Meet Mekurii!
Introducing this month’s creator, the amazing artist, Mekurii!
Please introduce yourself.
Hello! My name is Mekurii and I am an 18-year-old female artist based in the Philippines! Nice to meet you!
Where do you find inspiration?
I mostly find inspiration for my drawings from my real life experiences, some are made fictional, some are exaggerated. I also find inspiration from things I am passionate about such as love relationships and other weird stuff.
How do you develop your art skills?
Well it all started when I was watching my older brother draw anime characters and portraits and stuff and little me thought that it was awesome so I started doing what he was doing. I was observing how things looked and visualized it in my mind and then transferred it into the paper or my drawing tab. I develop my skills mostly by observing how things look and keep drawing that same thing over and over and over again. It’s not gonna look like how you want it to look at first but eventually you’ll end up seeing your drawing and say “holy s**t I made that!!!”
Does art help you in other areas of your life?
Art helps me with my mental health.
Most recently I posted a mini comic where I explained, at least in a story form, that I suffered another dark chapter in my life and I couldn’t do art because of school works and that made me fall down the abyss even more.
I couldn’t exactly explain how art helps me with my mental health but it’s like: your brain is full of tangled knots and when you’re drawing it somehow untangles on it’s own, like you’re not hearing any comforting words or stuff like that but when you’re drawing it feels like you’re being comforted, it feels like a hug, a warm one. 😭
How has your style changed over time?
It started out as me just drawing random anime characters but I am a weird kid and I like creating fake scenarios in my head but I remembered that I was an artist so I started drawing myself, a persona, on every art I make and eventually leading me up to creating an art page, my real life experiences influenced my content and here I am now, with a huge following and people who genuinely like me and the content I post! ❤️
What was the most important moment in your career?
I think the most important moment was when I started doing commissions because I always wanted to be independent and help my family in some way. I know this isn’t related but the story behind why I started commissions like out of the blue was hilarious, long-story short I wanted to buy a plushie that was so f****ng cute and I didn’t have enough money but I remembered that I have a foreign money so I went ahead and tried to pawn it or gi prenda nako, but the lady in the foreign exchange was so rude and she was looking at me as if she’s annoyed and I wasn’t able to pawn the foreign money because of issues. BUT GUESS WHAT LADY FROM THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE, I MAKE MY OWN BAG NOW AND I BOUGHT THE PLUSHIE I WANTED!
What are your ultimate career goals as an artist?
I’ll be 100% honest with this one. My ultimate goal is to make money. Making money for my family and making money for myself to buy whatever I want. Overworked cuties like me don’t rest, we grind for that bag.
What factors influence the price of your work?
Mostly it’s the time and the effort I put on those drawings. Though I mentioned that drawing is like free therapy for me, sometimes holding the pen is like a thousand needles piercing your fingers. I sometimes have to gather enough energy by crying and laying in my bed doing nothing but scrolling through TikTok.
But seriously though, there are days where sometimes I don’t want to draw just because I don’t want to or because I have school works to do.
What advice can you give to artists who are just starting?
I get this question a lot and to be honest, I still have that feeling that I am a beginner artist not trying to be humble or whatnot. I honestly feel that way but this is the only advice I could give to those who are just starting, never stop drawing.
Never stop drawing no matter how weird or “ugly” you think your drawing looks, erase the mistakes, add another stroke on the paper, change its form, keep doing that until you reach the certain style you want.
Of course you’re not gonna improve immediately it really takes time, days, months, or even years but don’t be discouraged because I’ll tell you, once you master your control with your pen, that pen is gonna be your best friend and the two of you are gonna do wonders. ❤️
Do you have a favorite piece out of all the art you made? What is it? And why is it your favorite?
Oh lord, I can’t choose because I have lots of drawings that I like but if I had to choose, it’s gonna be – KOKOMI ART LIKE THE TWO OF EM!!!!!!
I absolutely LOVE Kokomi from Genshin Impact because she smells and looks like my happy childhood dreams and fantasies and I really have a thing for mermaids or mermaid-inspired things. ❤️
Do you think art is a skill and not a talent?
For me, art is a skill. When I was starting out I never knew how to do art. All I know is that it has colors and weird forms but I took an interest in that. I made the effort to learn and teach myself how to do art traditionally and digitally. I have friends who claim that they have no talent in drawing or any other forms of art but like when you think about it, everyone can draw, you draw a squiggly line that’s a form of art already but when you take the time and effort to really learn, I guess that’s when it becomes a skill or a talent. I don’t know, lmao
Biggest lesson you’ve learned from doing art?
I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned from doing art is to lessen drawing myself in scenarios that won’t happen or didn’t happen. It creates a fake image of me claiming that I did that with someone or it happened to me and honestly it fucks with my mental health it was like a form of gaslighting so I gotta stop doing that if I really wanted to be happy.
What are the challenges you’ve faced as a digital artist?
One of the challenges I’ve faced being a digital artist is that when I stick too much on the digital art side, I will sometimes forget how traditional art works when I suddenly switch.
S**t freaks me out sometimes when I am scribbling on the paper and made a mistake and wonder why my mistake is not undo-ing it makes me laugh how dumb I can be sometimes ASHJDFGASHKDF—
Where to find Mekurii
You can find Mekurii on the following links:
Tip her on Gank!
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