P S Art 2016 Exhibition Schedule www.nyc.gov/schools/artseducation

Contour Sneakers
Michael Ragland
Grade: 9
School: Humanities and the Arts Magnet High School, Queens
Art Teacher: James Giardina
Pencil on paper
STUDENT: Creating art is a great way
to meet new people. Often people
will look at my art and talk to me
about it. I’m a perfectionist and I
want all of my artwork to be perfect
so I strive to do my best. Art gives
my life structure. Mr. Giardina has
taught me drawing techniques, and
that there’s more then one way to
solve challenging art problems. Most
importantly, Mr. Giardina’s class
prepares me for realistic drawing,
something I want to focus on in the
future. It was challenging to find a
subject, something to draw that was
representational yet made only of
lines. I was thinking about doing an
abstract art work but I felt that was
too easy to do. I wanted to challenge
myself, and using only a variety of lines
to represent the subject, I did just that.
TEACHER: Students experimented with
drawing pencils, and demonstrated their
understanding of the possibilities of
the line, an Element of Art, by creating
an artwork using different line types,
line variation, and line quality. Students
learned to appreciate different artists’
use of lines, and how line type can
create a mood, feeling, or message in an
artwork. Michael’s work demonstrates
incredible drawing skill. I was impressed
by how he used implied lines to create
the negative space. Taking an abstract
approach to create a representational
object shows artistic insight.
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