For Behind the Shades, I used pencil and dark colored pencil to create depth and value through shading. I used a pencil first, establishing where the shadows are. Then, in the darker areas, I made highlights by drawing with an eraser. This emphasized the contrast between light and dark. Later, I used darker colored pencils to increase the contrast. 

My piece displays the darkness and underbelly that’s shown in Noir film, depicting a faceless man reclining in a corner, wearing period clothing with several objects on a table next to him. 

This photograph captures the quiet geometry of a Paris metro station, where Art Deco curves and shadows converse in stark black and white. Using a Kodak Ektar H35 Half Frame Film Camera with Kodak Tri-X 400, I embraced the grain and contrast as essential elements of the station’s timeless character. The half-frame format allowed me to condense the scene into a more intimate perspective, heightening the sense of rhythm within its architectural lines. By stripping the image of color, I aimed to focus the viewer’s attention on structure, texture, and the movement of light across aged surfaces. Ultimately, this work reflects my fascination with how historic spaces continue to pulse with quiet modernity when seen through the lens of analog film.

Car under a street lamp is a piece I made a couple of years ago for my Stepmom for Christmas. It is acrylic on canvas showcasing the simple forms of a classic car beneath a glowing light, giving the piece an air of mystery with its contrasting shadows. The brushstrokes are simple yet bold, allowing the artwork speak for itself without much interpretation. Its meaning is up to the viewer.

For this piece, I used Procreate and set my canvas size to 210 x 297mm to make it fit into a magazine shape. I really wasn’t sure what to draw at first, so I looked at a lot of different photos from films by the director Wong Kar Wai. His cinematography is often based in cities, where neon lights are everywhere. The colors he uses tend to consist of a lot of contrasting and complementary colors like reds and greens. I wanted to somehow incorporate that vibe into my work, so I used mostly black, green, and red to color. I also wanted to get a little bit of cool lighting in there as well. After looking on Pinterest (for what felt like a very long time), I decided I wanted to keep the subject simple and draw a guy with a fedora and a trench coat, a detective. I wanted to make him mysterious, almost cryptic (hence, Mr. Cryptic), so I used mostly black and grey for his color palette. His hat has a heavy shadow over his face to add to the mysterious vibe. Since the subject’s colors were very bland, I wanted to find another way to make the colors pop. To do this, I used the lighting and overlay features on Procreate. I also tried to make the background look like he’s walking through a very bright city late at night. 

For The Staircase,  I was largely inspired by vintage black and white films by Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, who both used dark compositions that align with “Film Noir” sensibilities. I decided I wanted to depict a scene that invoked suspense and a sense of urgency in the viewer through my use of shadows which makes the staircase look neverending. I chose oil pastels in dark colors, mainly because of the textures they create through blending. 

I used my Ohuhu markers and a sharpie for the really bold black shading. I love spider man so this was a good excuse for me to draw Spider-Noir, who quickly became one of my favorite characters after watching Into the Spider-verse a couple years back. Drawing his pose was fun too, considering I’ve been working on poses for a while. 

When the 2025 winter issue was decided as noir I immediately thought of cities across the country, such as New York,  Las Vegas, Los Angeles, etc. I also thought of the bat signal and music such as Jazz. They inspired me to add my own symbols in the background. 

When I'm travelling in the car at nighttime I'm a fan of the city views. Who wouldn't be? The sky is pitch black but the skyscrapers and car honks of the city make it seem like it's the middle of the day.  It's a beautiful sight and I think that it truly captures the “noir” theme we were going for this year. 

My art piece is a faceless detective looking into a glass box. in the glass box, there is a rock which is holding up a scale. The rock is unique in shape, and was etched into stone perfectly just to counterbalance the scale, so it doesn't fall over.

The detective has no face because they’re meant to be the observer. Conversely, the exact meaning of the scale is determined by the viewer of the artwork. It has no color, because the viewer is supposed to identify the colors for themselves; it is not one color, but many combined. 

In the process of making this piece, I thought to myself: 

“I should not tell people what to see, I should give them something and tell them to look” 

You can decide the artwork’s meaning for yourself. I can’t tell you what it is, I can only guide you.