GUEST ARTIST: "Upward" by Ramida Han

Today’s wonderful guest doodlewash comes to us from Ramida Han (click here to visit her WordPress blog and follow her!) who is from Thailand. She studied in Singapore for the last 2 years of high school, and is currently an incoming college freshman, moving to the United States next month (and she’s very excited!).

Ramida really started paying attention to art around primary school, when she had a friend who was really good at drawing anime/manga style characters. She says, “I was hooked, even requested her to draw me all these fictional characters in my favourite novels (was quite a book nerd even back then), and I think I paid her like 30 cents per drawing!”

She started to become really interested in art in the last 3 years of high school (didn’t take outside classes but chose art as a subject in school), mainly playing around with acrylic, and usually relied heavily on fantasy elements and symbolism. “I really like drawing people though, but still have so much more to learn.”

At first, Ramida found watercolor to be really hard to learn, mainly because the technique is so different from acrylic, where you usually just layer and layer it on without worrying about mistakes much, and also because of the material requirements (paper for one), but now she says she’s obsessed with it (we love hearing about the first time someone realizes they’ve been doodlewashed!!)

She says, “usually when I do a piece I’m very meticulous about the planning process, composition and meaning, and have only loosened up some recently. This concept of doodlewash is something that is very new and exciting to me. I just want to be able to let go and draw/paint spontaneously without thinking too much!” (exactly! Doodlewashing is all about relaxing and having fun in the moment!)

Ramida is actually going to be studying business/economics in college (not her top choice, but one she feels is the smartest choice considering where she lives geographically). But she says, “I don’t want to leave art behind, so blogging is my commitment to that, and hopefully I can incorporate art into my professional life in the future somehow!”

You can see more from Ramida on her blog, Pinterest (hramida78), or also at DeviantArt. Welcome to the doodlewash family Ramida! So happy to feature your lovely art, and please never stop doodlewashing! We can’t wait to see more from you!

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

See author's posts