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.
For this piece, I used a Kodak Ektar H35 Half Frame Film Camera with Kodak Tri-X 400 Black White Film.The photograph is of my sister on our visit to Paris. She had recently moved to the city so we explored the city together before we had to depart. The city of Paris carries deep feelings of nostalgia and vibrance, and I believed the black and white film contrasted the spectrum of colors to the subjects and people in each arrondissement. Montmartre especially appealed to me, situated on a hill and carrying the spirits of many French philosophers and artists who have roamed these streets for years. The dark tones and deep shadows taint the melancholic setting into a gritty and ambiguous tone. Her solemn stare into the mirror reflects deep feelings unknown to the observer, while the angle only reveals her reflection through a second medium, further distancing the audience from the subject.
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.
For this project, I decided to create a series of fashion designs. I was inspired by 1940s and 1950s style silhouettes, and I wanted to dramaticize the designs to reflect the theme. I used paper and pencil and a paper sketchbook carried in my bag, so whenever I felt inspired to create, I was able to draw.
First, I drafted lots of designs to see what ideas I enjoyed. Then, I picked which designs I felt represented my initial ideas. I feel proud of this project, as I was able to truly develop and dissect my true opinions and concepts for this Noir artwork.
The most cracked glass,
is always the most beautiful.
Fragments
carve rainbows.
Scratch
beauty from pain.
Vulnerability
turns to diamonds before eyes.
The strongest ones,
were once the weakest.
Those captivated with the ethereal sight
of the broken reflection,
Never wonder how the glass became i m p e r f e c t.
Shatters
would rather be known as flawless.
Not flawed.
Give joy to others
while being fractured.
The specks of dust
are too deep to be cleaned out.
The lines are too deep to be pieced back together;
The glass is holding on too much to break apart.
If only the rest of the world continues to see perfection,
the reflection looking back may someday believe it.
Divine in light,
Birds fly high.
Limit’s the sky, flight seemed to find,
Or find did the flight?
Lost in mind.
Confusion.
Found again drowning.
Lost again, with happiness.
Took flight.
Soon, found again.
This time, fly further
So far gone,
Lost to never be found.
Not a hound,
Can trace,
No sound,
Left behind,
Hit in the head with a mace.
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.
When I’m walking in NYC, I make sure to not just look where I’m walking but I also look up. I spotted this lamp that most people wouldn’t have paid attention to the beauty of the details but I did. I like the contrast of the monochrome polo blue sky with the warmth of the light and its glow on the lamp post.
My photography can show different perspectives. This demonstrates that to be able to glow you have to reflect on what you’re doing and look through a different perspective. Through my photography I like to not only challenge the definition of beauty but also to teach lessons.
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 Scrap, the three main materials I used were a regular pencil, a micron pen, and a permanent marker.
The pencil was used to sketch the drawing, the micron was used to trace over and detail the pencil sketch, and the permanent marker was used to fill the large black areas surrounding the main drawing. My process consisted of drawing the robot and the basic background behind him for 40 minutes one day, then the next day I spent 3 free periods during school drawing with the micron pen, adding the fire escape, the graffiti, and filling in the dark areas.
The story I’m telling through this piece is about a labor robot that has gone rogue, modified itself lethally, and is now on the run, hence it’s cornered in an alley with a large spotlight upon it. This basic story connects to the point of Noir that I learned from the video we watched in Stargazer club one day, that many turn to crime for freedom.
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.
For ourTarot Series, our artists were tasked with creating tarot cards, using their individual artistic styles to illustrate cards from the 22 Major Arcana (listed down below with what each card represents)
Images were drawn from life, inspiration, and books. Some artists decided to use color, while others kept their palettes monochromatic.
Full artistic liberty resulted in fantastical, magical, and fully unique creations that demonstrate the breadth & depth of the artists who are a part of StarGazer.
Feel free to look through the cards pictured
The Fool: (0) - Beginnings, innocence, leap of faith.
The Magician - Manifestation, resourcefulness, power.
The High Priestess - Intuition, mystery, subconscious.
The Empress - Fertility, nurturing, abundance.
The Emperor - Authority, structure, leadership.
The Hierophant - Tradition, spiritual wisdom, conformity.
The Lovers - Choice, relationships, values.
The Chariot - Willpower, victory, control.
Strength - Courage, compassion, inner strength.
The Hermit - Introspection, solitude, guidance.
Wheel of Fortune - Destiny, cycles, change.
Justice - Fairness, truth, cause & effect.
The Hanged Man - Surrender, new perspective, sacrifice.
Death - Transformation, endings, new beginnings (not literal death).
Temperance - Balance, patience, moderation.
The Devil - Bondage, materialism, addiction.
The Tower - Sudden upheaval, revelation, destruction.
The Star - Hope, inspiration, serenity.
The Moon - Illusion, fear, the subconscious.
The Sun - Joy, success, vitality.
Judgement - Awakening, reckoning, inner calling.
The World: (or sometimes unnumbered) - Completion, integration, fulfillment.
Club Manager, Leo Mundy
Editor-in-Chief, Kaveh Bahar
Social Media Manager, Eve Villagomez
NOIR Issue Published by The StarGazer⟢ Team '26
As we step into winter, we’re thrilled to bring you our latest issue, a collection of writing and artwork that explores Film Noir; the dark and thrilling American film movement that took place in the 1940s and '50s. There is something haunting about quiet streets after midnight, the flicker of a streetlight, a dimly lit room with shadowed figures. They represent liminal space, where light and darkness blur and nothing feels entirely safe or known. The works in this magazine ask us to look closer at what hides in the corners of our vision and within ourselves. Through dark and mysterious imagery, our artists & writers explore Film Noir’s loneliness, intrigue, and quiet sense of unease.
We invite you to step into these pages, where the night is alive and a bygone era of American film history is brought back to life.
Inside, you'll find: ✦Photography✦ from Mac DiPaola & Riley Brown, ✦Poetry✦ from Ayesha Choundry & Cassidy Carlis, ✦Drawings✦ from Agustus Caleo, Ahtziri Hernandez, Ava Herold, Callum O Toole, Noah Aviles, Maverick Mueller, David Rodriguez, & Annabel Pinto, and ✦Painting(s)✦ from Eve Villagomez.
And congrats to Maverick Mueller, one of our sophomores, for making front page!
A huge thank you to our dedicated contributors, artists, writers, and especially, our club leaders Leo Mundy, Kaveh Bahar, & Eve Villagomez, and our club advisor Ms. Rutledge, for making this issue possible. We hope you find inspiration and connection within these pages.
Happy Reading,
The StarGazer⟢ Team '26