How I have grown over the year

Art 3 is the year when my artist voice really began to develop. After skipping Art 1 and going straight into Art 2, I felt overwhelmed by it all. I tried to keep up with my class and struggled when my technical abilities didn't match up with everyone else's and weren't at the level I wanted them to be. In Art 3, I began to focus more on myself, what my strengths are, and what I need to improve on. I realized I couldn't be good at everything but instead had to focus on a few aspects of art that I'm either good at or want to work on. When the concept of having an "artist voice" was brought up, I had no idea what mine was at first. Not only do I have to draw well...I have to represent my voice through it? At first, it seemed impossible. As I moved through the year, my voice began to show itself in my work. I still have a long way to go, especially with IB art coming up next year. I don't think an artist ever 100% knows their own voice or what their own artwork means but at some point, you get a pretty good idea and just stick with it. My voice is seen in my realistic drawings with some graphic design elements (like the triptych, window drawing, MLK drawing...). I still don't know what my artist mission is or what I'm trying to do with art later on, but it has a significant place in my busy life. I can relax and ease my stress by drawing but it also can add on to my stress because of my constant desire to be the best.
This year, I learned what a multifigure complex composition is. In the past, I've done simple drawings and thought it was enough but I now know that a real painting or drawing has to have many layers to it and many objects. There needs to be rhythm, color, value, movement, and most importantly a story. Rather than simplistic drawings that look appealing to the eye, my drawings need to be come drawings that look appealing to the eye but are also appealing to the brain and make the viewer think about the story behind it. It's important to keep Art 1 and 2 rules in mind but to also remember that these rules can sometimes be broken. Not every drawing or painting has to look the same, have the same components, or follow the same rules.
My media use has increased and diversified throughout the year. I've experimented with many different mediums but I've also discovered which ones I like best. I know that drawing with pencil will always be my favorite media to use but I have also started painting. I want to improve my painting skills and get them to a level where I can draw complex compositions that tell a story. I was in no rush to learn this in Art 3 because I know IB art is very wet media centered so I have that to look forward to.
In Art 3, my sketchbook has gone from a place with pretty drawings that I can brag about to a place where I can plan my bigger projects and plan out my process. When people ask to see my sketchbook, they are almost always more disappointed than when they see my bigger, finished products. I don't mind because I know that my sketchbook is just somewhere for me to have ideas, not something for other people to be looking at and critiquing. Whenever I'm stuck and don't know what to draw, I look back at my sketchbook for inspiration. A great example of this is when I drew "Polly Wanna Cracker?" and ended up receiving a Gold Key in scholastic for it. I got the idea to draw a parrot by looking back and seeing some rough sketches I had made of parrots a while ago. I then added on to this by adding the words and tested out the colors in my sketchbook as well. The use of my sketchbook has definitely helped me because it shows in my work. My work has improved tremendously and the more research and planning I do before assignments, hopefully the better it will get.

Expressive portrait bust

This was my first attempt at a portrait bust. I was trying to go for the expression of surprise and although it looks nothing like me, I think that for a first time I accomplished the task of showing emotion. At first, I thought it would be impossible to show emotion or even make a human face out of clay but just like any other art concept, it just requires a lot of work.

Triptych Reflection

This is the first triptych I have done and I already love the idea of a triptych. Putting one idea on three canvases and having to unify it through color, design, texture, and composition is a challenge but also an opportunity for creativity. Having the opportunity to do three different paintings but connecting them in the end allows you to tell a story; to tell your story. I did not do a great job in telling a story or showing my contextual understanding in my first triptych but I now recognize the idea behind it. I have many ideas that can tell a story because everything in life tells a story... a triptych allows you to show this story in a variety of ways and the fact that it's chronological makes even more sense to the viewer.
When it comes to composition, I did not necessarily follow the rule of thirds because my Eiffel Tower was centered, however this was what I found best since I was going for the graphic design aspect. In the future, the composition should draw the reader into the triptych and keep them interested in the story and rhythm, rather than just have them look at the triptych like some simple postcard and move on.
Media use gets more complicated the more complicated the idea is. A simple Eiffel Tower only requires a painted acrylic background with a minimal amount of color mixing and a plain white outline of a building. However, when triptychs involve people or other multifigure complex compositions, there needs to be a deeper understanding and more complex use of media.
Work process can be seen in my sketchbook where I originally had ideas for what story my triptych would tell. However, I went on a different path and when it came to my rough draft, I did a graphic design piece instead. This show how easily an artist's thought process can change when it comes to art and how ideas come into your mind at every second. In the future, I can do a better job of documenting these ideas to show my work process.
Overall, I loved doing triptychs. I will definitely look into them more into the future and explore different ways in which I can tell stories and ideas through my triptychs.

Eiffel Tower Triptych

For this assignment, I chose to focus more on the graphic design aspect of a triptych rather than the narrative of it. However, there is a story being told in this in that it goes from dark to light gradient in the background representing a change in time from night to day. I chose the Eiffel Tower because it's a timeless, well recognized symbol of love and traveling the world. I'm also currently taking French and love the language so I wanted to paint something to commemorate this. I'm very happy with the way it turned out even though it strayed away from the original idea.

