About the Artist
from Ralarasha's perspective
Early Days
As primarily a portrait artist, it’s pretty obvious that I’m fascinated by faces. Growing up, I’d catch myself watching people and wishing I could capture their exact expression. Every single day I drew, whether it was on the walls (sorry mom and dad), on the margins of my schoolwork, or in a sketchbook.
Personal Life
As a child, drawing was a form of play to me. As I got older, it became a tool.
I’m currently pursuing a masters degree towards counseling psychology so that one day I can become a licensed marriage and family therapist. Although my art isn’t my main career, it influences my studies every single day. I truly believe my early fascination with faces was simply a fascination with people, and drawing them was my little attempt at trying to understand them.
I may know practices and theories surrounding mental health, but I have yet to discover anything as powerful as the act of creating. In fact, many therapists agree that there is something incredibly healing in creativity.
YouTube
While I was studying for my bachelor’s degree in 2023, I felt alone and pointless. Although I loved drawing, I failed to find a purpose to create. In an effort to motivate myself to preserve my hobby, I began uploading videos of my drawings to YouTube Shorts. At first, it was just a way to hold myself accountable, to keep creating even on the days I didn’t feel inspired.
Then, unexpectedly, one of my videos went viral. Overnight, millions of people were seeing what I’d made in my quiet little corner of the internet. Suddenly, my method of self-care became a primary source of income. I must admit it was quite disorienting at the time!
Since then, my YouTube channel has fluctuated greatly. I have had to find a balance between creating “content” versus creating artwork, and that line is often blurry.
On Being "Two-Handed"
Catching a viewer's eye is hard work. As I started to get more into creating on YouTube, I experimented to see what kind of art people wanted to watch. I quickly learned that the first two seconds were the most important part of my videos. Other artists often used the beginning to show their face, but since I wanted to protect my anonymity, I had to work twice as hard (pun intended). So the idea of drawing with two hands at once was born.
I often get asked if I'm ambidextrous. I think to some extent I must be, but for the true definition I would say no. I can write and draw with my non-dominant hand, but it's noticeably poorer quality than my right. This makes sense-- I began drawing with my right hand, and all throughout school I wrote essays and notes with my right hand. I have not put nearly enough practice into my left hand for them to be truly comparable.
So how can I draw with both hands? I think it has more to do with my eyes and brain than my hands. Because I have practiced drawing faces my entire life, I know the structure of a face quite well. When I draw with both of my hands, I'm not relying on the skill of either hand. I'm staring at the center of the blank page visualizing where the features of a face need to be placed. My hands go to those places and roughly line out the features, and in the end it's a convincing face not because of the quality of each individual feature, but because of the composition as whole.
What's Next?
I've become a bit disenchanted with creating videos for YouTube. Right now, I'm taking a break from content to explore what making art really means for me. I plan on posting again once I feel more integrated and self-confident in my work.
One thing I've already discovered is that I love to paint birds. Just like how human portraits have expressions and character, birds are full of personality. I have been spending many hours creating paintings of them while listening to the local birds.
Another thing I am leaning into is creating custom commissions for others. As many know, AI art is devastating digital artists (this has been another reason that I am taking a break from posting online). However, AI cannot yet replace owning the hard copy of human-made artwork. I hope that, despite the damage AI has caused our community, new appreciation is found for owning custom work.
