Elements of art and design by Brittany McCann

The Feather Featured Art series is chosen by art teacher Vickey Belmont from her classes and/or independent art students. Belmont picks the best work during current units and encourages they students to participate in these occasional posts. Other students are encouraged to submit art pieces as well. Please contact the editors directly or via adviser Greg Stobbe for submissions.

Description: At the beginning of the year, art teacher Vickey Belmont asks her students to create a project that lets her know a little about them. Art II students are asked to draw 20 images that they feel describe themselves and their personality. In this first art project, the students are required to assimilate various art elements and design.

They finish this project by outlining all objects in black sharpie and add color with colored pencils. For some students this will be the first time they have used colored pencils for any sort of art project. Check out Carrie Lewis’ colored pencils source to help improve a young artists work.

According to Belmont, each year the students always create an initial project which depicts their character and how the student relates it to themselves, using art elements and principals of design.

This is the first year that senior Brittany McCann has formally taken an art class. However, Belmont believes McCann “is a very talented artist. I’m excited to see what she will produce this year in Art II.”

While this project is fun, the students use various Elements of Art, such as line, shape, form and space. They are also focusing on balance, emphasis, variety and proportion which are some Principles of Design. These are foundational to an artist when they put together an art piece.

“I choose Britany’s project because it was very colorful and vibrant,” Belmont said. “She chooses many different images and drew them creatively and they seem to interact on the page. Her use of space, color, and perspective are eye-catching. She did a great job!”

According to Belmont, each year the students always create a final project which depicts their character and how the student relates it to themselves.

Colored pencils by Brittany McCann

When I was told I had to make a poster of 20 things that represented me, I thought to myself, ‘how easy it was going to be, and how excited I was to dive head first into the school year with an art project.’

Little did I know, it was actually going to be the opposite of what I initially thought. As an artist, I often struggle with accepting the way my art turns out; I was absolutely dreading seeing this project finished.

Yet when I began to sketch it out, it started to feel real to me. I thought to myself,  ‘this is going to be my career. I can’t let this small project trip me up.’ I incorporated some of the characters from my favorite cartoons–Regular Show, Adventure time and Rick and Morty into the piece.

I have a long family history of art; many of my relatives made a career out of it, and I plan to as well.

In addition, I have always had a passion for the beauty of art. I love the colors, lines and seeing them all come together into a masterpiece. My mom encouraged me to create art even as two-year-old. But as I grew up, art became less and less a priority.

I didn’t create art for a long time because I didn’t believe I was good enough. However, coming into Art II this year has really rekindled my love for reimagining my abilities to create.

Lots of the styles and themes that I use in my art are very cartoony and imaginative; I like to have fun with it rather than being realistic and serious.

Color was always an interesting concept to me, though ironically I despise incorporating into my pieces. With this piece, however, I felt as if color was demanded, it didn’t seem to fit together without all the shading and color concepts. In the end, I really liked the product. I ended up using watercolors, even though the only required instrument was a colored pencil.

I take a lot of my inspiration from my favorite animators, Rebecca Sugar and JG Quintell, who are both top content creators for Cartoon Network. My goal is to work with them one day.

For previous art posts, read Featured art, No. 8, 2018-19 as Avery Loeffler talks Scratchboard art and Featured art, No. 7, 2018-19 as Brennen Tozlian discusses monochromatic portraits. For some recent articles, read Class of 2024 head to Calvin Crest, or Jayna Roseno leads team via encouragement, work ethic.