Ella Tang: Artist of the Year Nominee

*picture used in header is not a part of the portfolio submission

In the 2019-2020 school year, I have been serving as one of the staff illustrators for our school publication, Tower. As the illustrator for the school newspaper, I drew multiple illustrations for each issue of Tower and web exclusive articles and ended up finishing 14 illustrations in total for the school year. I created my illustrations digitally using Procreate because it allowed me to experiment different styles and incorporate new, innovative elements into each piece. I wish my illustrations could be a fusion of the complexity of elements and the simplicity of ideas, which together bring the readers both psychological shock and simple expression. Through creating illustration, I expressed my skills and visions as an artist to the greatest extent and trained my time management skills and communication ability because of the tight deadlines and specific requirements from editors and writers. For me, being an illustrator is not simply creating an illustration that stands out perfectly as an art piece and receives praise from others but most importantly conveys the central idea of the article and helps the readers easily have a clear understanding of the article through the illustration, the most intuitionistic visual language. To this end, my process of creating illustrations often involved discussion with the editors back and forth on the concepts and ideas of the article and the illustration, which was time-consuming but rewarding. As a result, I provided readers with the most graphical commentaries throughout the year. Even though it has been an unprecedented school year, due to the COVID-19, we had to switch to virtual learning and keep distance from each other, I still worked with editors remotely and created four illustrations for articles published online. Over the course of the year, it has been such an honor and pleasure for me to work with so many amazing editors and serve as the illustrator for our school newspaper to contribute my efforts to the Masters community allowing my creativity and artistic skill flow with each illustration and publication around the campus.

Masters "revolutionizes" handbook

For this illustration, the picture I had to work with was from a Time cover from the early 90s. I added a handbook in her crossed arms but wanted to convey that same sense of defiant courage on her face that she had in the cover photo.

See the piece as it was published here: https://issuu.com/masterstower/docs/issuu

Education on donation to Masters receives mixed reviews

Here, I wanted to marry the image of cash flow image with a clear representation of one of our iconic buildings, Masters Hall, particularly this part which represents the administrative offices. I played with size of the bills in relation to the actual building, which dwarf it in an almost playful way.

See it as it was published online here: https://tower.mastersny.org/4379/news/education-on-donations-to-masters-receives-mixed-reviews/

COVID-19 affects mental health

For this image, I wanted to depict a variety of activities in a small space in a way that didn't feel too busy and was easy to "read." I felt the framing and simplicity of the images kept them accessible.

See the image in context of an article about COVID-19's impact on mental health here: https://tower.mastersny.org/5425/features/covid-19-affects-mental-health/


A Fencer's Glossary

As a fencer myself, I was excited to portray some fencing action here. For a graphic, I chose the black background so the fencer's white uniforms would pop out more effective and it could serve as a strong contrast.

See page 11 on our issuu page to see the published graphic: https://issuu.com/masterstower/docs/page_1_/11

The COVID-19 Blame Game

This piece was designed to illustrate the tug-of-war-like nature between the U.S. and China's responses to COVID-19, often targeting blame towards each other. The magnets show the *polarizing* effects of such statements.

See how the piece was put in context on our publication's website: https://tower.mastersny.org/5691/uncategorized/the-covid-19-blame-game/