Drawing 2

"“The Beauty of Women's Bodies” 

15 x 15, newspaper clippings, black paper, white colored pencils, 2023

My idea came about one day during choir. I have really admired collages, especially those made by Mel. They were so pretty and held beautiful messages. I had to make a collage by drawing two and using inspiration from people around me. But the thing was, I needed to fit this sort of collage into my theme, which is important moments in history but instead of the people or event specifically, I choose to make the landscape the event took place at. So I decided to make a women's collage with the capital building in the center. My idea eventually evolved to half the piece having clippings of modern women and the other half clippings of Renaissance women. 

To make this collage, I first began cutting out the clippings of the women. I had two bags where I kept the clippings, one for modern women and one for Renaissance women. Then when I thought I had enough, I began laying out the clippings and gluing them down. I didn't have enough, so I continued the process. Although I didn't put the clipping in the bags I just glued them down. Then I took a black marker and filled in the white gaps, drew, cut out, and glued down the capitol building.

I wanted this artwork to represent how different periods in history depicted women. During the Renaissance, a lot of the pieces were nude, but that's just how they did things. But modernly these women are depicted in sexual ways. I decided to put the Capitol building to not only fit in with my theme but also to highlight what is happening in our world today. I want my audience to realize how beautiful women are and to understand that they should have rights to their own bodies.

The most difficult part of this project was probably cutting out and lining up the women on the paper. It took a LONG time and got really boring at times. I got through it by just remembering how good it would look at the end. If I was to change anything, I would use the technique Halley recommended, basically, just paint the clippings on instead of lining them up as I did. I think my way looks really good. It just wouldn't have taken so long if I did it the other way. This style of artwork is a collage and I would say that the capital building is realistic. It makes it unique to me because I added the capital building, most people just keep it a collage. I love how pretty it turned out. It became even better than I could have imagined.

“The Stonewall Riots Will Never Be Forgotten”

7 x 11, pencils, colored pencils, tape, construction paper, 2023

My idea was to create a memorial piece for the Stonewall riots. It fits within my theme because the Stonewall riots are an influential moment in history. I decided to just draw the stonewall building with a rainbow to represent gay rights. The Stonewall riots are not addressed like it should be and I wanted to make a piece to say I remember. I originally wanted to add protest signs against the background of the piece, but I ran out of time and it didn't look like how I wanted it, so instead I laid out some construction paper for some more color.  To make the artwork, I first started with a rough sketch of the building, to get the simple outlines of walls, windows, doors, etc. Then after I made the outline, I went back through and started the tiny details and began shading on everything. I then colored the rainbow and tried to make the protest signs. Like I mentioned before, they did not end up working, so I decided to lay out blue construction paper for some color. 

The most difficult part of the piece for me was the perspective. It took a long time for me to make it look as though the building wasn’t tipping forward or backward. To get through it I just pushed through and I am really glad I did. I am very proud of the artwork. My favorite part of the art is probably the rainbow, I love how blendy I got it to look. And how it definitely makes the artwork pop. If I was to start over, ideally, I would want to include the protest signs. I think they would have made the overall meaning even stronger. I love how detailed the work is. I really put my time and attention into it. Talking to my dad, he said that it was amazing. This artwork is realistic. My goal was to make it as similar to the actual stonewall building as possible. It makes it unique to my own style though because of the rainbow; I chose to add that to represent gay rights.

"The Spoon"

3x5, drawing paper, colored pencils, regular pencils, 2023

This piece is a drawing of a spoon. On our first day in class, we came in and Mrs. Dunlavey had us pick out a still- life object to draw. She also had a bunch of object cards to pick from, one of them was a picture of a spoon. 

I first sketched out the spoon, just to get the basic outline. A rough sketch you could say. Then I finalized all the lines and began coloring to get the shading right, I used a lot of white pencil. 

There is no symbolism it is just a spoon. The most difficult part was probably making the handle look right. It was hard to get the shape right and perfect. If I was to change anything I would probably not make the shadow on the spoon part of the spoon so large it looks like it is almost tilted. 

This artwork is realistic. I tried my very best to make it perfect to the picture. My favorite part is the little metal piece that connects the spoon to the handle. I am so proud of it and it looks so good with the perfect reflections.

"Pooh and Piglet Print"

6x9, linoleum, ink,  construction paper, linoleum cutters, 2023

I decided to actually make a print this year. We had the option because of so much going on to do a different version. But last year I found cutting out a print really interesting, and I wanted to do it again! I first started by transferring a picture of Pooh and Piglet onto a linoleum sheet. Then I took linoleum cutters and cut out the major lines of the sketch using the subtraction method. I choose Pooh and Piglet because they were a big part of my life when I was little. I still have all the Winnie the Pooh and friends stuffed animals :). 

My favorite part is how funky the print ended up turning. It just makes me smile. It was hard to see the actual image with the color ink on paper I used, so I quickly took a fine liner and traced over it. My least favorite part is just how the ink tends to get into the crevasses. It was very hard to get the print perfect and so I just decided to go with this one.