Portfolio: Meet the Arts Editors
This issue, Witherly Heights’ very own arts editors have curated portfolios of their own artwork to showcase their individual styles. These portfolios exemplify different perspectives and approaches to creating art and our editors provide insight into their art. Hopefully, these inspire you in your own artistic endeavors!
Rowan:
I dabble into many different forms of artistic expression. Mainly, I do sketching, graphic design, and photography. Most of my sketches are of vehicle designs, as I plan on going into the transportation design industry. I try to stray away from the norm when it comes to design work, and I often take inspiration from vintage cars, planes, and various other objects. For my graphic design work, I mainly make vehicles or designs related to cars. I also use graphic design as an outlet for my humor and have made a few designs with inside jokes on them just for fun. My style is mostly inspired by various other graphic designers, along with certain cartoons. Finally, when it comes to photography, my goal is to capture things people overlook or disregard. Some of my favorite subjects are abandoned cars and buildings, as I find some kind of beauty in their sadness. Instead of feeling pity about their decrepit state, I want to pay tribute to them and worship them as they are. I have also been fortunate enough to be around some of the rarest, valuable, and interesting cars in the world, and my mission is to capture their beauty as best as I possibly can through photography.
Niko:
As a writer, the majority of my art is meant to illustrate my characters, settings, or scenes. My main mediums are digital art and sketching, and I do occasionally practice gouache. My style is heavily influenced by games, comics, shows, and movies. I find lots of inspiration in Studio Ghibli, anime, Star Wars, and also in games like Genshin Impact and Legend of Zelda. I have also learned much from my favorite artists ( Ross Draws, WLOP, and Shal. E to name a few ), and I especially enjoy drawing scenery, blueprints for buildings and vehicles, and large, vast landscapes of settings from my worlds. Using art to expand the limits of the worlds I craft and taking the time to learn how planes or motorcycles function allows me to make these worlds feel more lived-in and realistic. It ensures that I can storytell to the best of my ability and also learn something new while doing so. In addition to worlds, I also love designing characters and their backgrounds using words. Art as a means to bring them life is just an added bonus.
Ananya:
I use many different mediums when it comes to my artwork. I started off with sketching but now I tend to prefer painting mediums like oil, acrylic, and gouache (I’m still working on gouache). I’m influenced by the many artists that I see on social media and friends around me. Jimena Reno, Mathew Sorige, and Jackie Lui are just some of the artists that I watch on youtube and they have had a significant impact on my work. I tend to draw people, usually models I find on Pinterest or Instagram but I am trying to expand my references to scenery and still lifes. I also like to paint scenes from movies and tv shows that I enjoy. In my opinion, these are excellent references and are good for practice. They help you obtain a better understanding of light and perspective. Finding my style is an ongoing process. I’m continually exploring different mediums and the many ways that I can employ them to bring my art to life exactly as I want.