For Abigail Ervin, a sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, drawing has been her first nature since she “came out of the womb.” With a major in Fine Arts she is honing her innate artistic abilities with a greater career goal in mind.
“I fought with it for a long time,” Ervin said, “it was hard for me to want it to be my thing, it’s not super reliable as a career. But this past semester I decided this is what I’m good at, this is what I love.”
While the decision was difficult upon entering college, her knack for art has been a stable interest since childhood. Her childhood drawings done simply for fun became more serious, especially as her father, Mark Ervin, a former storyboard artist for “The Simpsons”, fostered her interests.
Ervin attributes her father as one of her main edifiers and inspirations on her art journey.
“He’s gone through a bunch of stuff as a storyboard artist, we were really stable for a long time.” Ervin said, “Then he got laid off and he has had to rebuild himself as an artist and he’s doing a good job, so it’s influenced me to keep going with that.”
Though he is her inspiration with art, Ervin’s art has taken a different style path than her father’s, focusing on realistic portraitures.
“I’m stemming out from doing the more famous people to people I know or people who have impacted my life, I want it to be more personal.” Ervin said, “Everyone is so different looking and you don’t really notice it besides obviously differences, but you don’t notice the emotion, but you can see the stories in their photos that I draw.”
She dominantly utilizes graphite as her main medium and occasionally watercolor. She appreciates graphite for the ranges of value that she can use, and enjoys the adventure of going to the store to pick up a wide variety of pencils and erasers for her artwork.
Her detailed pencil portraits have gained recognition of friends, family and members of the Husker football team. Kenny Bell and Johnny Stanton have her portraits of them in their possession. The Husker’s running back, Ameer Abdullah, saw her drawing of him and followed her on Instagram. Each of these are accomplishments Ervin prizes as she continues on her pursuits of art.
With more recognition to come, Ervin desires to be a freelance artist, opening a gallery of all of her artwork highlighting the places she has seen and people she has met.
In the meantime, Ervin is currently working on a post-apocalyptic graphic novel with her brother and pursuing her calling in art.
If you would like to view more of Abigail’s art check out her instagram: @abigailervin