Ariana Harkiolakis is a 23-year-old artist based in Athens, Greece. Ariana was diagnosed at the age of 2 with high-functioning autism. However, she has not let that stop her from finding a fulfilling life through art and music.
Ariana has been a student at London Art College since 2017. Her first course was the Cartooning Diploma with tutor Mr. John Byrne. Ariana thrived through the exercises and challenges set in the course and has been taking Diploma and Certificate courses with LAC ever since. Last year, she earned her formal Certificate of Merit as a result of her high achievement in all her courses (Watercolor, Illustration, Digital Illustration, Cartooning, Drawing Chibis, and Illustrating Children’s Books)
Ariana’s art is varied, and she particularly enjoys cartoons and drawing her favourite characters from Disney and Pixar films. Ariana recently took the Cartooning Diploma course for the second time, years after her first attempt, in order to refine her skills and gain new feedback and guidance from Mr. Byrne. In this iteration of the course, Ariana learned how to draw comic strips, which she immensely enjoyed, and she now draws regularly. Her favourite subjects are funny cartoon scenes, re-enactments of cartoon scenes with different characters, and sequences of movement like dancing.
Autism presents Ariana with a number of social challenges, especially in the area of verbal communication. However, she does not let that stop her from living a happy daily life and from expressing herself through art and music (she plays piano and keyboard and edits audio tracks on Audacity).
London Art College has been an understanding and enriching institute in which to study; Ariana has always significantly felt supported by her tutors and the school staff and has begun completing the LAC weekend art challenges in order to stretch her creative abilities. She is currently taking the Science Fiction & Fantasy Certificate course with Mr. John Byrne again, and she looks forward to learning more art styles and techniques at LAC.
If you would like to receive a roundup of all of our blog posts once a week to keep you inspired in your inbox, why not sign up to our newsletter. You can access our sign up at the top of our page. If you are a London Art College student and you would like your artwork featured here, drop us a line at any time.
