Senior Aayush Kumar recently posted his charcoal and ink art piece “Legacy” to the Dreamcatcher. Kumar talks about his passions for art and his inspirations behind this particular piece.

Q: What got you into art in the first place?

As a kid, I was always drawing, especially dinosaurs. I’ve always loved to draw dinosaurs. I wasn’t great at it but just like seeing Jurassic Park and all those movies inspired me to draw the creatures in them.  

Q: How have you practiced and improved your craft since that point? 

I just really liked how I could focus on whatever my art teacher gave me during art classes in school, and I’d just try to put my all into it. My practice wasn’t really about instruction, but about practicing over time. I would practice by looking at interesting pictures on the internet and copying the styles. When I was a kid, I would just see a really cool picture of a T-Rex, or a lion, or tiger, and then I’d really want to draw it.

Q: What’s your favorite type of art to make?

For the past two years I’ve discovered a lot more art forms, but I think I draw a lot more than I paint. And that’s just because that’s what I’ve been doing for so long, and I didn’t really know how to paint before. I also love using charcoal, prismacolor pencils, and there’s also a medium. It’s like white prismacolor on black paper. I like that too.

Q:  Can you tell me about the pieces you submitted on the Dreamcatcher?

I’ve been eyeing this one for quite a long time. I was just searching for T-Rex skeletons and this one is called Tristan Otto. It’s a T-Rex skeleton but enriched by minerals, so it’s completely black, like charcoal. There’s so many things that you can do with a subject like that because in art you really need those values to pop out. So I just saw a ton of perspectives for it, and then I made up a couple of thumbnail sketches and this perspective that I made really stood out to me. What I was trying to convey with it was legacy. The idea that no matter how we think of it in our heads, this creature really existed. Like it was that big, It had those teeth, and it was terrifying.

Q: Would say, is the easiest part and the hardest part of drawing

 I think the easiest part is drawing itself.

Coming over the ideas though, that’s the tough part. Even for that one, it took me so long to figure out the exact perspective of it. Another hard part for me is getting the proportions right. Once you do that, though, you start drawing and sketching and it just comes together.

Q:  Can you walk through your art process?

First of all, I make a Google doc with all my ideas for a specific subject, so I have all these pictures and ideas that I might want to do.

And then from there, I’ll make a couple of thumbnail sketches to express some of those ideas. Whichever one of those that I feel fits with what I like in my mind, I’ll pick that, and I’ll do a bigger sketch of that in pencil.

And then finally, I’ll get a good piece of paper, like mixed media paper, and sketch it out with pencil first. The Legacy piece was ink and charcoal. I didn’t even know I was gonna do charcoal beforehand. I just fleshed out the ink part, sketched out all the dark areas first, and then charcoal just made sense to me.  I think the important thing with charcoal is really getting the proportions down, and including all the areas that you want light and dark.

Q: What advice do you have for people who want to draw?

I’d say anybody can draw. I was horrible at drawing at first. I just really like drawing dinosaurs and I would make like, stick figure dinosaurs. I didn’t even know that was possible.

You literally just get a pen and paper and start trying. A lot of people are intimidated by the idea of drawing their own ideas, and they wonder “How can I draw from my imagination?” I struggle a lot with that, but It’s about what you want to do. It’s really about what makes you happy. So if you just want to draw a dinosaur, or you want to draw a building, just pull up a picture and then try to draw the proportions of it.

I feel like you’re really gonna end up enjoying yourself, especially just doing what you like. You’re not trying to conform to anybody’s else’s idea of art.