Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jasmine Baker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jasmine, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I have always been interested in being an artist, however I never could decide what field I wanted to pursue. I took a few art classes in middle school &high school but in my early twenties it changed into just drawing pictures from magazines.
This process was important in developing my skills for drawing close-up portraits & full body sketches.

I watched youtube videos of other people drawing, mainly colored pencil artists because at that point I had narrowed down my interest to colored pencil realism work. I wanted to see how other people do it because I really struggled with blending the pencils properly & learned to use the correct types of paper for this medium.

Realism is a very specialized type of work. It requires tiny details, dark shadows,precise highlights & strategic blending.

One obstacle I encountered was being intimidated by other artists’ work quality & their work ethic. Being able to see artists around the world is incredible but when I was starting out in the online art space, putting my work out there often made me very nervous.
I lacked the motivation to spend more hours on my work & my eye for detail was not as good. I didn’t pay enough attention to details in my work like other artists did.

Jasmine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I specialize in realistic drawing, with graphite and colored pencils. I love drawing pet portraits, TV characters/ public figures & family portraits. This has been my area of focus as an artist for the last 8 years or so.

Art is a hobby & a side job. I work a regular day job, as many artists do and I do video editing for a fellow YouTube creator.

I have a youtube channel which shows the drawing process. There are time lapse videos & real- time videos, so people can get a better idea of the time involved in the details of my work.
In many of my videos you can see how the drawing starts out (if I record the sketching part). You’ll notice that these pieces start out upside-down because that is how I draw.

Since my work is freehand, I sketch out a few lines right side up to determine the composition then the majority of the actual line work is done upside down in order to achieve the correct proportions.

It’s definitely an unusual way to draw things but it’s the most effective way for me to be able to get the likeness of someone down on paper.

I like being able to add things on drawings that aren’t in the reference pictures, to make them more interesting. For example, I drew Henry Cavill earlier this year & changed the image on his hat to the symbol of hope, as a nod to his most well-known role: SuperMan.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Starting out, I used to sketch followers to get exposure and shout-outs. On YouTube I would do time lapse videos drawing the “Subscriber of the Month” for a little while. I have done a few brief social media collaborations with artists, but those were many years ago.

I actually have a very small audience on social media but many of the followers I know by name, (as well as some of their pet’s names haha!) and I have a lot that have been supporters from day 1.

I try to be interactive instead of just putting finished artwork in their faces.
I try to ask questions & share the progress of my work, to show how much time it actually takes from start to finish. An example of what I ask would be something like: “What’s your favorite pencil brand?”or “What’s your favorite cartoon character? ”

Also, artists ask me questions about supplies, which I’m always happy to answer!

If you are just starting out as an artist on social media, I would recommend not worrying about follower numbers. Instead, interact with the ones who already follow you & focus on sharing your unique art style.

Invite your audience to participate in Q&A’s & consider doing a live stream once in awhile where people can see you working on your art.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Over the years, people have asked me to draw things that are trending or just generally very popular just for the sake of being able to draw them. I did that a few times early in the journey & there was no joy in the process.

Most of what is popular is uninteresting to me & I would rather spend the time creating a piece that I’m extremely interested in. I don’t know any artist that frequently draws what they dislike, so maybe I’m not alone in that.

I have reminded people that they can commission me to draw that if they’d like me to create something specifically for them. I used to work in sales so I guess I’m now wired that way, I try to “assume the sale” when people try to demand me to do things.

Contact Info:

• Website: Jasminebakerart.com
• Instagram: @jasminebaker.artist
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@JasmineBaker?si=IJVrYP0sDdx0LKcp