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Here it is, the last art project I made in high school. For this one, I went back to my roots. Several of these characters are scribbles I remember making in my notebook when I was bored back in middle school. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the original drawings, but I specifically remember that big pink guy in the middle being one of my most treasured creations at the time. However, most of these guys were made up to fill space. They’re all staring at the kid in the bottom left corner, taunting him. There’s really no message to any of this and I know it’s sloppy as hell, but I only had three days to come up with and create this. It sucks that I’m ending my high school art class on such a weak note, but I guess that’s kind of fitting considering everything else that just HAD to happen right now. Mrs. Stevenson, if you’re reading this, I just want to say thanks for everything and I hope you enjoy your retirement. I know I wasn’t the easiest student to work with, but you put up with me and never did I lose my passion for the class, as I have with some other art teachers. (That’s not me throwing shade at Mrs. Ross, she’s a great teacher too.) Enjoy your “summer”!

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This is technically an independent project, but I got the idea from Mrs. Stevenson. Around this time, I believe the 1s and 2s had to incorporate a shadow into their projects. I wasn’t too keen on simply drawing an object with a shadow, but I liked the idea of seeing the shadow of something that wasn’t on the canvas. Particularly, something menacing. Several liberties were taken from the Korn album cover below, which might be the creepiest thing to ever exist. I originally planned on taking the idea of a child looking terrified at something we couldn’t see and putting a humorous spin on it. The shadow was going to resemble one of those inflatable car dealership men, thus making the viewer ask why this child is so scared of something so goofy. After starting the project, I went with something much more intimidating, the shadow being changed to that of a monster. It’s definitely one of the most unsettling things I’ve made, but it’s also the first time I’ve ever used a shadow in an art project. I usually dread creating shadows because I doubt I’m going to be able to make them look good, but I had a fairly easy job with them here. That being said, I did use the iPad for things I wouldn’t be able to do in real life when creating the shadow, so... I don’t know

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You might notice the self-portrait below bears a striking resemblance to the the one four panels below it. Prior to distance learning, I had been working on a piece in which I would put zoomed-in parts of my face on top of a self-portrait to give the piece a warped perspective. The lower self-portrait was going to be the base for that idea. Unfortunately, on our last day of physical school, I failed to take any parts of my piece home with me. But it’s not a big deal, right? I can just finish it when we get back. Ah, Garrison from two months ago... so naive, so foolish. So, for obvious reasons, I had to scrap the warped portrait, but I didn’t want to just start anew. I had spent a lot of time in class working on the portrait, and I remember Mrs. Stevenson telling me it was really well done, so I knew I had to utilize the portrait in one way or another. What I ended up doing was tracing the portrait on my iPad and using individual strokes to provide depth to the piece. I did it all in one three hour sitting and I think it yielded a pretty good result. Let’s be real, it’s not hard to make me look good.

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Right when I found out this was a perspective piece in which we had to include feet, I knew I had to draw me riding my bike. To put it simply, my bike is what’s been keeping me sane throughout this quarantine. It’s the only time I ever get out of the house. To make this piece, I downloaded a sketch app on my iPad. I used a picture I had taken of my legs for reference, then used a smear effect on a picture I had taken of the street in front of my house to give the effect of someone riding on it at a high speed. I don’t know why I decided to make everything black and white except that one part on the shoes, it just kind of happened. An interesting thing about this piece is that it’s actually a memorial. I went for a ride yesterday and ended up blowing out my back tire, so it looks like I’m not getting out of the house any time soon. :,(

