Karen Stamos

I was an ordinary kid who dug doodling at a very early age. I used to spend hours upon hours watching my cool older brother draw because he was a master. My first \'real\' drawing was completed when I was around eight or nine. Over the years, I noticed something amazing was happening: I saw my skills become more enriched. The \"doodles\" started becoming life-like, near perfect renditions of what I was drawing from.I taught myself to get every line, curve, and shadow right...even if it took me four or more hours. It became nothing short of an obsession. I didn\'t want or need to go out and be the social butterflies like my older siblings did. I was the happiest person alive in my solitude... as long as I had plenty of pencils, paper, and music to listen to as I created. Fast forward many years later, I\'m STILL drawing...only this time I\'m pursuing it to become a full time profession. I actually took my first set of formal art classes a few semesters ago in school and learned even more awesome techniques to enhance my work. I like experimenting in wet AND dry media.I don\'t discriminate. My greatest strength lies in pencil and charcoal, but I\'ve also enjoyed trying my hand in acrylic, oil, watercolor and ink. I don\'t consider myself a conceptual artist, although I have certainly created works that definitely are considered concept art. My style is realistic; I love capturing life as it happens, drawing and observing. I find that it fine tunes my senses in a meditative way. If there was one thing that I took away from those drawing classes was the significance of drawing by observing. I once veered away from it, but it quickly brought me back and helped me gain an enormous love and appreciation for it. Now it\'s my style of choice and one that I\'ve gained real artistic strength in.