For this project, my classmates and I were told to go out into the world and capture an everyday object from an odd angle to make the viewer appreciate it more. So I decided to paint a photo I had taken a few weeks ago in graphite. I am proud of the realism in this project and hope it is not only technically impressive, but also provokes thoughtfulness on where we get our energy from and how we use it.

As the name of the project suggests, the goal of this project was to run at least one pen completely dry to communicate our message. I choose the prompt "Love" and decided that instead of portraying it in the way that the majority of media today does (meaning to show love as the goal in life, and in the perfect, innocent way it is shown in all fairytales) I would show love the way I see it. I don't believe that love must be the goal in life for all individuals and that even if you do fall in love, it isn't pretty or perfect. Sometimes it can destroy you from the inside out. Because of this, I drew two birds bursting from the frame in the center while tearing a human heart apart. I take pride in the way I made the movement of the birds is both graceful and also frantic. I put a large amount of effort into rendering this piece, and I hope you like it!

Every artist has room for improvement, and in my case, I hope to improve my scratchboard skills in the future. The prompt for this project was nightmare or dream, so I choose to draw a reoccurring night terror I've had in real life. I wanted to portray suspense and the feeling of being watched. I will most likely recreate this piece or make edits, but I am proud of myself for engaging and persisting to the finish line!