Gallery • 25 Photos

This is Lalisa Monoban, known more commonly as Lisa. She’s an idol from the Korean group Blackpink. She’s an incredible dancer as well as a rapper. This is the most realistic drawing I’ve ever done. I’m super proud of it.

As I’ve created the other artist spotlights, I’ve been anxious to post art of my own. I figured it was about time!

I’ve been rather nervous to share my art on the Valhalla, especially since the other artists we’ve featured have been so incredibly talented. For anyone who’s had this nervousness, I’ll tell you the same things I often tell myself. The only person you should compare your work with is your past self, and all artists have different things that make them stand out. I’ve personally enjoyed all the art that we’ve gotten, and I’m excited to see more and more of your submissions.

In the past few months, my art has made me much happier. I think that’s because I used to have this idea in my head that fanart is childish and bad, and I wasn’t skilled enough to have that be untrue. I pressured myself to only draw original characters and ideas. Because of this I often didn’t finish my work and drawing started to feel like a chore.

My savior in all of this ended up being my ability to become unbridledly obsessed with a topic. The subject of my interest throughout quarantine has been the anime and manga series Haikyuu. I could go on for hours about what’s good about the show and the artistry of the characters and their dynamics, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll try and contain myself. To be honest, one of the big reasons I’m posting my art is because I hope that I make some friends who also like the series.

Once I had adopted the show as my special interest, something amazing happened. I started to enjoy art again! Suddenly I was drawing all the time, breaking out my pencils, markers and paints again to make complete works. I completed a 100-page sketchbook in two weeks, a process that, at the time, usually took me several months. Even now, I find all this childish. I strongly associate making fanwork with when I was first starting out in art, when I was constantly making art of My Little Pony and Five Nights at Freddie’s characters and OC’s (original characters, in this case, meant to be within the universe of a franchise) on Doodle Club. This association does not extend to other people’s fanart, which I often think is professional and impressive. Imposter syndrome much?

There are many artists who inspire me. Oliver’s Antics makes Youtube videos, many of which encourage artists to make fanart and OCs. His tutorials are also amazing. Hinamihere is an artist who lent a lot of inspiration to my personal style. Their use of colors and the technique they use to outline is something that has directly influenced my art, making a big difference as of late.

Please check out the Journalism work I’ve done for the Valhalla as well!