Identity Tree
By Isak, Year 9
My artwork, "Identity Tree", is a collection of drawings that help make up identity. The centrepiece of my artwork is a circular frame with a tree, with branches branching out to smaller pictures. Underneath the main picture I have drawn a collection of small items. All drawings are done in a semi-realistic style, with shading and depth.
I began my artwork by cutting out a circle of drawing paper. This is the main centrepiece for my artwork. I used a circle, because I thought a circle would be much more interesting than a rectangular paper. Circles are usually used in portraits. In a way, this artwork is a portrait of me, as it is a portrait of my identity. I drew a very light outline with pencil. I then used charcoal and pencil to add shading and tone to create depth. I used a blender stump to smooth the shading out and blend the tones into each other. I added some texture to parts of the tree with charcoal afterwards.
The tree represents my interest in nature. Its branches branch out to different hobbies parts of my identity, such as reading, drawing, and tennis. The highway is the highway between Darwin and Batchelor. This represents how I moved from Darwin to Batchelor, how I spent a lot of time travelling between the two places, and how this has become a part of my identity. The tennis ball represents tennis, but also my pet dogs.
I was inspired partly by Leonardo da Vinci's style of realistic drawing and tone. He also inspired me to try using tone to create a sense of 3D, without using hard edged lines. I also took some inspiration from William Kentridge, with his use of charcoal in contemporary drawing. In this artwork I tried to connect the various pieces of who I am. I wanted to create a drawing that was realistic, with depth, and representative.
While making this artwork I improved my skills with pencil and learnt how to use charcoal with a blender stump for better shading. I struggled a bit with drawing the leaves of the tree and connecting them to the rest of the artwork. The final artwork came out as a bit simpler than I was expecting, but overall I think I achieved what I was aiming for.
