Soy Artista & Arts Ed w/ Margaret 'Quica' Alarcón

by Margaret 'Quica' Alarcón

Jul 28, 2018

2 min read

Congratulations to these young and talented artists! Thank you to everyone at Self Help Graphics who made this possible. This week we drew, traced, designed, beveled, carved and inked up our drypoint plates creating some expressive, complex and imaginative self portrait works. We also experimented by adding color to at least one of the prints.

We started my Drypoint printing "Soy Artista" class at Self Help Graphics and Art in ELA this week. The class allows us 4 days to produce 3 prints where one will be placed on exhibition. Our Soy Artista exhibition will be on Saturday, August 4th from 11-2pm at Self Help Graphics & Art in East Los Angeles <3

Most things we see can be broken down into shapes. This helps artists to understand the visual world in a way that helps build drawing skills.

Using a plexiglass plate to create a drypoint (engraving) relief print, students made a complex image of a digital selfie, breaking down values into organic and/or geometric shapes to create a self portrait.

Since we only had 4 days and various skill levels, tracing skills come in handy for this. Tracing is a form of drawing and is one way young artists can practice and gain confidence in their drawing skills. Some might say that tracing is "cheating," but I completely disagree.

Tracing, contour drawing, life drawing are all important skills for visual artists to master. Surprisingly, tracing is an important drawing skill where many students struggle and some are more at ease. Tracing is a great way to Develop coordination and focus. Recognizing value in their photos while adding lines and shapes to create patterns, students work to design something meaningful to them. Stay tuned! Tomorrow we carve into our plates ! <3