Every Sunday, NEPA Creative turns the spotlight on some awesome creatives. This week, we have Mitchell Bagnas!
Mitchell was born in 1995 and raised in a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania. As a kid, he was never good at anything. School and sports just weren’t for him. However, he always found himself drawing things from his imagination. He didn’t even think he was good at it, he just enjoyed drawing as a creative outlet.
Fast forward to middle school; Mitchell remembers sitting in class and watching a fellow classmate draw a portrait of a man. At the time, he thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. After that, Mitchell started drawing a lot more. He would find himself drawing things from life like animals, people, and buildings. That was the start of his love for art.
Mitchell’s parents saw that he was taking interest in art, so for birthdays and Christmases he would always receive sketch pads and how-to draw books. Fast forward again to his high school years, Mitchell was still drawing a lot. At that point, his parents and teachers started asking him what he wanted to do in the future. All he knew was that he loved to draw and he couldn’t see himself doing anything else.
During this time, Mitchell didn’t have too many friends, so in his spare time he would watch drawing videos on Youtube and do research on different artists. He loved looking at work from the Renaissance. He would tell himself all the time that he’d find a way to get to that level. So every day, he would draw, and draw, and draw. Drawing would help him come out of his shell. Mitchell would make new friends because people would take interest in what he was sketching.
After high school, Mitchell enrolled himself into the local community college where he studied Painting & Illustration. His plan was to obtain his Associate’s degree and attend a university soon after. However, after doing some research, he couldn’t find a college that was going to teach him the things he wanted to learn. That’s when an instructor told Mitchell about a world-class painter who takes on apprentices: Anthony Waichulis and the Ani Art Academy apprenticeship program. Without any hesitation, he applied and Anthony took him on as an apprentice. It is here that Mitchell hopes to truly grow as an artist.
To see more of Mitchell’s work, follow him on Instagram @mitchell_bagnas_fine_artIf you are interested in being featured as part of our Sunday Spotlight series, click here!
