"Teenage State of Mind" by Corinne Siefring

When figuring out what to do for this challenge, I threw a lot of ideas back and forth. Do I show the stressed moments, or do I keep it light? How would I present it? What method would I use to share my vision with the world? After weeks of debate, I eventually decided that the best option to combine all of my ideas was, unfortunately, quite on the nose. I would draw an emotional roller coaster, one that would include every high and every low of the school year so far.  With a plan in mind, I set out to make it a reality.

I felt like an important thing to include was how I started the school year, or the summer, at the start of the ride, also called the rise of Senior year. From there, the first hill (the one furthest to the left) includes band, which is the highlight of my year, every year. Then it dips a bit (five hours of basics is never fun), but the start of school itself was decently alright. Not as good as the summer, but not bad. 

From there, however, my school year fell dramatically. In the first three weeks I got sick with a bad cough and had to miss out on an event that I was really excited to participate in. Things got better as I spent time with friends, and as our band won a really big competition, something that rarely happens this early in the season. However, things took a really large dip these past few weeks after I failed my driver’s test, something that I had really been hoping to pass. It really hurt my pride, and my mood hasn’t really improved much since.

When it comes to some of the smaller details, I chose to use watercolor for the background, so that it wasn’t the main focus point, with the other details being much more bright compared to the washed out look. To add to this effect of competing interests, I decided not to erase that pencil marks from underneath the words/drawing. I chose to do this to show how I’m trying my best, but I don’t have as much energy or care as I have in the past, as I get more stressed out with each new event, as the stress never quite balances out with the good moments.