The pencil rests snugly in his hand. The graphite glides across the stark white piece of paper, pressing down to form clear, dark lines, then softly skimming the surface to create hazy shading.

Junior Jack Stevenson started drawing as soon as he possibly could.

“I’ve been drawing since I could actually draw. You know, pick up a pencil, marker, crayon, have a piece of scrap paper,” Stevenson said.

Pop culture inspired his art, especially the cartoons he remembers watching as a kid.

“Some of my first stuff was inspired by Jimmy Neutron and Scooby Doo, but I kind of outgrew that,” Stevenson said. “I got into a mix of anime and western animation.”

Now, he is inspired by things he sees in everyday life.

“When I see something cool, either [in] real life, movies or something like that, I just kind of take that as an idea and put it on paper,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson explained that art is a way of stress relief and a form of meditation.

Never having taken any formal art classes until reaching high school, Stevenson recognizes the aid he’s gotten from the art program here at Wayland. He notices an improvement in his technique and breadth of style.

The piece he is most proud of is his self portrait from freshman year.

“That was the first time I tried to do anything really realistic, and it came out successful,” Stevenson said.

More recently he has been interested in the digital medium, using a tablet and pen he received for Christmas.

Stevenson will be moving to Brookline the weekend after midterms. He hopes to continue pursuing art there in the future.