Artist Statement - Summer Art

My summer was full of great experiences and firsts. I traveled the majority of the time, whether it was in the country or out. There wasn't a weekend where I was able to relax or just do nothing. Thanks to art, though, I did have something that kept me occupied, but still calm and in a relaxed mood. Maybe because of the hecticness of my summer, my artwork wasn't up to full potential. But, I did try to do my best in a style that I was and am developing.

I first started out by doing the online work, going on the websites, finding new artists, and reading the articles. I, however, didn't post one of the research posts until later in the summer, since I hadn't quite finished it before I left. Over the few months, I tried to post as often as I could. Whenever I was traveling, I tried to post every week or every ten days. This then became my posting schedule, where I simply update my journey throughout the months.

Once I got back from my trip, my first priority was the final works of art. I was quite rushed since I only had a few weeks to develop and create my ideas. Since the beginning of summer I knew I wanted to focus on creating characters and working in a stylized comic style (if that makes sense). Instead of normal cartoons, I wanted to create people who were different and represent all walks of life. Which I intend to do for my upcoming portfolio. My character painting was a good start to this. The accented features with the blue paint, make my style unique, it's not just a comic. My craftsmanship is the best in this piece. My goal was to make it look like a digital painting and very smooth, and I think I executed that part very well. My composition, however, could've been more elaborate. I can take this to the next level. As I said, this painting was a good start to what I hope to create in the near future.

The next two paintings are abstract works that fit in with the aesthetic and overall series of the girl. The use of similar colors makes it look like a set of paintings, which is what I wanted to create. Except, they are quite underwhelming. My work is usually more complex, whereas these two are very simple. My compositions should be more thought out. I do however, like some of the simplicity that is portrayed through these works. The craftsmanship is also one of the positive aspects of these paintings. I really love how the brushstrokes played out. The paintings have a clean look to them which I appreciate.

Because of the style I worked in, the most prominent art elements and design principles would be line, color, balance, and movement. Line and color are quite obvious since I worked with cartoons and the geometric shapes along with the brushstrokes of the blue gradient piece. The character and blue gradient piece are balanced somewhat evenly, whereas there is more weight to one side on the geometric piece because of its asymmetry. Movement is seen in the blue gradient because of how I painted the brushstrokes. It's also evident in the character piece with the blue highlights on her neck as well as the direction of her hair. In terms of these elements, my pieces are nice. But they are not great.

Overall, my pieces are decent. They have so much more potential and now that I'm back into the swing of things I have more ideas. From these pieces, I have learned that I am capable of creating people and that my ideas can be developed into complex works. My goal for this year, based on these paintings, is to create art that is not only calming like these, but also have a lot of meaning. I want to create art that is impactful and deals with subjects I care about. I have many ideas in my head and I hope to execute them as great as I can imagine them. I'm now very excited to grow in terms of my vision and execution throughout this school year, because my summer art was just the beginning of a great and highly awaited journey.