Illustration by Elza High
Caelin Bragg
Lantern Staff
Elza High is an art major at Butler and is one of the Butler Lantern’s new cartoonists for the spring semester.
High got her start in art when she was in middle school, with her time on the internet building her interest in art.
“Just being on the internet all the time, seeing how people would draw everything [inspired me],” High said. “Movies would be another influence and just my personal interest. I just wanted to get better, so I just kept going with it.”
Butler has been a place for High to try new things and find what she needs to do to keep improving at what she likes.
“The beginner classes are really strict with what you want to draw, how you should draw it, making sure you work with a specific medium,” High said. “As you get into the secondary classes, like [Drawing and Comp 2], you really get a sense of what you want to draw. They let you have that exploration. Since you already know how to do this, this and this, you can start drawing what you want to start drawing, and they really let you figure that out on your own, and that’s what I like about these classes.”
High has learned many new ways of drawing from her time at Butler. She formally focuses on drawing creatures, but Butler has helped her broaden her skills.
“Something I thought I’d be really bad at is drawing from life, like that’s a new technique I didn’t really understand coming from high school and going into college,” High said. “And I feel like Butler really helped me see that. For instance, if I were to draw the keyboard on the computer, I understand how to do it, how to approach it. I’m really proud that I learned that technique.”
High says the teachers in the art department are really hands-on and help students figure out what they should be improving on.
“Like for me, I talk to Valerie Haring [chair of the art department], and she really helps me out with portfolio building,” High said. “She’s like ‘Well this is what you need to work on, so you need to make sure you’re checking these off the list,’ so she understands the whole process.”
Spring 2018 will be High’s last semester here at Butler. She plans to transfer to Wichita State University and pursue a degree in graphic design.
High has also gained a following online through her Instagram account “artofelzaa,” where she has been posting her art for a number of years.