Doodling is a popular way for students to entertain themselves while bored in class, and normally those doodles are not worthy of 201,000 followers on Instagram. But freshman Leeanne Fang’s drawings are.
Fang often receives more than 6,000 likes on almost every picture she posts on her drawing account, draw_4everr, as well as hundreds of comments complementing her talents and art.
Unlike people who only have the patience to spend five minutes drawing, Fang will spend three to four hours on one drawing. Other people would spend those hours on Netflix rather than drawing. The time that Fang takes to perfect her drawing skills reflect in her art.
Even though it takes hours to complete one drawing, Fang won’t sit for three to four hours straight and draw. Fang points out, “that would be very hard.”
While Fang’s peers grew up taking lessons for soccer, swimming, or dance, Fang’s parents signed her up to take lessons for drawing through a family friend.
When looking at Fang’s popular Instagram account, one can tell the small improvements to each drawing that make a big difference from her first picture posted in 2012 to her most recently posted picture on Nov. 30.
“At first it was not that good I guess and I thought it was, but [it’s not] looking back on it now. Maybe like a year ago, like a year after I started this [Instagram] account, I started to look at other people’s art [and] I realized that I could do better,” Fang explained.
A person analyzing her drawings may also be able to tell that one of her strengths in her drawings involve hair.
Art teacher Mr. Ray Gossell also notices her talents and strengths in drawing.
“Mostly animals and natural forms,” Mr. Gossell said.
Not only does Gossell notice what her strengths are but he also mentions why her drawings stand out more than others.
“Attention to detail, strong observational skills, and [she] can make her hand do what her eyes see…” Gossell notes.
Fang has a collection of Disney character drawings on her account mixed in with drawings of her friends or people who ask her to draw a portrait.
“A lot of people ask me to, but I only do some people only because I kind of feel like doing other people,” she said.
Freshman Emory Orlando is a good friend of Fang’s and she has asked Fang to draw her before.
“But it took her a while to get to it since so many people asked her,” explained Orlando.
Developing this unique talent takes time and practice but drawing “forever” helped Fang reach the level of skill she is at now.
“Honestly her art reminds me of Kristina Webb,” sophomore Hayley Anderson noticed after looking at Fang’s drawings.
Webb is “just a teenager from New Zealand with a dream to inspire people,” as said on her Instagram account, colour_me_creative. Her account, like Fang’s, is also filled with intricate drawings.
Ironically, Fang admitted, “Well, I always drew, but there’s this one artist, Kristina Webb, colour_me_creative [on Instagram], I like her art so I kind of looked off of that. And after a while I find my own ways to draw pictures and stuff.”
Anyone can see the similarities in both of their artwork. Both individuals are very talented in what they do and inspire many other young artists to follow their hearts.
Every artist has their own secrets to their success. Fang just tells her fans, “Just find new ways to draw, don’t do like one thing, and using different materials to play around with, I guess. Be creative, have your own style.”
To help make her drawings look more professional and to have a more clean and finished look to them, she uses different tools than just Crayola markers and notebook paper.
“I use like copic markers. They are like alcohol-based markers, it makes it really easy. Then I use prismacolor pencils because they are like the best pencils and bristol paper,” Fang notes.
Creating is a hobby that Fang has been doing since she was five years old and she still enjoys it just as much, if not more, now. She has found her strengths and weaknesses and she continues to perfect her techniques today.
