Sitting in the back of the class, sophomore Gaby Massey sketches away in her notebook the surrounding faces within the room.

Massey began her passion for drawing at a young age. She was inspired by her older brother, Hunter Massey, drawing on his own and wanted to be just as good as him. From that day on her passion for art took off and never stopped. 

“My brother was a huge inspiration to me when I was starting out,” Massey said. “I wanted to be just as good as him if not better and he’s motivated me so much throughout my time as an artist.”

She is self-taught with the only outside help being the books she has bought from Barnes & Noble that gave her tips on how to be a better artist. Her main style consists of realistic perceptions of the people around her, even when she had first started out she has always taken an interest in encapsulating human characteristics with the only thing changing being her skill and realism in her drawings.

“Gabrielle has an amazing eye for detail. Her use of color is unique and brilliant at multiple mediums,” Hunter Massey said. “I’m always so impressed and proud of every piece she creates.”

 Due to the fact that she gets constant requests from people to draw things for them, she decided to make a little bit of profit off of it. She calls these commissions and she will draw anything people ask as long as it is appropriate and depending on the materials used. Average prices could range from $5 up to $13 dollars.

“Whenever someone finds out you’re an artist, especially a good one, their first question is always if I could draw something for them,” Massey said. “So I figured I could at least benefit a little bit from it and I could use the money to pay for extra supplies to make my drawings better.”

People tend to look at artists and question how good some of these drawings get and how realistic a lot of them look. The matter of the fact is you don’t even have to be a well known or famous artist to have that type of effect on people.

“Her style is very realistic and they all have a wide variety of colors it is truly breathtaking.” sophomore Eren Daniels said. “You can tell she really puts a lot of effort into them and I think she is going to go very far if she decides to revolve her career around art.”

  Many people say their hobbies have helped them throughout their life. Whether it be through hard times they’ve encountered or just to get them through the little things during the day. This is no different for the young aspiring artist.

“It makes me a lot happier and calmer, it settles my mind and improves my mental state a lot,” Massey said. “After I saw my brother drawing my passion for art just spiraled on from there and I just kept going with it and now it’s just a hobby of mine.” 

Massey’s passion for art doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon and she hopes to enter into an art-related career field. She aspires to be a successful tattoo artist in the west coast to express her love of the arts.