“They look like potato people,” joked Cipriana Owen when reflecting on the characters she creates in her sketchbook. She began practicing her work as an artist when she was just three years old and has loved it ever since, though she does often have a love-hate relationship with the hobby.

Cipriana’s favorite style to draw is surrealism and she prefers drawing digitally. She loves to post her art online, but will only actually let a small handful of people see it, as she is so critical of her work. She says, “I’ll always show the work-in-progress, but never the actual final product.”

On social media, she follows a ton of other artists to get inspiration and has decided that she has many favorites. “When you’re an artist, you want more than one favorite artist. You want many,” she explained, knowing it was important to rely on different styles and ideas for art. While looking at others’ work can help get the creativity flowing, she finds that people and scenery are what inspires her the most.

Being someone who loves to draw and constantly practicing in front of people, she is often asked for advice on how to change and improve. She tells them that it’s essential to work on weaknesses and to try different styles in order to find out what works and what doesn’t. For her, it’s important that she gets over the small mistakes and to try harder on the next piece. Another not so important ritual that she practices is getting a quick snack and coming back to a drawing later on.

She also stresses that finding what you like and what you’re good at is important and not every piece needs to be super complex and thought out. Her favorite picture was a simple owl sketch done rather quickly. Still, she values it and adores it to this day.