Math Curse - Polly Wanna Cracker?

When given the assignment for Math Curse, I didn't know what I wanted to make my math problem about. My original ideas were basic and completely logical, which isn't really fun after all. As I worked through it, I noticed my ideas start to get more and more creative. I decided to draw a parrot because I was looking back at old vacation pictures and got inspired. I then based the problem off of my idea for the drawing and it all fit together. I like the vibrant colors that I used on the parrot because it makes him stand out on the paper. The lines on the notebook paper were originally there just to make sure my writing was straight and I was planning on erasing them after. However, after I finished all the writing, I decided I'd rather keep them and turn the lines into notebook paper instead. The parrot is almost clenching on to the paper. I'm proud of the way this turned out because it shows off my creative side and it was also the first Gold I've ever won in Scholastics.

Crash! Bang!

For this assignment, I was given the words "crash!" and "bang!" and had to create an interesting drawing based off of them. For crash, I decided to draw a plane crash in the ocean because it's a fear that I have since I travel in planes a lot. I chose to do it all in pen since I'm used to drawing in graphite pencil, which ended up taking a very long time. The use of black, red, and blue ink created an interesting color scheme but overall took about 4 hours with all the little details. For "bang!" I was inspired by the Big Bang Theory and decided to draw the solar system. Outer space and the unknown is another fear of mine which I chose to represent. I like my use of value but I wish I had done the drawing in color to make it more interesting. 

Expressive self portraits

In my first portrait I got too focused on the small details and shading instead of the overall expression of the face. I fixed this mistake by barely shading the next few portraits and focusing on portraying emotion instead. The emotions are (in order) serious, dreamy, surprised, confused, and sad. These expressive self portrait sketches will help me when I'm trying to make clay molds with expressive facial expressions. 

National AIDS awareness day

For national AIDS awareness day, we were given the task to create a poster to raise awareness. I chose to focus on myths related to AIDS and HIV. Here my progression from sketchbook to quick ideas to final poster is shown. The final product was more word focused than illustration focused than I would have liked but I like the background and the block letters. I would change the writing if I could to make it more readable from far away and I would add more drawing elements. I also want to coney a better message across to the viewer to make it more engaging. 

Love and Hate

In this piece, I was given the quote by Martin Luther King Jr "I have chosen to stick with love, hate is too great a burden to bear". I decided to compare this to recently deceased Nelson Mandela and his message of peace. The writing is hard to see but it gives two great quotes by Mandela about love and hate as well as his own life in prison. These two men have done a lot to shape the world's views on tolerance and diversity so I wanted to make a painting to represent that. It is one of my better portraits since it actually looks like the people it's supposed to. I still have a lot that could be improved like some technical skills as well as the overall image and the size of the quotes. Overall, I am happy with the way this turned out but I now know I can expect even more from myself next time when it comes to drawing portraits. 

Subtractive drawing - Pig's head

When I hear the word subtractive drawing, I get uneasy. Drawing with nothing but an eraser scares me because I find it a lot harder to create accurate shading. The last subtractive drawing I did was in 8th grade and it did not turn out well...or look like the original object at all. The pig's head looks very intimidating at first but by looking just at the lights and darks, I was able to recreate it fairly accurately. I'm proud of my improvement and the attention to detail. However, I could definitely add more detail and need to focus on the negative space. Instead of making it black to death, I should have had a medium tone in the back as well as shadows and a reference point. Overall, I did better than I thought I would and I hope to still improve on it before moving on to the antlers.

Multimedia Composition - Glass

On our first day of art, my teacher handed us a glass and told us to draw it 6 different ways. At first, I couldn't think of anything or be creative in any way. I started off with a regular pencil drawing and went on to draw with water colors and pastels. For the final, we had to draw a multimedia composition drawing. I chose to draw one glass but divide it up into 4 quadrants and make each one with a different technique. I used the same scheme of colors to create cohesion and unity between the 4 different sections. The 4 different sections were pastel, color pencil, water color, and dots made with the tip of a paint brush by dipping it in tempera paint. Two of the backgrounds are black (on opposite sides) to create rhythm and movement. Overall, the project can be improved with better technical skill as well as a more creative way to represent the glass.

Cabin in the Woods

The assignment was to draw an imaginary window so I drew a cabin window but didn't draw anything on the other side of the glass. I chose to focus on the details of the wood around the window and on the window sill rather than what was inside the window. I did some simple shading for the actual window part which was done using both the pencil and eraser to draw. The space in this drawing is shallow since it has some shading on it. I made the window sill darker than the rest because I wanted it to stand out from the rest of the drawing. I also used a full range of values and many different types of pencils (from 3H to 8B graphite pencil). To improve the drawing, there should be a more specific light source and better shading on the actual glass part of the window to make it look as realistic as the rest of the wood.

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.

Who I am 

Visionary   Affectionate   Welcoming   Contra-distinctive   Transoceanic   Quick-witted   Warm-hearted   Passionate   Zealous   Respecting   Romantic   Powerful   Unpresumptuous   Diplomatic   Competitive   Open minded   Inquisitive   Perceptive   Precise   Systematic   Sympathetic   Innovatory   Foreign   Well-rounded   Commendable