Hi, and welcome to my new blog. In this first post of mine I'll introduce myself, and describe my creative process, what I draw inspiration from and the experiences and people that have shaped me and my style.

About me

My name is Jorens, as an artist I go under the name NTZ Arts. My profession is being a web developer, but I've had interest in art and creativity ever since I've been a kid.

I remember drawing a lot when I was in kindergarten. In my preteen-teen years I dwindled down on it, although I did briefly attend an arts school where I would still create art.

In my late teens I picked up the pace again and started drawing much more frequently, and also slowly started developing my own style.

At 20 years old I went to prison for a month, during which time I had a lot of free time to practice my creativity, which helped me solidify my style further.

Before being sent to prison, I had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and in hindsight I can see that a large part of my artwork is an expression of my disorder.

After leaving prison I started working professionally as a web developer, and also started my art Instagram - ntz.arts. At first I was posting just small abstract doodles (because that's what I'd been mostly drawing anyways), but as time went by, my drawings started becoming more intricate, 'meaningful' and disciplined. Recently I've also started posting reels showing how I draw. As of writing this, my Instagram page has 430 posts.

Nowadays I mostly work on abstract, zen-like artwork.

About my style

My style is a mix of abstraction, organic shapes, geometry and zen-like patterns that all, fused together, create my style. I mostly draw with pen on paper without any coloring, though occasionally I like to experiment with color and sometimes even other mediums such as watercolor or acrylics.

My creative process

To me, creating art isn't just about expressing yourself. It's also about being disciplined, about putting in the work and effort. When I create art, I treat it as a challenge - I try to push the limits of what I am capable of doing in terms of effort and patience.

That's why my artwork features so many patterns and repetition, because it is something that lets me practice discipline, consistency and patience. I find it very calming and meditative.

Usually the way I 'come up' with ideas is to either re-draw something I've already drawn in the past (or a mix of several such drawings), get inspired by a drawing of someone else (and sometimes even straight up copy it (no shame in that as long as the author gives you permission to share it)). Well, that's for the zen-like drawings at least.

There's another category of drawings besides the pattern-zen-like drawings, which are just plain random abstract shapes. I don't really have any words to describe the process in drawing those, I guess I kind of just go with the flow and draw based on what I feel and my past experiences.

If I'm all out of ideas I usually just draw a set of parallel lines (and lately, as a challenge try to keep them as tightly together as possible).

I really just draw on any kind of paper that I have around me. It can be a regular sheet of printing paper, or sometimes a sketchbook when someone, or my past self, decide to treat me with a gift.

My inspirations

I've been inspired by several artists, probably most notably Mark Crilley and Peter Draws. That being said, I learn a little bit from each artist and each piece that I witness.

Besides that, I think my psychotic experiences and delusions have also greatly shaped my style.

Conclusion

So that was a bit about me and my creative process.

Thank you for reading this post and checking out my blog. In my next post I will write about discipline and its relation to creating artwork.

Bye!