Being on SteemIt has really reawakened my art craze. I posted my first real blog last week in the introductions, but it was all about my class, so I'll be sharing a bit about myself through my art phases.
I've read a lot of Steem posts warning users of fraud or identity theft. Many suggested that posing with a paper which has the date and SteemIt written on it is one way to verify bloggers' identities. (I didn't do that my last intro post, so I might have been a robot.)
It's a great idea, actually. However, someone like me may have to stay a robot forever in SteemIt because I am not yet ready to publicize myself (i.e. face photos). I thought about posting up a picture with my head cropped out, but that would defeat the point of the steemit paper selfie.
There's not much I can do to prove I am me. However, I at least want proof that UnicornJenoodle is a real person, so here is a little gif for you.
Unicorn Jenoodle: My noodle-eating unicorn
Unicorns and Noodles are some of my favorites. You will see a lot of unicorns drawn by me, but this specific unicorn and its bowl of noodles is my official Steemit mystical creature. By the way, everyone should have their own Steemonster or Steemcreature. It really brightens things up.
Rainbow on, Unicorn Jenoodle.
A little about Jen the human.
I would like to say I'm an artsy female human. I love arts and crafts and you will never find a notebook of mine that is not bloody with doodles. Homework and worksheets are not spared from this.
Here's a beautified worksheet on cyberspace cautions back in high school.
(What it says: If you release Minimal Information about yourself, you might just meet your soulmate. Moderate Information, meet a possible stalker. Maximum Information, meet a child predator.What can someone do with your personal information? copy and past my picture and do some awesome photoshop job that looks so disturbing, it seems unbelievably real.Of course the worksheet didn't say any of these, but was it implied? Perhaps...to me...Maybe this was the root of my unwillingness to put a face to my Steem.)
Besides all this, my favorite color is blue--so steemit had me at the colors. I love to eat. Eating is my passion. I love going to multi-cultural potlucks because homemade food is the best! I have an addiction to food porn on YouTube. To all food porn newbies, please search MUKBANG on YouTube and feast your eyes. Also, one of my favorite shows is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. If you have never watched the show before, I recommend you try it out. He eventually led me to blog about how we will be eating insects in the future and why this will help our planet.
Anyways...
Art Phases!
You'd think being artsy was a simple matter, but it's not. I have had many art phases which were particularly distinct throughout high school. Below, you will see some of the phases I went through (all of them done in high school). I had to go through my box of high school "treasures" to find these old, amateur gems.
CARD PHASE
I had a time where I would do nothing but make cards. To whom? I know not. And if you're wondering what is painted on that one card, it's a naked man carrying a sack of toys surrounded by naked babies (my Christmas version of Daniel in the Lion's Den). I have no idea why I thought it would fit the jolly theme. -just one of those cringe-worthy blasts from the past.
REALISM PHASE
There were episodes of attempted realism... (That one on the right is a sketch of my biology teacher holding a scalpel during the cat dissection...the smell of ammonia will forever remind me of those lifeless, drenched furballs ). This style was time-consuming and I applaud all artists out there who masterfully display this skill.
MACHO PHASE
I survived the awkward phase where I was obsessed with macho men bodies. It was just a lot of fun to draw the curves. Disturbing samples of my teachers below. -Another cringe-worthy blast from the past
I am glad to say that all of my teachers were great educators. They were probably an influence in my decision to become one myself.
(We Will Survive: This was right before finals and AP exams; El Hombre for Spanish Class)
SHARPIE PHASE
I had my sharpie days. While some were sniffing sharpies to get high, I was making them bleed through papers. I still remember trying to save up money for a pack of rainbow sharpies (those things are expensive!). This was also when I had a mini obsession with lips and highlighters as well. I loved patterns and swirls then and still love them now.
ANIME/CHARACTER PHASE
And of course, I had my cartoon/character/anime craze days. These were the popular subjects in high school and every other artsy person probably went through it at least once. Anime was life then I still enjoy strolling down memory lane with anime gems like Sailor Moon and Princess Mononoke. I still find myself doodling little characters now and then. This Unicorn Jenoodle is a recent character.
FASHION PHASE
When the internet became more friendly and offered draw-your-own-outfits-for-avatarsgames, I changed my art direction to fashion. I would spend hours sketching an outfit online because I had to rely on a mouse to draw. There wasn't much I could do besides control the color tint and opacity, so there was a lot of zooming in and out. Afterwards, I would take a friend's photo and draw that outfit in it. You are probably confused and it might sound creepy, so I'll just show you an example.
BLANK PHASE
After high school, I went through this long phase where I did not draw. I doodled here and there, but I wasn't motivated to complete an artwork. It was as if someone turned off my art switch. I don't know if anyone else has experienced it, but it was a very bland moment (I had art-free notes!). From elementary to high school, all I ever did was draw. Everyone knew me as the kid who draws and has everything you'll ever need in her SpaceMaker pencil box. This sudden lost of motivation wasn't pleasant at all--and yes, it does happen.
This was the last big piece of art I attempted and never finished. It's been a few years...Besides being less motivated, I just got too busy with Life.
Right now, I am an ESL teacher.
I teach English to immigrants and refugee adults. Why did I decide to do English? I'm not entirely sure. Can't say I started off as the best of English students, though.
I mean, this was the poem I wrote in 5th grade about my sister.
(Sarah is my sister; She sometimes shiver; She hates liver; She likes to put on glitter.)
I guess I just fell in love with the students more than the subject. Adult students really are a different breed of students--they are humble and sweet!
Anyways, once I started teaching, I stopped doing big art projects. However, that didn't mean I stopped trying. I've started to make my students use art in the class and many of the projects I give them are made by me. This was the core of my "Unicorn Class," which I talked about in one of my blogs. I love learning from other teachers and I hope more teachers will start to use SteemIt as their sharing platforms. I have seen many wonderful lesson plans and activities by amazing teachers in the internet (for free!). To think that I can fund their ideas through SteemIt is incredible. I think teachers do not receive enough credit. SteemIt has the potential to place more value on education and maybe even shape the way the system works...you never really know how much influence something has. Let's hype up the Education tag!
Example: Subject pronoun flips with characters drawn by yours truly. I like to make my own materials in class and I also try to post original photos on SteemIt.
Where am I right now?
CALLIGRAPHY PHASE!
It's only been two weeks since my calligraphy pens arrived and I haven't had this much in a while. Looking through some of the art posts, particularly @opheliafu's (check out some of her original works!), in SteemIt has encouraged me to get back into drawing.
As a newbie to, not only Steemit but cryptocurrency I find these art posts to be rather refreshing and they give me a break from crypto jargon, respectively. SteemIt is beginning to attract people of many backgrounds and talents. It is a wonderful platform for people to share their ideas and talents. There might be a handful of people like me who are lost on how Steem Power and cryptocurrency actually works, so we become more driven by the passionate steemers and posts.
All I can say is money has always been an issue for many when it comes to "support" and SteemIt's steempower has eliminated this. You can even think of it as the new donation / fund me platform. I hope that fellow SteemIt artists will continue to share their creativity even if there is a chance it will get lost in the flood of Steem posts (like mines). I love reading original posts on SteemIt and I hope to see more new tags pop up.
Thank you Steemers who took the time to read this long post.
This was a repost of my post. The gifs weren't working earlier. If these don't work too,....look forward to some additional blogs.
Also, I'm using loose English diction. :)