By Layla Grant-Simmonds
Senior Tatsuya King made a majestic painting using Ink and watercolor paper in studio art class. King has been switching between James French’s studio art and 3D art for his electives. In the first trimester this year, King chose to take studio art because he knew it would be the longest trimester and because it allows him to, “explore different mediums and gain new perspectives on art-making practice.”
King has a long series of thoughtful pieces that he created throughout his high school career. For this studio art class King made many drafts and practice studies before starting this main piece. This piece is untitled although he has nicknamed it various titles like: “Escape of Flesh from Bone” or just “Escape”. In class, he had no prompt so King was inspired by a neuroscience class during the making of this piece. In class, he studied a bit of anatomy which inspired him to further explore the body. “What started out as a bunch of doodles in my sketchbook of skeletons eventually evolved into a concept that I brought into Studio Art class”. He was heavily inspired by the idea of “a body fighting against each other struck a chord for me as well”.
This untitled piece was created on 47×31-inch watercolor paper. King made many markers or pen-like strokes on this paper using ink, which allowed for “interesting linework” while being able to move freely and loosely. Another material he used was ink wash, which is a painting process that is similar to watercolors. The difference is that watercolor hues mix more, while layered ink makes new colors with the light shining through the different layers, giving the piece its illuminating effect. The ink-wash painting process has its roots in China’s Tang dynasty. “The idea is to capture the “spirit” or the idea of a space or building over its direct representations”.. For him, this was the hardest aspect of this piece was working with the ink wash for the background, the last addition. King had portrayed these effortless-looking large strokes so he had to be careful not to mess up the form.
This creature appears to be some type of bug or a fictional creature’s skeleton. Before using ink wash for the background, King was able to use ink to drape the cloth or maybe even skin over the frame. He added such good detail with the hatch marks in the frame and the darker ink paired with the black lines expressing the shadow. Due to its mannerism, the structure projects a lot of energy onto the viewer. It seems to have maybe even had a moment of realization or relief, the illumination aspect promotes this.
King reflected that “this piece was partially my way of working through feelings of change and growth and also of me looking closer at my self-doubt. It is also just an excuse for me to draw skeletons and scary guys”.
King’s most enjoyable part of creating this piece was, “either the planning phase where I was doing many skeleton and body sketches or the ink linework phase where it felt like my ideas were being translated onto a much larger scale.” In James French’s studio art class, King was able to bring this anatomical reflective piece to life. He has produced thoughtful and skillful pieces for the student body to view throughout the school, King has made amazing pieces in LREI high school, and hopefully, he continues.