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In what would have easily been the biggest news story of any year other than 2020, Kobe Bryant and his daughter tragically died in a helicopter crash on January 26th. Even as someone who labeled Kobe’s playing style as selfish from time to time, I was incredibly saddened by the news. The fact that such a big name’s life can be cut short like that just shook me to my core. No matter what you believe about his past or whether or not you even care about basketball, you have to respect Kobe Bryant purely for the fact that a lot of guys wouldn’t be playing the sport today without him. For those reasons and more, I felt compelled to make a piece in honor of Kobe. Right when I came up with the idea, I had a picture in my mind of him shooting a paper ball into a trash can. As everyone knows, you are legally required to yell “Kobe” when doing that. I also added a snake wrapped around his arm in reference to his nickname, “The Black Mamba”. When I brought the idea to Mrs. Stevenson, I was adamant about not wanting to use paint. I’m not the best painter, so I didn’t want to use one of my weaker capabilities when making a piece this important. Instead, I went with calligraphy markers. This was a risk since I had never used calligraphy markers before, but once I started, I realized they’re not that different from regular markers, you just have to be more careful as to where you apply your strokes. I had to use sharpies for some of the colors we didn’t have calligraphy markers of, like his skin tone, but in the end, I thought the color of the whole thing turned out nicely. I can honestly say it’s one of my favorite projects from the whole year, and I was really proud of myself for getting it to turn out how I wanted. RIP Kobe.

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What was your original idea for combing visual aspects of the two squares or three strips and how did those ideas change or shift as you worked on the art piece?

I ended up going with my original idea, which was to have the woman holding up the stew with a house in the background. Really, I’m not sure what else I could have made.

What are two things you learned about media as you worked with your chosen materials?

I learned that I’m not as good with pastels as I thought I was. I originally wanted to get much more detailed with the face and background, but was unable to after I just went in without planning how I was going to use the pastels.

What do you like best about your finished artwork?  And what is something you’d like to improve upon as the semester continues?

I and many others really liked how the stew turned out. Some even said they couldn’t find the strips at first glance. However, I didn’t like how the background turned out. That green mess on the right side of the paper was supposed to be leaves, but I just turned it into a gradient after I messed up with the pastels.

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What are your ideas and why are they important to you?

I took a picture of this adorable dog outside of a Jewel Osco and I feel inclined to do something with it since otherwise it would be weird to have a random picture of someone else’s dog on my phone.

What materials do you need?

Colored pencils

What questions do you have about process, technique, or concept? This refers to questions you ask yourself as an artist, but could also be questions you have for me.

Well I’ve never been too keen on drawing animals, but once I started, it really wasn’t all that hard.

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What prompted this artwork?  Particular categories on the grid? New materials or concept you wanted to try?  Developing a portfolio for college or other purpose?  A particular technique you wanted to get better at?  Other?  The more specific you can be, the better.

Drawing an animal was the option I chose on the grid and I thought what better image to redraw than this picture of a dog I took outside of a Jewel Osco. I’ve never been a big fan of drawing animals because they never seemed to turn out right for me, but for whatever reason, I wanted to get the monkey off my back with this one.

Write about your process – how did your original ideas and plans change and develop as you worked?  Changes could be compositional, technical, and/or conceptual.  Why did those changes occur?

Originally, I wanted to use different styles for different parts of the dog. After realizing I had more sections than possible styles, I scrapped that idea and just made the whole dog look like a pink metal monument.

How does this artwork show development from pervious artwork?  Point to specific ways or areas of the artwork.  For example, the color palette might show more richness and blending than you’ve previously done, or you might point to places where proportions of the subject are stronger than previous work with the same subject…or…

Once again, I had never been a fan of drawing animals because I wasn’t good at it, but shortly after starting the project, I realized that if you take your time and get the proportions right, it’s not that hard.

What were challenges you experienced in the process and how did you address them?

It was difficult for me to come up with a background for the image after I had colored the dog pink. After some thinking, I thought it would be cool to make the dog a monument and have people walking around it and Mrs. Stevenson agreed.

What tips/suggestions might you give a younger artist or even yourself embarking on a similar subject, use of materials, or composition?

Just take your time and things will turn out right.

Did this artwork stretch you in any way?  If so, how?  What ideas do you have for your next independent project – how will you challenge yourself?

Once again, this artwork made me leave my comfort zone by drawing an animal, which I had never liked doing before.

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I know what you’re thinking: did you put any effort into this? The answer is... not really. I only had 3 days to make this before my final portfolio was due so, of course, you’re not going to get my best. When I first started this, it was just supposed to be a cartoony portrait of myself, then I remembered the assignment was “6 moments in the life of an artists” and so I added the body of a slug as an homage to the piece I made freshman year where I drew my head on the body of a snail. So I didn’t really make “6 moments in the life of an artist” but rather one big moment. The laughing faces around me are supposed to symbolize how I can never be serious in this class. I originally wanted to give them color too, but I ultimately decided not to since I thought that would take away from the focus on the middle. All of this could have been developed more but I just didn’t have time. Sorry Mrs. Stevenson, I promise I’ll actually try to follow an assignment next semester.

