W hen creativity strikes, art major Lizzy Crump of Alpharetta, Georgia, draws her thoughts down on paper. The scope of her artistic subjects is limitless—as far as her imagination takes her.  

Crump has always liked to draw, but her passion to illustrate was truly awakened in middle school. She started drawing more and continued through her senior year of high school.

“I remember getting in trouble with some of my teachers for drawing on my homework,” Crump said. “That’s what inspired me to begin my school doodles on notebook paper to avoid drawing on my school work.”

She prefers to illustrate with marker. 

“I always thought in order to be a true artist, you need to use high-quality Copic markers, because that's what the artists I admired used,” she said. “Now I know the you don't have to use a specific material to be a good artist, but my love of markers has carried on. Markers are more convenient than colored pencils. And I like to layer the colors.”

She also enjoys working with mixed media—a combination of different types of materials.

“I like to incorporate collage elements into my art, because it makes me more aware of the world around me,” Crump said. “For example, instead of just seeing an ad for a chicken recipe at Publix, I see a blue background that would work well as a denim jacket, and an orange that would work well as somebody's hair.”

She is also fond of creating original character illustrations, some of which are based on stuffed animals she had since she was six years old. 

“I basically daydreamed about them so much that they became characters,” Crump said. “Those characters still live on today. I enjoy taking my ideas and bringing them into the physical world.”

Drawing gives Crump a strong sense of fulfillment. Once she has completed a satisfactory piece, she's excited to tackle the next drawing.

“When I make something I really like, I'll just stare at it, because I conceptualized this thing and brought it into the world,” she said.

“Sometimes I like drawing fan art, but mostly I draw content with my original characters,” Crump said. “Since I'm the only one really able to do that, it's very gratifying for me to draw them and then be able to say, ‘hey, look, this is my little guy that I created.’” 

Her major is art with a concentration in museum studies.

“I’m able to take an art history: renaissance and contemporary class my first year,” she said. “It's pretty exciting to get to take a class related to my major so early in my college experience.”

Although Crump likes making art, she would rather keep it as a hobby and make a living working in a museum. Her career goal is to make art come alive as a curator in an art museum like the High Museum in Atlanta or Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but she's also willing to work as a guide in a nonart setting like Fernbank or Zoo Atlanta.

“While art is very important to me, I'm primarily drawn to the tour guide aspect at a museum," Crump said. “I feel my purpose on earth is to share information with others in an interesting setting.”