Thanks sterlingsiam…
Great to be with this group. I am Albertine, live in The Netherlands,. Several times I made a little time for my love to be active with colours, a few years ago I discovered soft pastel. With the Corona around it gave me real time to get serious. The live course stopped in March and than I discovered Matt. I started with animals in pastel, the cat is my first one; also I do the course 25 days to improve my drawing
Comments from the group members help me very much to give me some confidence. Thank you for s haring my passion
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Dear All,
I’m Vidhi aka Forgetmenot73. Art is my passion, which I never had the chance to pursue until recently when my daughter introduced me to a coloring app and my husband gifted the iPad and pencil. I instantly fell in love with the idea of coloring again without a huge setup. But I wanted to draw not just color so I started drawing over random templates that the app offered. It’s been a year now and I’ve made progress leaps and bounds just by self-teaching. However slowly I got the urge to plunge into the real deal of using paints, pen, pencil and paper. So finally I picked up the courage to take lessons and learn the basics and enhance my understanding of different techniques and organic modes of art. And that brings me to Matt’s TheVirtualInstructor lessons and to this community. Seeing so many beautiful artworks by talented artist here I hope to learn something that I can hold to look at. I’m excited to start this journey. Thank you 
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Hi every body, 
My name is Sara , I’m from Iran and love do drawing .
I do like learning more about drawing with pencil .How to shade, to know about dark and light value . I’m happy to found this place .
I found this community by searching about foundation drawing , I’m a beginner, I do self taught drawing , with all of source I could find at internet and YouTube . I hope with help everybody I can correct my mistake and learning better about art of drawing ,
PS: sorry for bad grammar,English is not my native language.
Nice to meet you all . 
Sara
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Hi everyone mi name is Lucia I’am from Panamá, 19 years old and a Med student. I’am in love with science but I also have a secret passion for art, I’am currently learning pencil drawing in the time off that I have from studying and I love it.
Sending all of you good wishes and also here is my first drawing 
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Love it - especially the reflection of the window!
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Hello, I’m Jody. I recently joined and have already gained so much information on this site. Looking forward to correcting art habits I may have acquired in the past that are not working for me and will help improve my art in the future. I’m very impressed with the lessons, live demonstrations and helpful articles.
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I am a retired airline employee after 42 years, parent of a fabulous 34 year old son, wife of the true “southern gentleman” and advocate for improving my artistic ability (?). Originally, my favorite medium was watercolor and oil, but I have been experimenting with colored pencils and love the results.
This appears to be a very active, helpful site and I am looking forward to learning from you all.
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Hi Everyone,
My name is Becky and I‘m from the Boston area. I just joined a few weeks ago. I have been drawing on and off in graphite for the past year and decided to join the VI to help expand my skills beyond adult ed courses, and to try out colored pencil. Matt was wicked nice to critique a drawing I submitted last week! Looking forward to engaging in feedback/critique with all of you.
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Hello Everyone, I am a Newbie at all of this. I am just trying things to get started. Essentially having a look around to see what is what. My name is Darlene Gillet but my friends call me Duckie. I learned to draw late in life, and I am trying to it in the best way I know how. I have tried everything from drawing, charcoals, graphites, pastels, watercolours, etc. I would like to think that the world is my oyster. If you have any words of wisdom I would greatly appreciate it.
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Hello! My name is Gwen Prettyman. I have loved to draw with graphite since I was a child, but have never taken any formal art class. I began following The Virtual Instructor about 2 years ago and hope to find more time to grow as an artist. I look forward to taking a passion to new levels!
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Ok,words of wisdom: i also started very late in life and as you did tried every medium my most recent brush pens . Sometimes im pleasantly surprised ,sometimes not . But its fun and there is so many nice helpful artists just like me here. im in this community 2 or 3 years now .
welcome tom
i love pencil work too and this is a nice lesson for me. You haven’t missed a thing here,the stroke direction, contrast, and the amazing reflection of the window . thanks for posting tom
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Thank You Tom, I appreciate your response. It is nice to know that I am not the only one that has started all this later in life. When I see what some of the young people can do it makes me think how can I do this, but I do enjoy it. Thanks again, Duckie
I’m Ivey. About 50 years ago I was an art major at a small college. Didn’t end up there, and art got away from me until I retired and I picked it back up. I LOVE ink and watercolor, especially watercolor pencils. Art calms me, it contents me, it pleases me. Thanks, Matt, for the encouragement. You didn’t know you were doing it, but you have made a huge impact on my life.
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Hi, I’m Darrel, a 67 year old, recently retired from the banking industry. I’ve always liked to draw, and Until this past year never invested enough time into the pursuit to improve my skills. I’m looking forward to learning more and seeing others’ work. I’m still amazed at what I have accomplished, and when I finish a drawing that comes out well, I can hardly believe I was the artist involved. Not that the works are so amazing, but I have no idea how I came to be able to do this. I am looking forward to having a great hobby to develop over my “Golden Years”. I will post a picture of one of my drawings. I’ve only used pencil and graphite so far. I have always had an affinity for the pencil, but I look forward to learning other media types in the future. This is a drawing of my youngest granddaughter, Taylor.
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What a beautiful picture, and I’m sure her mother will save this forever. I love pencil work, and after subscribing to this site, I have fallen in love with colored pencils (to which I had not been previously exposed). Hopefully, you will find them fun to work with too.
Welcome to a nice group of like minded friends.
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Thank you so much for your comments Jody. All encouragement is greatly appreciated!!
Hello everyone! I’m a beginning artist who found the Virtual Instructor on YouTube. I noticed I kept finding Matt’s tutorials whenever I was looking for new art to try. I signed up for the VI program so I can develop as an artist. I enjoy watercolor painting the most. I started with watercolor, but am learning to draw with the 25 Days to Better Drawing. I have also enjoyed using oil pastels and colored pencils.
Kali Pelham
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Hi everyone ~ I’m Kat. I’ve spent most of my life with a camera in my hands, but since quarantine, my outings have been limited. I decided it would be nice to learn to draw (again), and to paint. My husband retired last year and took up acrylic painting, but I prefer the looseness of watercolor, so here I am! It’s nice to be able to use some of my landscape and nature photos as reference pictures.
I love the lessons, and the daily challenge. Thanks, Mat!
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