When I started this website, I was at a point in my life where I wanted a place to blog my thoughts, share things that inspire me, and post my work. It's a public diary, a public filing cabinet of the creative part of my life. At the time (two-and-a-half years ago), I was in architecture school, working two graphic design jobs, and spending my free time doing photography and other creative things. I painted, made pretty cool mixed media visual art, and exercised my creativity in all sorts of ways. I used Instagram as a place to post artwork that I created the day of. No planning or perfecting involved. I created art (not great art, but it was art.) It was exciting, and it was fun. I was very inspired.

Over the next two years, as I got busy, I found my focus with travel and photography. I'd do photoshoots and go on trips, and post about them on social media and my blog. I was influenced by "content creators" and my work wasn't special anymore. At times blogging would seem like a chore. I started adhering to a blog post format, and it got boring. My website lost its fun, creative, whimsical heart, and I guess so did I.

Here I am, wanting to restart and find that fun again. My website is "Studio Sophy" because it's an online art studio! I can take photos, paint, sketch, design anything I want. Everything falls into the realm of my creativity and I have no limitations. So here I am opening myself up to that again.

I've been really inspired this past week by these writer-illustrators and graphic journalists I've been following for years: Austin Kleon, Mari Andrew, Wendy Macnaughton, even poet Samantha Jayne. I was so inspired by Austin Kleon's "Steal Like an Artist" three years ago, and just read "Show Your Work." One things that really stuck to me was his advice "You want hearts, not eyeballs."

“What you want is to follow and be followed by human beings who care about issues you care about. This thing we make together. This thing is about hearts and minds, not eyeballs.”

— Jeffrey Zeldman

Real artists don't care about the quantity of followers, but the quality. We want people who get us, understand our hearts and minds, beyond the superficial surface of what's seen. I want to connect with people in our humanity—in our vulnerability, our struggles, our realness.

Mari Andrew is another one of my favorites. Her simple illustrations have so much thought going into them, and it speaks to your heart. It's relatable in its honesty and humility. She inspires me to draw more, be genuine in my artwork, and use drawing as therapy for all the negative things in life.

The little drawings in this post are illustrations I did yesterday, inspired by Mari. Sure I am copying her style (steal like an artist!) but the content I create would never be the same, because I see the world differently. Everyone sees the world differently. (And that's why I wish everyone would draw!) What got me started on illustration this past few days was an Apple Pencil! After accumulating drawing tools my entire life I never thought the most versatile would be digital one! Keeping my artwork on an iPad is so much more organized than in real life, and makes sharing online way more easy. Alright that's enough ranting, back to drawing I go!

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