Art student gains huge social media following, launches career at high school

Terminal Updated on May xix, 2018

Talented teenager Kate Powell has shared her Art projects on social media platforms since she was fifteen years old. She currently has over 12,000 fans on Facebook and 34,000 followers on tumblr, with 1 of her tumblr posts gaining over 112,000 notes. We talk to Kate about how she has built this post-obit and how she launched her career before graduating from loftier school.

Xviii year old artist Kate Powell with a cocky-portrait completed during her last twelvemonth of high schoolhouse

Kate is no stranger to success. She has achieved outstanding results as a student at Due north Halifax Grammar School, West Yorkshire, England, gaining A* (the highest grade) in OCR GCSE Art as a Yr 9 student, two years younger than is expected, and A* for A Level Art OCR in Year 12. She achieved full marks (100%) for AQA AS and A Level Photography in Year 13 and is currently waiting for her AQA As History of Art and Art Textiles results. Most teenagers would notice these accomplishments outstanding enough, but Kate Powell is especially committed, passionate and driven. She has taken a Creative Foundation Document outside of schoolhouse, produced a commissioned cartoon of her headmaster, had her work published in the U.k. Specialist Crafts catalogue and found time to produce her own artwork, while nurturing a supportive and growing online fan base of operations.

We were lucky plenty to interview Kate below. All young artists who are contemplating a career in the Visual Arts will benefit from reading her responses.

These are two of Kate Powell's near recent pieces, completed while waiting to nourish a Foundation Degree at Leeds Higher of Art

Y'all accept accomplished outstanding results in your loftier school Art courses, despite completing qualifications a twelvemonth earlier than virtually. What do you believe helped you to achieve fantabulous grades?

Kate: I think I managed to achieve high grades because I chose projects I was passionate almost and which linked directly to me and my life – having this kind of connection with my piece of work motivated me to work hard and prove myself. Since the starting time of my school life I take been concerned with/afflicted by issues of self-harm/eating disorders/ trunk image and later on tackling these problems in art earlier in my school career I felt like my understanding came to a climax in my A2 exam slice (see below), responding to the title 'Storyteller'. I was able to utilise art as a ways of reflection and therapy as I tackled the issues closest to my heart, and, because I felt so emotionally invested in the exam slice, I was driven to requite information technology my all.

'Storyteller: Recovery', the final piece in Kate Powell's A Level Art project, is a stunning self-portrait, completed using tinted graphite, coloured pencil, ink and collage. Demonstrating a superb level of observational drawing skill, the composition communicates a depth of emotion that is rare within a high school Art project: a visual expression of overcoming of struggles with self-harm / eating issues. The collaged, torn diary pages provide a textural base for the artwork, setting free traces of sorrow from an earlier time. Crumpled objects churn from her rima oris and go butterflies (a reoccurring subject matter in Kate's piece of work) symbolising hope, recovery and redemption.

I developed my self-taught cartoon skills over time (I've been practising drawing since I was a toddler and was encouraged endlessly by my family) but I wouldn't have been able to achieve such high grades without the challenges set up past my teachers. In Yr ix I received enormous help from the Head of Fine art who supported me when taking GCSE two years early.

I feel nigh comfortable working in pencil/blackness and white but my Art teachers pushed me out of my comfort zone then I was able to work with dissimilar materials, collage, and on a fairly large scale. Without the diversity they inspired in my work I dubiousness I would accept been as successful when it came to marker. In Photography, the structure of the course (with weekly deadlines and group disquisitional sessions) put me nether enough pressure to ensure I produced a big corporeality of top quality work, just not and so much that I didn't enjoy the lessons. The Photography timetables sent out by the instructor meant that I completed the correct amount of work every calendar week and I could feel myself 'ticking boxes' as I climbed closer and closer to a high grade. I would definitely not take been able to reach 100% for A Level without the instructor'southward encouragement and strict deadlines.

Ane of Kate's A Level Photography Coursework pieces, inspired by Dan Mountford:

This image was created by projecting a drawing over a motionless male figure – connections betwixt her Fine art and Photography projects feeding and inspiring further ideas.

Towards the finish of my schoolhouse life I felt that I was starting to develop a style of sorts and certainly had a articulate vision of how I wanted my work to look. Whilst working on my A2 artwork I was finding more and more than artists who used similar motifs in their portrait work – I found them incredibly inspiring. Focusing on details found in the piece of work of contemporary, up-coming artists such equally Marco Mazzoni, Meghan Howland and Gabriel Moreno helped me to create emotive and stylistically interesting pieces; if I hadn't been inspired by so many wonderful artists and then my work would definitely not have adult as successfully.

This sequence of work (primarily Kate's A Level Art sketchbook pages) shows experimentation with media and the exploration of compositional ideas. Artist influences are chosen cleverly: seamlessly integrating with her own aesthetic.

Y'all take embraced social media and used this to create big followings on both tumblr and Facebook. What strategies take y'all used to build this following?

