Q2 Artist Statement by Nick Ryan

This quarter, I created a lot of pieces of art. The first thing we did was blind contour drawings. We had to find at least 5 items and draw it without looking at the paper and do it all with one line. This was difficult as I had to predict my hand movement and proportion the drawing correctly. The second project we had to make a painting. I recreated Van Gogh’s piece “At Eternity’s Gate.” I used watercolor and oil pastels to create this painting. I dealt with a lot of trial and error with this project because my watercolor wasn’t vibrant and it leaked on other parts of the paper. This was not difficult, but it was frustrating and time-consuming. The third project we had to recreate a piece of art. I recreated the cover of “CAGE” a comic book created by Genndy Tartakovsky. I used my Copic markers and my Sakura pens to create this piece. I had a lot of fun doing this particular project because I love drawing cartoony things like this and it was a little difficult because I had to learn Tartakovsky’s style of drawing. The fourth project we had to create an illustration from a piece of writing. My illustration was based off the song “Changes” by Tupac. I drew Tupac sitting on a stool looking at the viewer, with a city which is supposed to be Compton bleeding in the background. I did this to symbolize Tupac’s pain he suffered in his hometown and his struggles to try to help it, but like he said, nothing changes. I used my Copic markers, my sakura pens, and color pencils. The final project we had to edit a bunch of photos. For this, I took a picture out of the window of the SLA school building, a picture of city hall, and a picture from when I went camping. The first picture, it was originally a gloomy picture but I increased the brightness and warmth of the picture to create a positive effect on the picture. The second picture, I did the same except I created a vintage old photo effect. It looks like an old photo taken from the 60s. And then the last photo, I created a weird effect. It was a picture from the summer and I changed the atmosphere from a warm, spring-like environment to a wintery cold environment. I changed the ambiance so that it has a purple effect. It looked cool to me. I learned a lot this quarter. I learned to proportion my drawings better so that the sizes in my drawings are better proportioned. I’ve learned to adapt my style so that it fits other artists’ styles. I’ve also learned to develop my own style of drawing. Finally, I learned the basics of photo-editing. Reflecting back on my artwork, my art has become clearer, cleaner, and more organized. This creates a more pleasing effect on the eyes of my viewers.