Artist Statement

My biggest strength as an artist is my eye for design and composition; I have the ability to look at something and draw it in perspective, with shading, and as many details as it requires to look realistic. I aspire to be an architect or interior designer one day so these skills really help me with that dream. Another strength adding value to drawings because I am good at reading how the light is falling and drawing what I see and where the light hits. I also like to focus on the yin-yang type compare and contrast relationship in many of my works. I like showing the contrast between color, line, shading, perspective and others because it make the drawing more aesthetically pleasing. Lastly, a strength I have is evaluating and criticizing myself which motivates me to do better and also helps me learn a lot from my own mistakes. I’m not afraid to make mistakes because that’s the way I learn best, and I have learned a lot since I first started drawing.

My weaknesses, on the other hand, are mainly technical and creative. Since I skipped Art 1 and went straight into Art 2, I find myself lacking some fundamental art skills like how to paint with watercolors, use pastels, color pencils, and be good technically overall. Another technical skill I’m lacking (and trying to work on) is the ability to draw portraits and people. No matter how hard I try, I can’t make a drawing look like the person it’s supposed to look like. Another weakness is I see everything too geometrically and real and can’t allow myself to get creative and think of ideas that are out of the box. When I am told to draw something, I usually want to just draw how I see it, and I find it hard to add other elements or make it more complicated than it is. I like to appreciate objects for what they are and draw them but it comes down to it, I can be creative and think of new ideas as well. Being creative is an issue I face because I have many ideas in my head but when it comes to putting them down on paper, I don’t know how to realize them the exact same way they look in my head which leads to me getting frustrated.

The brick wall that mainly stands in my way is my competitiveness with other artists, lack of creativity and the desire to always have the best drawing in class. When given a creative task, I find myself more worried about how other people are going to do it than how I am going to do it. This blocks my creativity and instead of thinking about what I want to do, I start thinking about how to do better than the person next to me. This constant comparing of me as an artist to my peers has a negative effect on my art skills because it brings my confidence down which in turn lowers my creativity as well.

To get through this brick wall, I remind myself that every artist is unique and have different skill sets. There will be people who are better than me just like there will be times I will be better than them. I like it when people compliment my work because it reminds me of my strengths and that I have what it takes to be an artist. It’s important to remember why I love art and why I got involved with it in the first place.