Introducing the Koh-I-Noor October Drawing Team

These talented artists have joined our drawing team to celebrate a month-long drawing challenge. Whether you are looking for inspiration, motivation, or a fresh take on traditional ink, you'll find it with us this October! Here are the stars in our cosmos this October.

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DeShawn Fairbairn

Engaging in medical sciences and artwork from 12 years old, DeShawn views the human body as a beautiful piece of artwork. His most recent endeavors have led him to write and illustrate his latest work called the Legend of the Fire King alongside Digital Art Professor Benedick Bana. His artwork ranges from human anatomy to dark characters as concept art. He attributes his love for art from predecessors such as Takehiko Inoue, Burne Hogarth, Todd Lockwood, Stan Lee, and Tim Burton. DeShawn is a student at Tufts Medical School with a passion for

bodybuilding, music, and art.

Instagram: @iamdflex_

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Katarzyna Blaz

Katarzyna is a fifth-year student of biotechnology at the Rzeszów University of Technology in Poland. She has also been developing her passion for realistic drawing. She is self-taught and believes that the beauty of art lies in the fact that you can discover it yourself. She spends every free moment learning new techniques and improving her skills. The focus of her work is on portraits of people and animals. Traditional graphite pencil is her favorite medium. However, she also draws with colored pencils, dry pastels, and charcoal. Katarzyna feels the most important aspect of pursuing art is technique development. She believes in having a lifelong dedication to improving your skills as an artist. Instagram: @katharos.art

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Gina Leone

Gina is an award winning artist whose interest in animal art developed naturally from her early involvement with dogs. She is a graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY with high honors and a BFA in Illustration. She has completed commissions for the Dachshund Club of America, Dog Fancy Magazine, The AKC Gazette and many private collectors. Her work has recently been published in Colored Pencil Magazine's 2020 Look Book and Ann Kullberg's CP Hidden Treasures, Vol. 6. Gina believes that understanding the structural and individual differences between each animal

continues to make drawing them a rewarding

experience. Instagram: @ginaleonefineart

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Urvee Jethwa

Urvee is a self-trained artist from India. She started exploring art at the age of 19. Soon her doodles grew into more complex art as she invested time developing her skills. Art was just a hobby until people started showing interest in her work and offering commissions. Her work consists of high contrast layouts that use bold, saturated color and are often inspired by nature. Urvee works in watercolor, and acrylics on various types of paper, wood, and wall murals. Instagram: @the.aeliusstudio

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Debbie Bonner

Debbie is a 52-year-old wife, mother, and grandmother. She confesses that it feels like yesterday when she married her high school sweetheart, 33 1/2 years ago! Debbie recently started drawing again after taking years off to raise her children. She takes a carefree, easy approach to her art. Self-taught, Debbie enjoys exploring different techniques through trial and error. She is very excited to be part of the Koh-I-Noor Drawing team, and we are happy to have her!

Instagram: @whi.cre8ed

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Patrik Giacomelli

Nineteen-year-old Brazilian artist, Patrik Giacomelli, is studying Architecture and Urbanism. When it comes to art, he is self-taught. He describes his approach as "one who seeks constant evolution and inspiration in nature." He has been "breathing" art for almost ten years, allowing himself to discover and test various techniques and mediums. He especially enjoys creating mandalas via pointillism using colored pencils. Instagram: @patrik_giacomelli

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John Kidd

John is a 53-year-old self-taught artist from London, England and a single parent to three wonderful kids. He has been drawing for as long as he can remember but never really thought of it as a career path until recently. He was originally trained as an engineer and first discovered technical pens at the age of 13 while studying Engineering Drawing. Aside from pen and ink, he also works in pencil, charcoal, watercolor, mixed media, and digital. He has challenged himself to learn a new medium every few months to see how he can expand his skills and to explore where it will take his artwork.

Instagram: @military_pinups

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Aga Mleczek

Aga is a Polish artist based in UK. She moved there after graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts. She dreamed she would make an animated movies or be a book illustration, but in the end, she applied for graphic design, (thought it's more convenient). She enjoys doing all kind of illustrations and animal portraits using different mediums and techniques. She loves working with crayons and markers as well with oil paint and sprays. She also paint cars and motorbikes using airbrush and mixed media.

Instagram: @lazzzyfox

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Katie Hudnall

Katie Hudnall received her BFA from the Corcoran College of Art & Design and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Furniture Design/Woodworking. Her published work and exhibitions include Crafting A Continuum: Rethinking Contemporary Craft, Making A Seat at the Table: Women Transform Woodworking, and in American Craft Magazine’s February/March 2017 issue. Hudnall, an assistant professor, runs the Wood Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she lives, teaches, and makes tools for problems both real and imagined. Though her practice is primarily based in woodworking, Hudnall’s first love is drawing, and all of her pieces start as sketches. She is never without her sketchbook and almost always drawing. Instagram: @katiehudnall

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Jacob Daley

Jacob earned his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015.

His favorite materials are pigment pens and acrylic ink. Jacob's art is focused on Pointillism and the use of thousands of dots to create a single image. Through the layering of four key values ( Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black), he can achieve the full spectrum of colors. This process is very similar to print-making and the printing method. He creates these pieces as a means to alleviate and process chronic anxiety and mild depression. The repetition of the pen hitting the paper and the slow process creates a meditative state in which he can process emotions in a healthy, mindful manner. Art heals in mysterious ways. Instagram: @daley.dots

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Luis Sanchez

Luis Sánchez was born and raised in Queretaro, México. He is a visual artist, specializing in both traditional and digital painting and illustration. He has dedicated himself to the arts since he was very young. He had his first solo show after dropping out of the local university and hasn't stopped since. He has spent the last 15 years in creative endeavors as an independent artist and also as a radio host, gallery curator and as a freelance illustrator for videogames, books, movies and painting street murals.

Instagram: @luissanchezartmx

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Tony Santo

Since 2009 Tony has been designing storyboards for History Channel (Vikings), WWE (Wrestlemania), Cartoon Network (Ben 10: Omniverse), Indeed.com, Humira,

Carnival Cruise Lines, Sun Trust, Microsoft, and others. In addition to storyboards, he provides animatics, cinematics, video editing, illustration, and concept art for advertising, stage, film, TV, games, and websites. Tony has worked as a Clean-Up Animator on Disney films like

Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, Brother Bear and The Emperor's New Groove. He's served as Art Director on multiple iterations of the award-winning EA Sports games Madden NFL and NCAA Football.

As an Art Ambassador for Chartpak Artist Supplies he offers demos to schools and art stores, as well as on social media. He resides in the Bronx, but his home is where his work takes him. Instagram: @tonysantocreative