Artist Statement: My art contains a small kayak riding an ocean wave surrounded by seafoam. It was inspired by Hokusai’s, “The Great Wave of Kanagawa.” I used a program called Krita to create my piece. It is digital art and I used a variety of the brushes available Krita, including my favorites, the blender, and splatter tools.

This piece utilized many different aspects of the program and allowed me to explore digital painting more thoroughly. I only recently started digital painting and I wanted to try out some more of the many art forms available.

I was really pleased with how well my blending turned out, and how clearly the wave dimensions can be distinguished from each other. This piece showed me how much can be done with digital art and I will most likely do more pieces in the future.

Artist Statement: In my piece, “Summer Portrait”, I illustrated a dragon-like character in a natural setting. It is a digital painting, and was created in Procreate. I used the color opportunities offered by the digital medium to create a bright, airy atmosphere that expresses calmness and relaxation. The contrasting colors bring the focus to the character in the center, whose personality is portrayed through its setting. My art is heavily inspired by character designers and illustrators such as Jax Sheridan, otherwise known as “Clockbirds” and Jack Burke. Worldbuilding and storytelling has always been a major focus of my work, whether the medium be digital, on paper, sculpted, or animated. My goal as an artist is to live off my work, whether it be through animating, character designs, or even webcomics.

Artist Statement: I began doing digital art a couple months ago after we started working with it in my Art Studio class. I am fairly new to it and am mostly self-taught but have come to really enjoy it and the beautiful detail you can put into your drawings. I actually started out drawing with my finger on my iPhone on Adobe Photoshop, but once my parents saw how much I really enjoyed it we invested in an iPad and I’ve been working with an Apple Pencil in procreate. For this particular piece, I used a drawing tablet and Krita. This drawing is based off of Orbit from the Sky, a place in a video game created by The Game Company. I thought the concept was lovely as well as the starry sky. I hope to continue drawing digitally and grow as an artist.

Artist Statement: I created “Slow Burn” originally as just an experiment, mainly to practice digital painting and more specifically lighting. My normal art usually consists of bold line work and light shading. With digital art being my preferred and main medium, each piece I create works to improve my skills. I’m happy with this piece overall, however I try to always be critical of myself in the name of improvement.

Artist Statement: For this piece, I drew myself digitally on a wintery Alaska day. Ever since I was 7 I have enjoyed watching Studio Ghibli movies. I also watch Pokemon and Sword Art Online and because of these influences I tend to create in the Japanese art style known as anime. I did traditional art for years, then for Christmas I got a digital tablet. It was hard at first, but after some practice I got used to it. My goal for this particular piece was to capture the coldness of Alaska. My cheeks get very red when I’m outside in winter. I moved to Alaska in 2015 from Georgia and I still remember the excitement I had when I first saw the snow. The prettiest time in Alaska is when it first snows. I wanted to capture the wonderfulness of the Alaska snow.

Artist Statement: My art piece is a portrait of a nurse who has been working in the hospitals even with the threat of Covid. The title is “Modern Hero” which I feel is unique in the way masks can be portrayed as a hero costume. The way I created my piece was by using the app Procreate on my personal iPad. Digital art has always been convenient although it is very difficult to get the hang of. I tried to show the nurse’s joy in the piece; I don’t know her name but she seems very happy to be a part of the community and helping out. Some of my goals as an artist are to continue to grow my skills as well as build upon my art style so that I can pursue a successful career in art. The piece didn’t necessarily help me reach them but I’m hoping that it brings me even closer than I was before. Every time I make a new piece I learn something new, whether it be to make better color choices or the way to shade. I learned a lot from this piece, especially the color choices because it was time consuming to blend. I hope my artwork helps us to continue supporting our nurses who’ve been so brave to help out during the pandemic.