by Gabryela Reynoso

March 01, 2022

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Senior Rachel Holmes navigates her life through high school while pursuing her passion for art.

Holmes’ art journey originally began in her early childhood years when she would draw on her walls as a toddler and make dolls by drawing them and “laminating” them with tape. Art played a big role in her life thanks to her parents who encouraged creativity. “My father would draw little comics to entertain us and make handmade cards and my mother would sew all our Halloween costumes from scratch and mix the paint for our rooms with glitter. They encouraged our love for art by praising our work and buying us supplies,” Holmes says. 

Holmes continues to actively pursue art because of the numerous creative opportunities art provides. She loves that art can be a multitude of things and is more than just drawings but can also consist of crafts, fashion and more. Although she tends to avoid painting, charcoal, pastels and watercolor, Holmes shares that she’s working on perfecting her colored pencil skills, specifically faces. Overall, after many years of practicing pencil drawings, she was happy to announce that she’s gotten good at drawing realistic faces, curly hair and skin tones. For her, a typical piece takes around eight hours to finish, but she often takes breaks and doesn’t work unless she has time and is feeling inspired. When asked what her favorite piece was, Holmes replied that she could never choose just one, but here are a few of her favorites: 

Holmes’ artistic inspiration continues to be the account @fifi_the_artist4 on Instagram because she made her want to perfect her realism technique. Some advice she has for those just beginning to produce art is to be patient with yourself because improvement takes time. Holmes says what helped her was learning to pay attention to the color and shape things actually are, not just what you think it should be, also known as the “artistic eye.” Lastly she remarked, “There are no rules in art! Create what makes you happy.”

Moreover, Holmes says she enjoys art because she loves to watch her work transform from random scribbles to an actual picture. In addition to pursuing art, Holmes is a competitive artistic swimmer along with her involvement in activism by being a part of clubs like BSU and NHS, as well as Girl Scouts. Her other hobbies include binge watching shows and movies, baking and reading. As for future careers, Holmes is pursuing a career in business but she hopes to still incorporate art into her work. “I love creating so continuing to do it is something that I will do naturally- it’s just a part of me,” Holmes says. 

If you’d like to check out more of Holmes’ art, her instagram is @rachel.sketches.