This is where all of my art work is stored, including the process of the final piece of each unit. The works featured on this website includes the last year of the MYP Programme (Grade 10), as well as my 2 IB Years in Grade 11 & 12.

JANKA VAN DER MERWE

ART PORTFOLIO

SKELETONS AND FLOWERS

During this unit we looked at how Skeletons and Flowers can represent Life and Death in a beautiful way. I enjoyed this unit because i enjoy sketching and shading and doing observation work.

The Process

This is an observation piece that i did of the science skeleton.

These are some flowers that i did to experiment which one i would like to include in my final piece.

Here is another flower that i did, which was my end decision however i decided to not use watercolor, and keep the sketchy and pencil style.

Here is my final sketch that i did in my sketchbook which i then got printed onto plastic, so that i could project it and sketch the outline on a bigger piece of paper. That went on to be my final piece.

GRADE 9

Ghandi by Voka

Anonymous by Voka

Marilyn by Voka

FAMOUS CELEBRITIES

During this unit we looked at the artist named Voka. Below is just a few paintings that represent his art work. I got very inspired by the painting of Gandhi, and that is what i used as a reference for my painting of Angelina Jolie.

Below you can see a few paintings by the artist we inspected, as well as the process of this painting.

Inspiration - Work by VOKA

The Process

Here is my process for my final piece of Angelina Jolie. At first, we looked at a few videos and pictures of the work of Voka, and then got an established idea of what our final pieces should look like. After that, we got together a few ideas that we could make for our painting, and then chose one. I though of either some dramatic profiles of Emma Stone or Angelina Jolie. In the end, i choose Angelina. After establishing what photo we wanted, we got it printed onto plastic, so that we could trace the photo onto a bigger piece of paper through projection. Projecting onto bigger pieces of paper is a very controversial topic, and i had written a lot about whether or not it is cheating in art or not.

These are a few pieces that display the work of Voka. He is famous for his murals of paintings, but looking at his portfolio it seems that his interest is places and people. We can see that he has a very colorful, bright and also messy style.

Is projecting cheating in art?

Today, there is a huge controversy over whether we think that tracing is cheating in art, however i find that there is no reason why we should put down people who make great art just because they use a tool that guides their art. There are many artists out there who make amazing, and skillfull art, but they project their work on the canvas. For example, Voka creates vibrant profiles of famous people, however there is no doubt that he doesn’t project their outlines before he starts painting. In this case, he is using the projector as a tool to get an outline of the face, and then from there he uses a lot of unique skill to paint the portrait.

However there are some artists who paint directly traced pictures. This is okay, however i do not agree with artists using copyrighted pictures and using that calling it as their own, just because they traced it. A question that rises is shouldn’t the fact that the artist is projecting an image be mentioned in the process/art of the painting. Just as an artist uses paint, they should also be able to use a projector without any criticism.