Noura Al-Mutairi with Adnan Saad after winning a painting competition organized by Kuwait Times.

The manifestation of creativity and imagination in humans is called art, and we tend to exercise it in various ways. Honing such creativity and talents can be achieved with the help of institutions or through constant practice. Then there are people who are born with artistic skills, like Noura Al-Mutairi, 17, who draws better when she is angry. Noura capitalizes on her mood to express her full range of emotions, feelings through drawings. "I like drawing when I am mad; I like drawing when I feel dissatisfied in the world I live in; if you want me to draw better stuff, make me angry," Noura told Kuwait Times.

Noura is a sociable young Kuwaiti woman. She loves drawing faces of people. For her, it's like creating people and molding them slowly with her hands. "I express my emotions and feelings in my drawings. You'll see the real faces of people when I am disappointed. When I am happy, don't expect a good drawing," she laughed.

Art is a hobby for Noura. "Art is my first love. I do lots of portraits. I like the curves and intricacies of human faces. I love to draw the details of people's faces - it's like sculpting a masterpiece with my hand! When you draw a face, you are recreating human beings - it's like bringing something to life. I like the process of shading the eyes, the curvature of the bones; the body - it's exciting!" she exclaimed.

Noura enjoys drawing faces of Hollywood stars. She also has a favorite - Johnny Depp. "I like drawing the face of Depp. I have made hundreds of his portraits. Maybe just imagining his face makes me happy. I love creating his face with various emotions. I can see a beautiful face after spending hours and hours on my canvas."

Most of Noura's drawings are made using pencil and charcoal. "I like natural and monotone paintings - not too many colors. I think the reason why I am not into coloring is the time wasted - the blending of colors is quite complicated, but I can draw with colors too. I just like it simple and not complicated," she said. Noura prefers to draw on smaller canvases. "I don't mind that majority of my creations are on sheets of A4 paper. Many of my classmates want me to draw their faces, and some of them are really perfect. I like it smaller because you can concentrate on details with less effort as well," she said.

Noura started drawing when she was six years old and has won competitions for her art, including a paint competition organized by Kuwait Times.

"I see to it that everything in my drawings is perfect, so two hours of drawing can extend up to three to five hours." Noura also loves listening to classical music and reading books, and will pursue medicine if she passes exams at Kuwait University. "I want to become a good surgeon. That will be my job and I am heading towards it. But being an artist is my first love - I love drawing. You don't need to major in art to be an artist - if you can draw, you're an artist," she explained.

By Ben Garcia