Project by: Eve van Rens (12th Grade)

Faculty Advisor: Kelly O’Shea

I worked on making illustrations of physics problems for Kelly to use in her classes. This was a good opportunity for me to work on my illustration skills, and I took advanced mechanics in 11th grade so I was familiar with a lot of the material.

Kelly and I usually meet once a week to look at what I’ve drawn for her so far. From there we will discuss potential revisions or additional work and she’ll assign my work for the next week. Once I get the thumbs up on a drawing from Kelly, I scan it, erase its background in Photoshop, and then share the drawing with her, which she puts into her problem packets.

Kelly giving my sketches a thumbs up

Over the trimester I’ve worked with Kelly to make illustrations for several topics she’s been working on with her 10th grade physics class. She has already used some of my drawings in her packets, and as far as I can tell, they were received well by her students. Here are some of the illustrations that I’ve done so far this year:

So far this process has been a lot of fun, and I think a very beneficial experience. Although I am not technically employed (or payed)by Kelly, this is the closest I’ve come to actually working as an illustrator, and so far I like it. I enjoy being told what to draw; a lot of the time I put pressure on myself to have “good” ideas and make creative work; this solves that. When I have a specific assignment there is obviously still some personal interpretation involved, but I get to focus more on the drawing than forming a complex idea.

PROPOSAL

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

I will work on making illustrations of physics problems for Kelly to use in her classes. This is a good opportunity for me to work on my illustration skills, and I took advanced mechanics in 11th grade so I am familiar with a lot of the material. Also, this is a continuation of an honors project from last year, so I already have a sense of what I’m doing.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project?

My work will be shown in Kelly’s problem packets in her 10th grade classes, and hopefully I will be able to make clearer, more effective illustrations.

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