My idea was to make a black and white katana but add in some red to make it a combo drawing. I got the idea from my two katanas I have at home. I wanted to make it for my still life because I like Japanese culture and weapons.

I first drew out my sword from a non-copyrighted picture on the internet. Then I went on from there. I made my own details to the sword itself. I did the handle, the tsuba (sword guard), and the blade. Then I made the Japanese writing which means honor which I think added a good touch to the drawing. I had to make a dominant light source so I made a lantern in the corner and then did some shading making the light fade as the picture went down. I grabbed a red chalk pencil to color some of the sword. I filled in the lettering, the tsuba, and the diamond shapes on the handle. I knew that I couldn't just have a plain background to I made it look like its set on a wooden table. I did that by making planks and knots on the wood.

This artwork means honor. I want my audience to look at this painting and think that many things they do are filled with honor. I want people to realize how much honor actually effects them. The symbols in this is the lettering that means honor. There is also the sword itself which having one was a great honor in Japan back then.

The hardest challenge ink this artwork was the sword guard and the handle. I tried many different patterns on the sword guard but I think the squiggly lines and the triangles added a very nice simple touch. Then the handle was hard too. I tried to make each diamond equal and make them go all the way down the handle but it didn't work out. I overcame these by accepting what I did and it turned out to look very nice. I would spend more time on the sword guard if I could start over and maybe add a helmet next to it.

This style of art is realistic. I just love how swords like this were carried all the time back then. It fascinates me and thats how I think it matches my style. I love the symbols on it that mean honor. I just love how it looks and what it means.

My artwork is a man playing his guitar in nature. There is also an animal listening to his music. I got this idea from out of nowhere, all I was doing was finding stuff in magazines and cutting them out and then it all started to come together. It evolved by making each picture different than the last one.

So first I had to dig through a ton of magazines to see if I could find different pieces to use. I wanted them to be all different. I also wanted it to be funny. So I found many different pieces and cut them out. I laid them out how I wanted them to be and once I was ready I got a paper and started glueing away. I had to layer some over the others so I would have to choose which ones to glue down first and which ones I will do last.

This artwork does not mean anything. I just want my audience to look at this and at least crack a smile. I want people to see this and I hope it will brighten up their day if their day has been bad.

The most difficult part was glueing stuff on. The stuff I was using was called Modge Podge and it dried super quickly. I had to be really careful I where I laid pieces down and I had a couple stick out. I overcame the problem by cutting out more pieces to lay down.

This style of art is surreal. There is many different things to look at like the thing in the middle of the picture which lived thousands of years ago. It makes it my style because its my type of humor, it makes me laugh at how random it is and how many things there are to look at. I love the hot dog ninja in the bottom left.