CPS All-City Visual Arts Exhibitions

Teacher Name: Sharon Finley
Grade: Senior

Materials: Bristol, Microns, Copic, Primsacolor pencil, Posca
Dimensions: 12.55 in x 11.75 in

Artist Statement: One of the reasons on why I made my portfolio to surround the theme of mother nature, the environment, and humanity, was because as a topic in general it has always stuck out to me. I believed that in the message of bringing awareness in what affects our Earth whether it be harmful or positive is important, that way it educates people a little more on what they could do for our planet. In a sense, I have always emulated these themes into my artwork because I want to bring that message but with my creativity and art style. I made most of these artworks with a range of mediums because I find that utilizing a bunch of tools creates variety in texture, composition, color, just makes it more eye catching to me. I was inspired by nature, environmental activists, especially Greta Thunburg, visually appealing works of art, such as Studio Ghibli animation films, Alice in Wonderland, and surrealism. I find that all of these inspirations are what I connect to and how I always feel inspired to create when I see them so it serves as great motivation especially since I am able to interpret my ideas into my own style. My artistic process usually involves a lot of, reference searching and organizing, practice, sketching, and thumb nailing in the beginning. I like to take my time in figuring out what issues I could run into. Especially on how I can approach by practicing how it would look before I get to the final paper. I make a lot of sketch compositions of certain areas/objects. For example, I will keep on drawing a face over and over, until I feel confident to move on to the final stage. I think this also helps in practicing because I start to understand more of the structure and creates muscle memory as well. I then move on to my final paper where I create the sketch, move onto line art, usually with micron pens, initial coloring base, final color base, and finally the highlights to pull it all together. The coloring stage is likely the most variety of art tools that I end up incorporating into my art. I can use mediums from alcohol markers, coloring pencils, watercolor, gouache, acrylic markers, because all of these supplies offer me the ability to play around with them and go in the vibrant and saturated direction that I often tend to go. I am a big fan of color, it makes ones eyes move around the piece a lot and I like that effect. Coloring for me is having multiple layers of color which is why coloring pencils are useful in this aspect. For example, green in a plant to me isn’t just one layer of green. It has different shades but also different colors to experiment with in shadows and highlights. I could use oranges, pinks, and yellows for the highlights, and for the shadows I could use purples, and blues. There are endless ways to alter an object’s color dynamic and I find that really fun to play around with. I enjoy working with color and line art as well because of the way that I ink in hair. It has a detailed look to it and I have been doing this type of approach to hair for many years and it has gone through a lot of different stages to get to where it is now. I think it’s a calming part of the process in my artwork. I always enjoy putting the amount of work it takes for the hair which is why I often draw it so much. My specific experiences in making artwork usually involves in watching other artists video processes online. I find myself feeling like I am working along and also still keeping me motivated and inspired at the same time so it definitely helps in keeping me productive. To me, my artwork means that I am sending a message of topics that I am passionate about because I believe we only have one planet, it is a beautiful one without all the harm and negativity. I would like for our society to one day come together and focusing more on preserving what we have instead of destroying it. Because to be quite honest, it does keep me up at night, about my future, and the rest of the world’s. To put it bluntly a lot of people just don’t care which is really unfortunate but I think because of how expansive art is I tend to go for making these kind of nature focused artworks to put these topics with a creative spin on it. I want it to stand out in a whimsical, nature-like surreal sort of way which I believe shows in my style because of how many small details and color that I incorporate into it. I hope to keep on evolving my style and expand on my art journey forward because I started out with drawing cutesy anime characters to having a style that belongs to me and has completely intertwined with my identity. It is an experimental journey with an endless end.