“Art for me is a sort of escape, and I enjoy doing it whenever I have the chance. It’s fun to just doodle even if I’m not working on a more formal art piece or sketch. However, taking Mercy’s drawing and art class has definitely given me a focus for my art and something to work on for a lot of the time.

“I’ve been doing art for as long as I can remember. Ever since I could hold a pencil I’ve been doodling on worksheets and coloring in coloring books.

“In terms of the future, I don’t really have an end goal, I’m just seeing how far I can take it, really. Once I found out that I could create things and bring my overactive imagination to life and show other people I’ve just been trying to make my art better so I can better portray things and show what I’ve got in my head.

“I’ve been trying to work with different mediums like paint, pastel, charcoal pencil, and just basic sketches. The way I like to think about it, I’ve got to master the basics before I can start running with it. I’ve just been mastering sketches before I go too far into painting. Sketches are really the basis of all art so I really have to master that aspect before I fully switch to fully painting all my sketches. I also love how even if I don’t want to paint every one of my sketches I can leave them as is. Mercy’s drawing classes have really opened my eyes up to this possibility as well. I now know that a great piece of art doesn’t have to involve a ton of different colors or complex design aspects. While many great art pieces do have these aspects, some of the best art is simply sketches. Not to mention sketches can also be more formal opposed to a quick drawing on notebook paper which is what many people think of them to be.”