Kate: I have 12.4k 'fans' on my Facebook folio and 34k followers on tumblr where I upload and display my fine art (as well equally personal posts and inspiration). I've acquired such a large audition mainly due to patience and shameless cocky-promotion, only certain pieces accept helped my audience to grow, such as 'I tried to draw my soul but all I could think of was flowers' (see further below) which has 41.4k notes on tumblr, 'Butterfly Consequence' which has 57.1k, and 'The Butterfly Project' (below) which has over 62k notes. Ordinarily images with lots of butterflies and flowers are popular because they are colourful and eye-catching, but my terminal exam project, Storyteller, also got 10k notes. No affair how far my drawing spreads from the original post, information technology is always linked back to my web log, which is why my follower count increases daily.

Continuing to include collywobbles as 'emblems of hope', Kate'southward final A Level Photography work 'The Butterfly Project' is a technically superb digital collage – a simple yet hit composition.

There are certain times where my audience grows rapidly, which is mainly due to a pregnant private/website sharing my work. Popular art bloggers (such as ghost in the machine) sometimes share my work and this increases my chances of getting called to announced on the daily tumblr 'radar' where every user in the world is able to see the prototype for a short corporeality of time. DeviantART, society6 and Redbubble etc. have also chosen to share my work for which I am very grateful. The picture of me property my drawing up whilst stood betwixt Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (see beneath) besides helped boost my follower count significantly.

Kate Powell'south autographed drawing of Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch from the TV serial Sherlock.

Drawing fan art is a proficient mode to assemble followers with similar interests, merely I always found this was less fulfilling than creating more original pieces. Sure images spread more chop-chop and successfully than others, mainly because of how attainable/illustrative/'pretty' they are. Although information technology is rewarding gaining followers from popular drawings, I would similar to start creating art that is more personal to me – which would hateful making it slightly darker and less decorative, which would inevitably result in less popularity. I came to the conclusion that creating fine art that means something to me is more than valuable than its popularity online.

A drawing inspired by Natalya Lobanova's quote, 'I tried to draw my soul simply all I could think of was flowers':

This piece of work explores Kate's frustration at arriving at a 'pretty' result, when she longs for meaning. In improver to the finished piece of work, she shares photographs of the piece of work in progress, providing carefully equanimous glimpses of the making/creation process. This image wraps meaning inside in it; a captivating portrait, from which we cannot look away.

In hindsight, the nigh meaning matter I would practise differently in sharing my art if I could turn back time would be to put a small watermark or signature on the more illustrative and 'pretty' pieces, because they have sadly been reproduced, plagiarised, reposted and fifty-fifty sold on t-shirts without any credit or link back to me.

How did you balance your schooling with edifice an online following? Did yous discover this difficult?

Kate: I found that balancing my school work and online sites/personal work was peculiarly difficult in Twelvemonth eleven when I was doing then many challenging subjects (sciences, maths) and juggling my creative subjects at the same time. I did extra piece of work at lunchtime and later on schoolhouse so that I could manage both aspects of my piece of work, but I found it pretty exhausting and always felt like I was either neglecting my studies or my personal artwork. I accept plant things a lot easier to residue during A Level because I felt more comfy with my selected subjects and take been able to spend more time doing what I want. Nonetheless, over the by two years I have still been working very hard on subjects such equally History, History of Art and English Literature, and so I haven't spent every bit much time as I would have liked on making my own personal fine art. Gladly, now that I've finished high school I volition be able to focus much more attention on art and hopefully make up for the lack of personal pieces over the past year or so.

This is a personal slice that Kate created while at high school. It expresses the inner critic; the eyes of judgment and ever self-conscious brain observing 'every tiny awkward thing I do wrong'. Despite concerns virtually not having been what she envisioned, this work has a raw honesty nigh it that resonates with viewers; executed with unfaltering perfection.

How has your social media presence influenced your determination to pursue an artistic career and helped you to make the transition from high schoolhouse student to 'creative person'.

Kate: Since a very young historic period I have known I wanted to exist an artist, and social media has only encouraged me. The hugely positive response I've received has been overwhelming and inspiring for me; I am no longer but cartoon for my own enjoyment, I am providing for and entertaining an audience. It'due south an interesting kind of pressure level; I experience similar I couldn't ever stop drawing now that so many people take shown such immense support, and when I'm in a 'cake' I feel the weight of expectation dragging me through it so I can go on on creating. Through tumblr and Facebook I have been able to advertise my online shops such as society6 and Redbubble and on average I make about £150-200 a month from the royalties of these sales. I plant the demand for merchandise with my art on it both surprising and motivating – the thought of existence a starving artist has always been a slap-up worry for me, so seeing so many people spend their money on reproductions of my piece of work before I'm even an established/successful artist gives me promise for the hereafter. I feel that establishing an online presence at a immature age is going to help propel me forwards in the future, and reading people's positive and thoughtful comments every day makes me desire to produce more and more work for them to run into.

Websites similar Redbubble and society6 let artists to sell prints of their work. Print-on-need mugs, clocks and other products provide a fashion of gaining ongoing revenue and give Kate's fans the ability to back up her and share her artwork with the earth.

This slap-up video shows Kate answering some questions about her artwork:

We have published a number of Featured Art Projects on the Student Art Guide, jubilant the success of high school students. If you enjoyed this article, you lot may wish to read our comprehensive list of art careers and our article explaining why art students should create their ain artist website.

Amiria has been an Art & Design instructor and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course design and cess of student piece of work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Available of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Compages (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Blueprint Coursework Assessor.

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Source: https://www.studentartguide.com/featured/kate-powell-art

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