digital art on a tablet or computer. I love the ability to manipulate imagery digitally without worry and to create special effects in texture, highlighting, and other areas that would be difficult or impossible by hand.
I was recently honored to be commissioned to illustrate two pages of a children’s book, to illustrate a concert program cover, to create large scenery for a high school marching band’s 2022 field show, and to illustrate record and CD jackets for an upcoming, local musician as well as a full-size rendering for his living room wall. In the future, I hope to write and illustrate children’s books. In the little spare time I have, I also love to bake at home, creatively decorate cakes and cookies, and help my mother decorate our house seasonally.
Nothing, however, makes me happier than to have my art inspire young people to follow their own passions so their lives will bring them the great joy and deep satisfaction every day that mine now does.
Fire Peacock
I wanted this Fire Peacock to be mythical, vibrant, and graceful—but with a fierce, proud, and determined air. Simultaneously, I wanted her to be humorously pompous, entitled, and royal as peacocks might seem when courting and displaying their tail feathers. Vibrant fire colors represent power, while the peacock represents gracefulness, glamour, zest for life, and gratitude, all with a mythical quality. Jewelry details reinforce her character and attitude.
I used Prisma markers, Prisma colored pencils, black ink pen, metallic gold ball point pen, and sketch pencils. I sketched out the foundation of the peacock and outlined the pencil marks with black ink so the image would be better defined. Prisma markers formed the base colors with colored pencils added to detail feather edges and to create the ombre effect throughout the peacock’s body. Without me realizing it, the image developed better as I worked on it than how I originally imagined it.
This picture expresses my belief that people should be powerful, strong, and beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside. They should strive to find the power within themselves to accomplish more and overcome challenges better than they ever expected to be possible. In order to draw on those strengths, people must ignite the fire within and accept who they are.
Sunflowers and Hydrangeas
My mother’s hydrangeas and beautiful flower gardens inspired this image.
The media I used were charcoal and sketch pencil. I sketched a base shape to indicate the position of each flower and then drew the fine details of each plant in pencil before moving to charcoal. I began with hydrangeas that bloom just outside the window by my desk and then added sunflowers. As I added other, nondescript flowers, hydrangea leaves, and bits of grass for texture, I was able to expose stems to create negative space within. The vase is plain so that the viewer focuses on the flowers. Charcoal created shade and texture throughout and defined the shadows cast by the plants hanging over the vase edge. I intended the image to be as realistic as possible and to have as much texture and detail as I could do with charcoal pencils.
I always admire our gardens and love drawing nature-themed imagery. I created this image to emphasize the beauty in flowers—especially my favorites in Mom’s gardens.
Alicorn Dragon
The idea for this image came one day when I shuffled through my old sketches. I wanted to draw a land-and-air creature, since I had already drawn many water creatures. For this particular image, I wanted to combine two mythical species, so I combined an alicorn and a dragon as the main character.
The media I used were drawing pencil, pen, Prisma markers, Prisma colored pencils, and ball ink pen with metallic gold ink. I sketched out the image with a sketch pencil to create my base. Hair was trickier than the other parts, as I wanted to define the waves and curls in her mane and tail and around her ankles. I was satisfied with the texture in the end. As I was sketching the image, I also realized that I needed to add few small creatures to the scene. I drew over the pencil sketches with black art pens so the lines would be well defined, erased the pencil marks, and used Prisma markers as a base color and as a bit of shading on the small parts. Finally, I used Prisma colored pencils to create highlights, shading, and various hues to emphasize textures in the image and the gold pen to emphasize the enchanted look of my alicorn dragon.
I have always loved ancient cultures’ mythical creatures and the stories behind them. Though I also love to draw real plants and animals, mythical creatures are my favorites.