Every individual has viewed the past year’s pandemic differently. Some may have found it suffocating and distressing while others may have unlocked a new door of talents and interests. Overall, it all comes down to how one sees it, and in this case, junior Medina Ramouni saw an opportunity behind closed doors.

Ramouni took advantage of the time the pandemic granted her to return to her favorite hobby, art.

“I used to think what I drew was good but then I kept changing, and when I look back on it, I ask ‘how did I change?’” Ramouni said. “I love telling people to keep practicing and you’re going to get your own style and you’re gonna see it’s good. And even if you think your style is good, you can always improve on it.”

Ramouni said her motivation is based on the satisfaction she feels once she completes her piece.

“The main thing that motivates me to do art is the accomplishment I feel after making a good piece of art,” She said. “ Just seeing how I can change my art style to better suit my interest is just very fun to me.”

Ramouni said she gained more confidence through her digital work as she kept on seeking improvements in her personal style.

“My favorite drawing I’ve done was one of the anime characters, Itadori,” she said. “There are two pieces to it actually, a darker version and a lighter version. The lighter version is called ‘The Vessel’ and the darker version is called ‘The Curse’ because Itadori is a vessel of an extremely dangerous demon. The vessel [Itadori] really wants his own way and wants to become someone of his own, and doesn’t want to be tied to this curse.”

Ramouni said she struggles with matching the right colors to her piece.

“A main struggle of mine is getting colors right. Line art and other things are fine, especially since I use reference photos to get the shading right, the lighting right, and the proportions, but the thing that’s the hardest, for me, is finding the colors. ” Ramouni said. “You have to color match and know how to blend the color because there’s something called color theory. If the color of the background is a certain color it affects the other colors. So sometimes some colors appear lighter with a darker background than when it’s on white it’s super dark. It’s really hard to understand that, especially since I am a self-taught artist.”

Ramouni experimented with different types of art such as painting, digital, sketch, and recently picked up makeup along the way.

“It was this summer, for some reason I got really good at it. It’s so easy to use makeup brushes,” she said. “Makeup is something that easily came down to me and I think a lot of it had to do with my prior knowledge of painting and drawing.”

Ramouni said she plans to eventually turn her hobby into a business.

“My art account is really small right now. I try to spread it to my friends and that’s how people know of it. I’m just trying to get it up, it’s like me climbing my way to get a bigger platform,” Ramouni said. “ I am a hundred percent sure I’m going to do a side business of art when I’m older and my platform is big enough. I’ve always considered art as a side hustle.”

Ramouni said she experienced her darkest times during the pandemic, but was also able to reconcile with her favorite hobby and move on.

“The dark hole that was in my life was actually the pandemic, it really got me in a horrible hole. I was so anxious and very anxiety-ridden. I felt like my hair was falling out and thought I was dying. It was suffocating in the house,” Ramouni said. “But when I started getting back to drawing because I took a break in ninth grade, I started drawing more and more because I had nothing else to do and it made me so happy. The main change in my art happened over the pandemic from how much I started drawing and I absolutely fell in love with art from how much it got me through.”