Kaylee Washington takes risks in her art. She experiments with unusual angles and offbeat compositions to get her viewers’ attention. “I love to see how my work makes the viewer feel, even if it’s a negative reaction,” says Kaylee, 14, a freshman at Klein Collins High School in Houston, Texas. Kaylee’s dream is to be a fashion designer someday.
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Student View
Soaring Scene
This student takes bold chances in her drawings
How does Kaylee use foreshortening here?
What inspired this drawing?
In eighth grade, we had to draw something we loved to do. I wanted to draw myself doing something active, so I had my teacher take pictures of me on the playground.
How did you come up with your idea?
My teacher took photos of me on the swings and the monkey bars, and on a slide. I picked this one because I loved the angle and how it is cropped. It looks like I am flying into the sky.
How did you create your drawing?
I put a grid on the original photograph. Using the grid, I transferred the image onto newsprint. I rubbed graphite on the back of the newsprint paper and placed the graphite side down onto pastel paper. I traced out the image on the newsprint and the outlines transferred onto the pastel paper. I used colored pencils and pastels to build up the color. I made the sky darker at the top and worked gradually to a lighter blue at the bottom. This gave depth to the picture. After I was done coloring, I polished the edges so they looked clean.
How did you foreshorten the figure’s legs?
I focused on the wrinkles in the jeans. By capturing the way the shadows moved on the pants, I was able to foreshorten the legs.
Do you have any advice for aspiring artists like yourself?
Focus on your strengths. If you spend too much time worrying about your weaknesses, you won’t be free to create your best work.
Kaylee won a Gold Key for her drawing in the 2015 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
To find out more about this program, visit artandwriting.org.
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