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What are your ideas and why are they important to you?

I want to make a comic book cover in which MF Doom, one of the greatest rappers of all time, is the villain. Doom’s Operation Doomsday is one of the coolest album covers to me because of its comic-esque style, and I’d like to create an homage to that.

What materials do you need?

Not quite sure yet

Research -- find or sketch images that will be references (if photos, create your own or be ready to significantly change an online photo).  What artists can you look at for inspiration?  Any demo videos that might help?

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What prompted this artwork?  Particular categories on the grid? New materials or concept you wanted to try?  Developing a portfolio for college or other purpose?  A particular technique you wanted to get better at?  Other?  The more specific you can be, the better.

I was inspired by the MF Doom album, Operation Doomsday, for this one. The cover to that album is just so cool to me and I wanted to make an homage to it.

Write about your process – how did your original ideas and plans change and develop as you worked?  Changes could be compositional, technical, and/or conceptual.  Why did those changes occur?

I originally wanted to make this piece using those dots that old comic books use to have, but I realized that wouldn’t work due to time constraints. I ended up using acrylic markers to get the solid colors of the piece without having to use colored pencils for the 60th time in this class.

How does this artwork show development from pervious artwork?  Point to specific ways or areas of the artwork.  For example, the color palette might show more richness and blending than you’ve previously done, or you might point to places where proportions of the subject are stronger than previous work with the same subject…or…

I had never really tried to make a comic book cover before, but I think I did a pretty good job with this. The colors turned out well and it really does feel like an old comic book cover. The Doom head in the background simply looks awesome as does the green smoke surrounding the protagonist.

What were challenges you experienced in the process and how did you address them?

I was, and still am, pretty pissed at myself for accidentally getting some of the green on Colonel Courage’s yellow suit. You probably can’t even see it unless you zoom in on his right shoulder, but it’s there. Getting the anatomy of Colonel Courage right was a huge pain too and I had to erase multiple drafts before I got it just right.

What tips/suggestions might you give a younger artist or even yourself embarking on a similar subject, use of materials, or composition?

Maybe use different materials for the background. The acrylic markers worked pretty well for the most part but if you look at the background, there are certain spots that are darker than others. There was really nothing I could do about it, it’s just how the markers work, so I would suggest using a different material.

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I can never be serious in this class even when presented with the perfect opportunity to do so. A lot of pieces in the duplicity art show focused on two-facedness, deception, topics like that. But I’m just like, “Nope, apple man.” I can assure you it does represent duplicity, though. I intended on recreating Magritte’s “Son Of Man” painting but with the head and apple swapped. The duplicity would be that it’s an opposite take on one of the most iconic paintings of all time. I had just finished drawing the apple-headed man using pastels when we had the peer review day in our class. When we finished, I was surprised to see a few people suggest that I leave out the head. I ended up doing just that, mainly because of time constraints. What I was going to with the head was have it pop out from the paper by gluing it to an extension of the man’s hat. It would have been pretty cool, but I just didn’t have the time. If you really think about it, it adds another layer of duplicity. Where exactly is the head? It will forever remain a mystery.

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What colors did you use for your limited palette (take a photo of your color practice as well).  Reflect on what color mixtures worked well and what was challenging. Explain how you balanced areas of opacity and transparency in your composition and what effect those areas had on the overall design of the artwork (the effect may be different than what you intended, which is fine.  Your ability to explain look at your finished work and explain the effect is important).

My color palette for this was blue, green, and orange. Honestly, I think the whole thing didn’t turn out right. It’s sloppier than hell and the colors I chose didn’t really work in my favor. Of course, some parts turned out ok, like the mermaid man’s tail, but everything other than that is a byproduct of my laziness and unwillingness to cooperate with the project and give it time. At the end of the day, this project was something that started as a good idea and just didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, which is how most art projects go for me.