Jonathan Smith

Colors Guide You Jonathan Smith

Music can inspire people; it inspired me to create this coloring book. When I am listening to music and drawing I can remember what song I was listening to in each area of the picture I am drawing and I get lost in it. When I started working on this book I never thought I would finish it, but when my family and friends saw some of the pictures I was working on and I told them I was making it into a coloring book they told me that it is going to be an awesome coloring book. I will definitely have to buy one. When I heard them tell me that it inspired me to keep going. When I was drawing these pictures I did not know there would be hidden objects in them because, I did not intentionally put those in there. Other people will find these with their own creativity like my grandpa did. I started these drawings based on nothing but some squiggly lines and just started connecting them. No planning, no ideas, no thoughts just complete random patterns are where these drawings came from. I let the tone of the music guide me. Art is the one thing I can put all my focus on even when other thoughts are going through my mind. I would like to thank two of the most influential art teachers in my life, Mrs. Mauney and Mrs. Blackwood for teaching me to go above and beyond what I am capable of. Ladies, I love ya. I started drawing in second grade when I knew I was different from all the other kids in the sense that I could not read like them and this helped me to escape from that. My mom being the mom she is knew something was wrong with my reading so of course she had me tested and we found out I have a learning disability in reading comprehension and dyslexia. Art took me away from that to a place where I could focus on something that was truly enjoyable for me because reading was not. I started taking private art lessons in fourth grade and loved it so much that when my art teacher took me as far as she could all the way into high school I would help her out some with her other younger classes. Having a learning disability does not mean you are dumb it just means you have a strength in another area greater than anyone else and art just happens to be mine. My mom said when I am drawing and so focused on it a tornado could go around me and I would not even know it. I never thought anything would ever come of my art, I always hoped it would and now here I am a published artist. Do not let your dreams just be on paper or in your mind make them a reality like I did. I want to especially thank my family and friends for encouraging me to keep at this and finish it. I hope you enjoy coloring this book as much as I have enjoyed creating it for you.