New art pieces were added to the Dla Ludzi Gallery once again, and with these additions come art pieces that are focused on different themes and concepts, such as imagination or color scheme. Such concepts are present in the “Black and White Abstract Paintings” of Swihart’s Advanced Art classes and the “Character Studies” art pieces of Swihart’s Art ⅞ classes. The main theme for these projects was creativity; students had to focus on using their imagination for creating stylized works of art.

Artists for the “Character Studies” project were tasked with designing a character based on the given categories of animal and color scheme, as well as a cartoon zine involving said character. Aiden Paxon’s categories were Lizard and Monochromatic, and Joy Malahay’s categories were Deer and Complementary Colors. Artists of the “Black and White Abstract Paintings” project employed technique and inspiration to create an image that would leave a lasting impression on the viewer. Both Josephine Kim and Aubrey Scruggs used the “feathering” technique for their painting, which involves applying paint with a brush then immediately drying said brush to blend the paint, and Kim utilized 9 square boxes and multiple layers of paint.

Malahay drew inspiration for her character from the game A Hat In Time; “I was inspired by a video game character named Hat Kid …she wears a very similar color scheme, yellow and purple.”

Paxon claimed to have an original design, commenting, “I just created it from my mind.”

Kim found inspiration for her black and white painting from a photo of a ship in a periodical. She went on to state, “I thought it would be interesting to paint with the fog covering the top of the ship,” showing that a little bit of curiosity can go a long way for an art piece. She finds painting relaxing but discovers that it is more difficult than drawing because of the inability to erase paint. 

Scruggs found the inspiration for her painting very attention-grabbing, which encouraged her to add extra details and features to the image. She declared that painting brings out many emotions and makes her feel calm.

Paxon’s zine involves a plot of mischief, wherein a lizard named Flash gets into many shenanigans with his owner, eventually culminating with Flash setting his owner’s house on fire. Malahay’s zine is about a person named Dean, who suffers a strange curse when a girl takes some of his hair. After the girl leaves, Dean starts to notice the effects of his curse. Malahay disclosed that the zine acts as a prologue to her character design.

Much thought and effort went into these designs and paintings, and the inspirations of these artists certainly shine through the art pieces. As shown, these students truly endeavored to make an intriguing and eye-catching work of art.