The Jacket Journal will be starting a new trend by recognizing and spotlighting a different artist every month! To start us off we will be covering Emily Tackett (11). If her work peaks your interest you can always check out her instagram, @emilyart.jpg, and her YouTube channel called Emilline(The icon is a jackal).

As most people doodle in elementary school, so did Tackett. When she started middle school she decided to improve her talents. Tackett says that she does not remember the reason she started to draw, but could not stop once she started. She said, “I started coming up with all these universes and ideas for characters that I had to get down in some way, and art just seemed like the best way to give all these characters a home of sorts.”

Like all artists, she had to start somewhere. For Tackett she saw so much art on social media and DeviantArt that she really wanted to draw, too. Like most kids, she grew up watching Disney movies and part of her inspiration came from these animated masterpieces.

When asked if she would like to pursue a career in the fine arts, she said, “While I’d love to just be an artist (or even author) for the rest of my life, I have such an interest in engineering and it is such a stable job market, I think I’ll be keeping art as a side project.”

There is some advice she gave us for anyone wanting to either starting to draw or improve their skills far enough for a career. “I’d say never stop. Characters will look cliche or too heavily inspired at first and that’s fine. It has to exist before it’s ever good, so never be afraid of making something bad before you make progress in your journey. Besides that…