MP1 Artwork by Nick Ryan

This quarter, we worked on two art projects. The first project we did was we made a design and painted it on a ceiling tile. On my ceiling tile, I drew and painted a pop art of Samurai Jack. Samurai Jack is a cartoon character and I chose to draw this because Samurai Jack was a part of my childhood and the art style of the show is what inspired me to become an artist. The hardest part about doing this project was getting the proportions right, I had to sketch and erase a lot in order to ensure I had the proportions correct. It took me over 5 hours to complete this project and I’m proud of it. I love seeing it when I walk onto the third floor every morning.

The second project was my self-portrait. I had a lot of fun doing this because I was able to draw myself in any style I wanted, and I chose a weird one. I decided to draw myself as a caricature because I’ve always viewed myself as not very serious. In the portrait, you’ll notice that I look very sleepy and calm, but happy. I made sure I looked like this because that is how I usually am. Then, for the background, I put my fingerprints all over it. It started out as a mistake, but then I decided that could be my “signature” for the portrait. Using the charcoal was challenging because it takes a level of precision to differentiate between hard and soft lines. Also, the charcoal doesn’t always stick to the paper, sometimes it falls off and becomes smudged on other parts of your drawing. It was still fun. I enjoyed doing this project.