Artist Cindi Norton Williams

In 2012, Cindi decided that at age 55, she was ready to change her life. As her only child was graduating from high school, this single mom decided to retire from her university accounting position after nearly 25 years. It was time to begin enjoying life on her own terms! Cindi bought a new camera, camping gear, and some art supplies, then set out to enjoy nature and attempt new things. Her biggest challenge was to learn how to transform her amazing photos into recognizable drawings!

As a self‐taught artist, Cindi began watching drawing tutorials on Youtube, and came across the free videos of Darrel Tank's Five Pencil Method, as well as discovering the 5pm website. By learning his graphite pencil techniques, and a lot of practicing, Cindi's work began to dramtically improve. Her work then took a new turn, toward colored pencils and a few pastels. Now her passion lies mainly with doing nature scenes and animals, using colored pencils and occasionally her trusty graphite mechanical pencils. Cindi tries to achieve an oil painting look to her drawings, and mixes various brands of colored pencils on all of her drawings to achieve the results she is striving for. She is always trying out new papers and pencils to see what can be achieved.

Since Cindi is dedicated to drawing everything freehand, she feels nature scenes are so much more forgiving than portraits, thus more enjoyable to do. Cindi believes that anyone can draw, it's not talent, it's skills that anyone can learn and practice. The main point of drawing is to enjoy your time doing it! Knowing that you are creating something that others will enjoy, from just a blank piece of paper and a few pencils, is one of the most gratifying feelings Cindi says she has experienced.

You can see more of her work, and contact her through her Facebook Art page Willow's Heaven Fine Arts ‐ https://www.facebook.com/WillowsHeaven. You can also email her with commission requests at willowsheaven@gmail.com.