Southern Soul Daily

By: Courtney Glover Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Gavin Michelli of DeviantArt. Gavin is a 35 year old father of two from B aton Rouge, Louisiana. He has a BFA in Fine Arts from Louisiana State University. He’s been working as a professional artist since 2005. I had first met him a couple of years ago at Anime Con in the Shreveport/Bossier area in Louisiana. Watching him draw, you could see the joy in his eyes as he put pencil to paper. It was truly inspiring. Gavin does a little bit of everything. He’s a comic book artist, colorist, inker, digital artist, and illustrator. He also works as a graphic designer for a marketing agency. When asked what other type s of art he’s dabbled in, he replied “I’ve also dipped my toe in the swimming pool of hand lettering, video editing, and sculpting.” As I’m sure you can tell, Gavin doesn’t believe in specializing. You could say he’s the original jack of all trades artist. When asked how long he’s been creating...

By: Courtney Glover First, stop crying. If you’re anything like me, you’re a very emotional person. And you cry, a lot. You cry when you’re sad, or when you’re angry, or even when you’re happy. You have no problem expressing your feelings or emotions. Some people just can’t handle that. But that’s their problem, not yours. But you have to stop crying. You’re emotionally distraught right now and the one you love the most just ripped your heart out of your chest. He just ripped it right out, threw it on the ground and stomped on it. But you still love him, with all the broken pieces of your heart. You can’t help it. He’s the love of your life, you’re best friend. You’ve already gone through a whole box of tissues, looked at every single photo you have of him, and probably even ate an entire half-gallon of chocolate ice cream. And you just can’t stop crying. No matter what his reason is, and it’s always something lame or stupid, you just can’t comprehend why he did it. An...

By: Courtney Glover McElwee   Today I interviewed the deviantArt artist James Chaney. James, or JcoolArts on dA, was born in Arizona. He’s been drawing since he was about 3 or 4 years old. James told me that he didn’t really start intentionally practicing until 2012. There was a long period in his life where he didn’t draw much at all. “I regret that in hindsight, but everything has its reason, I suppose.” The first type of art he was able to draw consistently were mazes. Big 8.5 by 11 mazes that looked like squishy brains, according to James. “I still will make one every now and again if bored, but people never really want to tackle my mazes though because of their extreme difficulty. His very first inspiration was Bob Ross. Other inspirations of his include Tim Burton and a few other artists from deviantArt. “One day I was sitting in the car drawing a Tim Burton inspired graveyard on some scrap paper. I looked down and I saw something I actually liked...

This is one of my daughter's friends from high school, Chris McCullough. He's an up and coming, one heck of a rising star, musician and singer. Check him out! https://www.facebook.com/cdmccullough94/videos/vb.100013957122362/402016060273628/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

By: Courtney Glover McElwee  Today I interviewed the artist Connie. Connie is a 13 year old artist known as Cursed-Image-420 on DeviantArt . She’s been drawing since she was 10 years old and eventually moved on to digital art. The first thing she ever drew were stickmen and her technique has improved over the last three years. I asked her what inspired her to start drawing, “Just needed something to do with my free time, but eventually it became sort of an escape for me in general.” Her favorite thing to draw i s Anthro. Anthro, refers to the G reek word anthropos meaning human. Anthro art refers to humans, human-like, or humanoids, especially with regard to sentience. Anthro art can be an animal with human characteristics or a human with animal characteristics. She uses a Wacom Intuos Draw to create her anthro art. Connie has been on DeviantArt for only four months and if you visit her page you can’t help but notice her unique sense of hu...

By: Courtney Glover McElwee Today I interviewed the artist, Liz W. Izzy4Anime, as she is known on Deviant Art, is a 37 year old traditional and digital artist from Missouri . She grew up listening to classical music. Classical music is what inspired her to become an artist, “I was inspired by what I heard in the music itself.” The first thing she ever drew, ” It was of two hills coming together at the horizon with a river in  between them. The drawing also had a sunset with a few birds.” Liz has been drawing ever since she could hold a pencil. Her favorite type of art to create, “Anything environmental and fantasy design.” Liz loves to read and write, mostly poetry, fan fiction, and fantasy. Her tools of the trade include a graphite pencil, acrylic paints, and oil paints. Liz excels at her anime art and I really enjoyed her Yu-Gi-Oh artwork. Go check out Liz W. and her wonderful art @ https://izzy4anime.deviantart.com/ gall...

By: Courtney Glover McElwee 5-29-2018 Today I interviewed the artist, Lulu. Lulu is a 16 year old artist from Maryland and known as Pilulu on DeviantArt. Lulu is a cartoonist and has been drawing for 9 years now. The first thing she ever created, “It’s hard to say. Probably a crappy picture of me.” Personally, I find that difficult to believe seeing how wonderful her art is. I asked what inspired her to start drawing, “Watching anime. Dragon Ball Z was a huge influence since it was the first anime I ever watched.” Her favorite type of art is anything bright, colorful and cartoony. She also enjoys creepy, cute art. Her tools of the trade are markers. Lulu has been involved in several art shows and won a silver award for one. Lulu has been on DeviantArt for two years now and has over 450 pieces of art. You can’t help but smile as you browse her gallery. Lulu may be young, but she has a bright and colorful future ahead of her. Go check out Lulu’s ...