The Origin Story Elize McKelvey graduated in 2012 with her BFA in illustration, but to understand how she ended up an artist in the Marine Corps, we need to rewind a few years to where that origin story begins. In 2010 she was taking a class called “the history of illustration,” and in that course, the professor mentioned something called combat art for a brief moment. Before sitting down in class that day, Elize assumed she would graduate college and join the art industry as a concept artist, as one would. However...what she didn’t know was that those 10 minutes would drastically change her art path. She was instantly hooked; never hearing of the Marine Corps combat art program before, she began almost immediately calling people she found online associated with the program, hoping to find out more about this world somehow that she was experiencing through these amazing illustrations online. The individuals that she was cold calling would later become some of her biggest art mentors over the years. For the remaining two years of college, Elize would heed the advice of her mentors and make sure that she was joining for the right reasons. To be a Marine first and an artist second (a common quote for combat artists). The mission? Share stories of Marines through art. So on May 20th, 2012, just one day after graduating college, she left for Bootcamp, thus beginning her unpredictable eight-and-a-half-year journey as an active duty Marine. Elize today Elize is actively pushing her career as a freelance artist with storyboarding, animating, traditional fine art, and digital illustration techniques. Her efforts have landed her with sponsorships and jobs from companies like VETtv, Wacom, Michaels Art Craft Store, and Pilot pen, to name a few. You can find Elize online posting under the pseudonym of “inkstickart,” primarily on Instagram and tik-tok (garnishing a combined total of over 250,000 followers and counting!) She actively shares stories and experiences that she has and will encounter as her art journey continues in the civilian sector.