ABOUT ELLEN

Deepen creativity through coloring and drawing!

Hi, I’m Ellen, the author and creator of Artsy Pretty Colors. This site is here to help you grow your creative side and build upon your hand drawing, coloring, and designing skills.

Here’s a little about me and why I started this site.

Drawing plays an essential role in my everyday life, and I genuinely believe learning hand-drawing skills is vital for everyone.

The ability to put what’s in your head onto paper can be the difference between making nothing and making the best drawing you’ve ever made or engineering the coolest planter or piece of furniture.

I sketch or draw everything before I attempt to make it. I run into this all the time when engineering things for DIY website, Artsy Pretty Plants, such as concrete planter designs, yard landscape ideas, and homemade greeting cards.

If there’s math involved, I may put it into a CAD or design program after sketching it.

I can tell you from experience that learning hand skills is immensely important because I struggled to find a job as a graphic designer because of it.

I actually went to an art and design school to get an MFA in graphic design. But unfortunately, I graduated without solid design skills.

To be a quality graphic designer, you must develop design concepts and put them on a page.

Nevertheless, I graduated because I worked hard to perfect my portfolio, not because I was a skilled graphic designer.

What is ironic about all this is that I knew my skills weren’t where they needed to be.

And as a master’s candidate, you are required to write and design a thesis.

So I decided to make my topic about the importance of learning how to draw design concepts by hand before ever touching a computer.

A computer should be an aid, not a means, for learning how to draw or design.

Though I could draw without the aid of a computer, I was never trained on how to design starting from paper.

This might work for some people, but it’s a conceptual thing and how our brains are wired.

So you are skipping an important step in the learning process by not starting on paper.

So after failing time and time again to get a job as a graphic designer, feeling embarrassed, and carrying an attorney-sized amount of student loan debt, I did manage to get a job in the design field of kitchen design.

I was a successful kitchen designer. Why? Because somehow, translating design into 2d concepts skipped a part of my brain, but kitchens are spatial and 3D, and my creative side could make the connections.

Ironically, being a kitchen designer made me a better graphic designer. It gave me the principles I had lost by learning on a computer.

So I want to help everyone learn how to draw, become better at it, understand color relationships, and help build upon the creativity that is growing inside you.

Yes! Creativity exists in everyone, it just needs fostering. Whether you are here for yourself, or for your child, the pages on the site are here to help.

Creating is a part of everyday life; you’ll be rewarded when you can easily put your ideas to paper.