The beauty of drawing with pencils is the freedom to erase the lines you create. You can change your mind and redo the whole thing, the rush of using the eraser exuberates your senses as you wipe away the remnants of what was once your drawing. Having fallen in love with the beauty of pencil, Thuraya Lynn is a Kuwaiti pencil artist you should follow. “I love the shading and the grey scale of it all,” smiles Thuraya. An incredibly colorful person with a smile that shows it, Thuraya’s artistic expressions are always in a pencil grey. A reflection of how she feels and who she is, is portrayed through her art. Amused and intrigued by the images of horror and hauntings, she’s observed all that falls under the genre and mastered it herself.
“I was captivated by my uncle’s drawings of animals on paper,” she starts, “so I started finding myself in the arts of different cultures.” Immersing herself within the Japanese anime culture, she started sketching and recreating the characters. Little by little, Thuraya was waiting for her inner self to appear through her sketches. “I got really serious about it when I saw a cereal box that had a really cool design,” she adds, “that’s when I decided that I wanted to be original and cool in my work just like the art on the box.” Straying away from recreating; finding herself able to create her very own art, she was pleased with her productions and is always trying to develop her art further.
“One major factor that contributed to my drawings are the haunting images of ghosts, paranormal myths,” she giggles, “teeth also amuse me.” Her fascination with names like Masaaki Nakamura, Junji Ito, and Maro Seuhiro play a big role in her art. “Particularly Faun no Tane, a comic by Masaaki. It changed my whole perception of horror and solitude; it’s simply an amazing piece.” Starting an inspirational blog, she started posting about people, art, and photography she was drawn to. Slowly but surely, she started to blog about her very own art. “I started thinking that maybe it was time to start blogging about me and let people know about my art and who I am,” she states simply.
Starting in October of 2010, her blog was a, sort of, private birthday present to herself. By exhibiting her art through her blog, she’s drawing more attention to herself and her work in particular; showing the world the gift she has. Exhibiting solely at her university, she hopes to show off her work at one point in different galleries around the country. “I keep getting comments from people asking me why I don’t paint,” she begins, “I’m a pencil artist, I love pencil and the shades of grey. That’s why I don’t paint. There’s something about pencil, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the idea that I can erase what I don’t like, rather than layer over it to cover it up like paint.” Sticking to small canvases, and walking around with a sketch book, she draws every chance she gets.
Even though she studies Literature, she loves to draw and everything about it. “It’s the mystery of lines and shading I guess,” she laughs. Highly influenced and affected by the Asian form of art, you can see it from the proportions of the characters she draws. Fun loving with an obsession for Japanese pop culture; she dreams of going there sometime to find herself within the arts she loves so much. “I don’t like to use color because I want people to see the lines and how they really are.”
Keep a watchful eye out for this up and coming pencil artist. You can check out Thuraya Lynn’s blog at http://thurayalynnart.blogspot.com for more.
