Hey, this is my first journal entry here on Sheezy Art, and I just joined the party. Allow me to introduce myself to you all.
My name is Emily also known as Lollypop081MLE (Lollypop being my childhood nickname, 08 came from the year 2008 with the 1 being added when I first created my Youtube channel back in 2009, and MLE is just the pronunciation form of my name (since there are a lot of Emily's on this planet). I am currently a 26-year-old multimedia artist (traditional art, digital art, and photography) and writer who's been doing art since I was very young, hailing from the good old state of New York (yes the state, not the city). Some of you probably recognize me from DeviantArt as I've been a member there for over 12 years and counting (or until DeviantArt ends up imploding) with over 1400 pieces of art and writings. Yes, I will be bringing over most of my pieces from DeviantArt to Sheezy Art so that I have them in two places and any new piece I draw or paint, photograph, and every new story I'm currently working on will be posted on both sites.
Anywho, more about me for those who are not familiar with me. I have ASD (aka autism spectrum disorder and on the higher portions of the spectrum, originally called Asperger's syndrome) and was diagnosed with the disability since I was 3 years old, and formally diagnosed at the age of 11. Despite my struggles due to autism, such as symptoms of OCD, high anxiety, and ADD, and struggles with giving good eye contact, you get the picture, that did not stop me from becoming the woman and artist I am.
I did beyond well academically, being on the honor roll and high honor roll from elementary school to my final year of high school, especially the four straight years of being on the high honor roll for the entirety of my high school years, thus my efforts placed me in the top 30 of my senior class, ranking at number 26 (thus I was a member of my high school's senior enrichment program, which is brought to you by Orange Ulster BOCES). Yes, art played a major part in my schooling. It all started with me being awarded the 2006-2007 Artist of the Year as a third grader by my art teacher as I was the most creative in her class (and to this day, I'm not sure if it was out of all the third graders she taught or it was out of all the classes she was assigned to teach during the 2006-2007 school year (my elementary school had two art teachers). Naturally, it started with pencils, crayons, colored pencils, pens, and markers on printer paper like most aspiring young artists and I mostly drew Disney Princesses and my dolls (Barbie dolls, Kelly dolls (I was on the many kelly doll kleptomaniacs), and American Girl dolls). Writing also came during elementary school as well and fifth grade was when I wrote some of my very first stories for class. In middle school, when I finally took art in the final quarter of my sixth-grade year, I got my first sketchbook, and my first piece of art from that sixth-grade art class (I believe it was the second art project we did) was featured in my school district's art celebration in May 2010. Hell, some of my artworks from sixth and seventh-grade art class survive today, just stored away. Even some of the drawings I did during that period survive too. Eighth grade was when I began to take art more seriously and began drawing exclusively on sketchbook or drawing paper and experimenting with art pencils and Prismacolors. It wasn't just the traditional art I took seriously, I also started doing digital art in eighth grade, starting with good old MS Paint. It wasn't til' my freshman year of high school when I started learning Photoshop and Paint-tool SAI (ie layers, layer effects, the digital paint brushes, selecting and deselecting, etc.) and for the next six years, I primarily used Paint-tool SAI for digital art (with a few pieces done in photoshop). In my junior year of high school, I started Career and Technical Education via Orange-Ulster BOCES, originally the first couple weeks was in the film program before I switched permanently to Digital Design and Advertising in week 4. Speaking of my CTE program, I thrived in Digital Design, getting honor roll most of the time (as CTE considers the grade range of 90-94 as Honor Roll and 95 or higher is High Honor Roll, which I achieved once), and not only I learned more Photoshop and began learning and using Illustrator and In-Design, but I also gained workplace experience through doing some of the major art projects for major places and organizations in Orange County, mostly through in-class art competitions). I graduated from Middletown High School in June 2016 with a Regents Diploma with Career and Technical Endorsement and from CTE with a Certificate of Career Studies in Digital Design and Advertising with Technical Mastery, plus six college credits through Syracuse University Project Advance aka SUPA (I took College Statistics, yes a college math my senior year). I attended SUNY Orange in the fall of 2016 in their Visual Communications degree program. It started rocky as I had to retake Freshman English 1 after failing the course for the fall 2016 semester (which devastated me as someone who was used to getting A's and B's) and only passing the art courses (a C+ in Design 1, two solid B's in Vis Com 3 and Art History 2, and an A- in Drawing 2), but I quickly got back on track of getting A''s and B's in Spring 2017 (Two B-'s, one for English 1 (take two) and Intro to Psychology, a solid B in Color, two A-'s for Sequential Art and Concepts of Physical Wellness, an a solid A in Design 2). My last year at SUNY Orange I was a member of the TRiO program and made the Fall 2017 Dean's List with a 3.56 GPA (two solid A's for Digital Photo 1 and English 2, an A- in Social Problems, a B+ in Modern Art, and a solid B in Figure Drawing) and Spring 2018 was straight A's (Digital Photo 2, Vis Com 4, Walking for Wellness, and The Arts and Communications Practicum) with an A- in Stretching for Wellness, thus I graduated, com laude with a 3.39 overall GPA, with an Associate in Applied Science for Visual Communications in May 2018 and gained even more experience and was in the SUNY Orange Student Art Show in both 2017 and 2018. Aside from art, I also sing and dance. I participated in chorus (two years in elementary school at Maple Hill, two years at Monhagen Middle School (with my sixth grade year, I participated in the All County Elementary School Chorus Group A), and two years at MHS, concert choir my freshman year, and women's chorale my sophomore year), was a part of drama club in the eighth grade in both Cabaret (themed to the Beatles) and my middle school's production of Willy Wonka, and took dance both junior and senior years of high school and participated in the Evening of Dance my senior year (as after a full year of fundamentals of dance my junior year, I took choreography the spring of my senior year).
Aside from the arts, I also love history (well I'm a royal history enthusiast) , make-up, fashion, cats, and football, more specifically the New York Football Giants.
Anywho, my art ranges from character designs (in my art style, which is a mix of realism, Disney, and anime), to illustrations involving my original stories and characters, fanart, realistic portraits of real-life people, landscape, seascape, and snowscape paintings, plants and animal art, photography, and my stories (as previously mentioned).
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my intro to Sheezy Art and I hope you all can follow along in the art journey
Love,
Emily aka Lollypop081MLE