AP Studio - HS & advanced studio

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 1, Charcoal"

9x12, Charcoal, 2021

Starting this work, I knew I wanted to do something with the feeling of wasting away. I figured the best medium for said feeling would be charcoal, as one swipe of a finger and the charcoal is manipulated to look like it’s been swiped off, thus the wasting away feeling. Everything about this work was composed to enhance the overall tone of the piece. Graphite for easy manipulation as well as using the guidelines in the pose as a representation of being unfinished yet still managing to fade away. There are no indications of identity or gender to represent that this feeling can and does apply to anyone and everyone. As for the pose I chose, that was chosen for my personal benefit of learning about the human body and how it looks in certain positions. The pose is up for interpretation.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 2, Cubism

9x12, Color Pencil, 2021

With my concentration I wanted to study topics where I could branch out and try new styles that I don't typically do. This style is cubism. Generally for this series I want a majority of the meanings and feelings to be left up to interpretation. That being said, while creating this piece I couldn't help but realize that this could be either positive or negative. One could say that it could be a person shattering away or pieces coming together to make up a figure. Either way, however someone interprets it, I think says a lot about the viewer and how they see things. Can of like a glass half full or empty concept.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 3, Realism"

9x12, Acrylic, 2021

This is my realism interpretation. Realism is very hard and this is my first time doing any major shading using acrylic. It was very hard to say the least. I have a lot more to go from here and I have a newfound appreciation for people that understand color theory and shading skin tones and fabric. Again with this piece, I wanted to wipe all identity away from this person. No indication of gender, sexuality, personality. However I realized towards the end of finishing this work, I had included an identity with the color of skin I had chosen. I had an indication of race. So with that I knew that I needed to be more inclusive of the rest of my pieces to come as to leave no one excluded from my art.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 4, Surreal"

9x12, Watercolor & Acrylic, 2022

This next style was mainly based off of my first time actually using watercolor. As stated before, my concentration is about trying new things and going out of my comfort zone with new styles, techniques and mediums, I've never used before. This piece challenged my sanity and patience that I've never had when using acrylic or graphite, etc. With watercolor, I learned that it doesn't what you want to do, but that the user has to care about what it wants to do. The tedious process of painting in small details and then waiting for it to dry, it was hard to see when the end was coming and how much I had left. I will admit that I used watercolor in a non traditional way in that I didn't understand that watercolor consistency should be a lot thinner than what I had made it. So in reality, although I used watercolor, I don't consider that as the correct usage, and I have a lot more learning to go.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 5, Disintegrate"

9x12, Acrylic, 2022

The process of creating the design concept of this piece was quite different from what I had originally intended. That being said, This is probably one of my favorite works out of my concentration. My intention for this work was centered around modern art. Modern art has a lot of meanings to it, no exact definition or look other. So safe to say I really had to stray away from this idea and start from scratch. To make up for my realism piece, I did include race for this work. My concentration is to not leave anyone out, in order to not leave anyone out, my intentions were to erase identity from the figures so people can see themselves in the work if it applies to them. I had hindered that concept with my realism piece by adding a race, so I added race to this work as well.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 6, Surreal"

9x12, Acrylic, 2022

This work was inspired by Salvador Dali's 'Persistence of Memory'. Going into my concentration I knew I wanted to create a surrealism piece as I thought it was be a good challenge and fun to try out. Once I came up with the idea of a skeleton for this work, the ideas just kind of came together naturally afterwards. Everyone has a skeleton. Some vary depending on physical look, damages throughout life, but generally all skeletons look the same. What better take on representation of everyone than down to their bare bones.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 7, Warped"

9x12, Marker, 2022

This work is my least favorite out of my concentration. I wanted the idea of someone warping into another person. Or maybe the connection between two people. The colors were just a nice balance and once mixed together the created their own color. I would definitely do this work over again if I could and completely plan it out differently than how I originally done this work. The work is up for interpretation, but within the realms of maybe a connection between two people. The changes a person goes through, becoming a new, better version of themselves.

Abigail Castleman "Pose 8, Personal Style"

9x10, Graphite, Marker, Highlighter, Sharpie

As the title explains, this work is a reflection of my personal style. While I don't do these designs for every project, my figure will always be graphite, using a mechanical pencil. Graphite is probably my favorite medium to use for it's convenience and easy shading. Looking back at this completed work, it alway gives off the feeling of being in your imagination which I think is beautiful in a sense. The creativity flowing all around and being completely engulfed in your own world, it's almost euphoric when looking at this work. If I needed to change anything about this, it would be to have added less grass and to use ball point pen for minor details.

Abigail Castleman "Pose 9, Scratch Art"

9x12, Scratch Paper

Abigail Castleman "Pose 10, Pop Art"

9x12, Marker

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 11, Oil Pastel"

9x12, Oil Pastel

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 12, Copies"

12x22, Ink on construction

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 13, Comic Strip"

9x12, Marker & Colored Pencil

When sketching the figures at first, I realized I had began to struggle trying to find the androgynous figure in between the references. Because I involved more than one person in each scene, I was using both male and female references. The struggle to find a middle ground between masculine and feminine features in order to erase identity challenges the idea of what we deem as masculine or feminine. One slight curve of a line can turn a person into one of the either sex's. Iv'e noticed that when squinting or even looking at it for long enough, my eyes will adjust and apply a gender to my figure or even switched genders completely. I've learned with this piece that there's truly no right way to present a certain gender because anyone and everyone can have a certain feature which can throw off how someone wants to be perceived as.

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 14, Melt"

9x12, Chalk

Abigail Castleman, "Pose 15, Stipple"

9x12, Drawing pens

When going into this piece I really wanted to have this void feel. I think for this style of art, this is a very fitting theme. That or I like to look at this as a lot of energy or maybe even atoms coming together to make a figure. Looking at this also gives me a buzzy feeling as if my foot was falling asleep, that static feeling during the blood rushing back into the area. There's a lot of feelings and meanings that can go with this piece. Immediately looking at this work, it gets very depressed as this is one of my very few pieces that is void of color, however I give this a calming feeling, which fits the lack of color.

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