My main purpose was to illustrate the five senses as realistically as I could. Without color, the audience can focus more on my drawings rather than the materials. I chose to emulate Yumi Sakugawa, known for her playful and inquisitive illustrations. So I added the little imperfect stars scattered around the page to remind the audience of the magic of being alive. I wanted my audience to feel wonder about the natural world and to remind them to be grateful for the senses that give life meaning.
This piece was inspired by a visit to a local art gallery, called Studio Paran. Studio Paran is an art gallery and workshop for the artist: Richard Jones, who creates hand-blown glass pieces. Faith Ringgold was my artist inspiration, who used sketches, fabrics, and other three-dimensional mediums to create story based work. This piece encompasses my appreciation for Studio Paran, and is one of my more innovative and original pieces of artworks that uses a lot of different mediums and techniques.
I wanted to focus on a culture of America that has been hidden and abused by the government, rather than the outward appearance of American culture. My artist inspiration was R.C. Gorman, who is an artist that specializes in stone lithographs, and member of the Navajo nation. Although my piece has a lot of color it lacks emotion, making this project a failure. But, through this experience I learned a lot about how not to research and how important it is to put thought and feeling behind artwork.
I chose the Russian myth called Vasilisa the Beautiful, and an artist inspiration of Ivan Bilibin, a Russian illustrator and designer of stages for various ballets and performances. My main style of this project was to use crisp lines, simple colors, and defining outlines, just as Ivan Bilibin had used. I had originally planned to do the piece in watercolor but it didn’t seem appropriate for my chosen style. If I did this again I’d make everything smaller and more detailed, less basic and bulky.
I focused on the Swedish tale of Beowulf, using a tunnel book format helps set the scene, with the background being the forest, second layer of Grendel (the monster), with brave Beowulf at the front. This work is meant to entice the audience into the world of imagination and for people to disappear into the story. My artist inspiration was Panteha Abareshi, known for unsettling works on different types of pain, and I used her style to make augmented human bodies to depict both human and monster.