Happy Little Trees
Artist Shawn Paluczak is an artist overflowing with potential and promise
Shawn Paluczak starts a new sketch during his free time.
September 5, 2019
Have you ever stayed up all night playing video games or reading or watching movies? Shawn Paluczak enjoys watching movies and playing video games too, but when it comes to pulling an all-nighter, art is his kryptonite.
“There are times that I have not slept entire nights because I was up late doodling and trying to get ideas out on paper,” Paluczak said.
His favorite mediums to express himself with are drawing, painting and graphic design. Other mediums Paluczak would like to improve on or try in the future are sculpting, 3D modeling origami, fabrication (costume making), digital photography, music editing, tattoo art, and calligraphy.
Paluczak, a junior, started drawing in the fifth grade when he saw some people drawing in his class and tried to mimic what they were doing to learn to draw. When learning a skill like art, one can always learn more and improve so when Christian Cole and Paluczak became friends as freshmen, they would help each other with their drawing. According to Cole, Paluczak has helped him with, “a lot of the tiny little basic fundamental parts of drawing stuff out. Basically getting all of the basic stuff down before the details.”
Besides drawing late into the night, Paluczak draws very often at school. A lot of time when he has free time, he has a pencil in hand and is doodling his latest ideas. Mr. Weis had Paluczak as a student his freshman and sophomore year and saw him drawing in class every single day without question.
“Very thoughtful,” is how Mr. Weis described Shawn’s art. “He has attention to color, he has attention to lines, he is purposeful with whatever he is drawing and he’s experimental too. I find that a lot of Shawn’s drawing is very purposeful. It was genuine, ultimately. It was whatever it is that he wanted to do.”
Inspired by the famous painter Bob Ross, Paluczak wishes he could draw and paint landscapes the way Ross did on his show and enjoys learning how to paint and draw landscapes. The inside of Paluczak’s class ring even has a quote on the inside that says, “Happy Little Trees – Bob Ross.”
The way Paluczak describes his drawing style is a grey area between realistic and cartoon. This is the style he used to create a painting that he gave to Friends of Felines Rescue Center. The painting of cats playing around the rescue center’s logo was auctioned off for $275.
Some people say that you have to practice something for a certain number of hours to become good at it. Some say it takes 10,000 hours. Others say it takes 20,000 hours. In regards to art, when you reach this level of practice, you have become really good at whatever medium you are expressing yourself with and then you can be creative in a way that is not hindered by inexperience. Paluczak is a great artist, and seems to only be going onward and upward.
