This piece was based on the Legend of Tokoyo, a story about a girl’s journey to find her dad. I emulated Matt Huynh who works with sumi-e techniques to create detailed pieces that pertain to certain narratives that are close to him or that he’s found interesting. So by using washes of diluted black ink, it shows Tokoyo’s despair over her lost loved one. I painted the gutters with pure ink as I thought having white would be too offsettling for the audience as the story is supposed to be lonesome.
This piece was made to celebrate one of my friends whom I have known since kindergarten. I wanted to create a realistic portrait of her current favorite photo of herself. I created a detailed sketch on my final paper but was struggling to get the nose correct. My teacher suggested to just start painting, so I did, and ended up getting frustrated and going off from the original sketch. Although I didn’t feel confident about this, I learned about the importance of finding good artist inspirations.
I was inspired by my memories of my childhood spent playing with my dear friend Bridget. The illustrations are similar to those of Quentin Blake’s, simple and playful. I wanted my audience to project their own memories onto my illustrations and expand into them with their own stories. I added as many colors as possible while still keeping them related to each season they represent. The hot chocolate illustration is fall, the snow fort is winter, the potion is spring, and the sprinkler is summer.
This piece represents my interest in Jewish religion. I chose to make a mezuzah, or a prayer case for the home. The inspiration behind mine was the chai latte, and the hebrew symbol of חי meaning life. I created stamps of the ingredients in the style of Eric Carle and imprinted them in the clay. I made sure to include 18 decorative elements on each face of the mezuzah as it has the same meaning as חי, and carved the hebrew letter shin, which alludes to God’s name and is present on all mezuzahs.