Teacher Name: Wendie Bloxsom
Grade: 12
Materials: Watercolor and ink
Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches
Description: This piece is an illustration of food and drinks that bring me joy. The bottom right panel has grapes, my favorite fruit. The top right panel has tea, my favorite hot drink while the left panel has Kool-aid, my favorite cold drink. This piece makes these things feel authentic and valuable. They remind me that the things I really like are a lot more important than just preferences. They define me in a small, but significant way and I wanted to bring attention to that.
Artist Statement: The pieces in my portfolio were created as a reflection of life’s ups and downs. I wanted to make pieces that explored the relationships between when we are happiest and when we are defeated. These pieces illustrate self-care and self-deprecation.
I’m inspired by intense emotions expressed in small moments. That is why many of my pieces contain small panels; I am trying to capture those moments so that people can value them more. My artistic process usually involves watercolor and/or ink because of the nature of the mediums. To me, watercolor, specifically gansai, represents the fleeting aspects of emotions. It seems like it’s constantly moving. Yet, every decision you make is a building block for the next. Eventually, the piece looks intricate and detailed. The techniques I use include layering, lifting and blending. Layering creates dynamic changes in tone and saturation while retaining the previous color beneath it. Lifting creates soft highlights, and blending creates new complex hues to add to the piece. All these features contribute to a cohesive color scheme.
I also use ink because its permanence creates structure in my pieces. I do this by outlining with a black Pigma Micron pen. The shape of its nib allows the ink to mimic the texture of a pencil instead making bold lines that subtract from the realism of a piece. Another one of my frequently used techniques is dry-brushing and scumbling with Kuretake brush pens. I use three of the bristle brush tips that vary in dryness, one is very dry, one moderate, and one is fresh. They allow me to get varying tones with texture and give the pieces a smoother finish as opposed to fresh black ink on white paper. To me, these pieces are very important because of how they value life. As I sometimes struggle with depression, I find a loss in value regarding many things. I sometimes think about the big picture too much which causes me to lose interest in the everyday and feel empty. These pieces remind me that joy is in the little things in life.
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