Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Wendell.
Christine, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I originally fell in love with art when I took a sixth-grade class with my teacher Mr. Bramhall. I just clicked really well with expressing myself creatively, but I never thought I could be good enough to do it professionally until my high school art teacher Mrs. Jones suggested I apply to SCAD for art. I started to work on my style more and more as I went into college, eventually discovering ZBrush in a 3D modeling class and falling in love with art all over again. Now I go back and forth between 2D and 3D art to fit whatever strikes my creativity that day.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road towards becoming an artist has definitely had its challenges. I’m mainly self-taught until I got to college so I had to work really hard to keep pushing my art to become better and better. I also had a hard time working up my confidence. I originally compared myself to a lot of more experienced artists and felt a bit discouraged, but I realized that they had so many more years in experience than I did. Soon my confidence began to build once I realized that everyone works at their own pace and develops their style after lots of hard work and dedication.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Right now, I am a student at Clemson University learning how to work as a part of a production team for animated movies and video games. I’m mostly focusing on 3D modeling and will hopefully go into the toy and action figure industry once I graduate in 2023.
I’m also working on starting a 3D printed jewelry business where I create and sell my own quirky jewelry designs. My business name is KitschyKattDesigns on Etsy and I hope to be able to open around September or October of 2021.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I feel like my perseverance is the most important to my success because it helps me overcome disappointments and failed ideas to eventually get to a wonderful end result.
