As a high school student, it is important to kick off those shoes and relax every once in a while. Some students take a break by watching videos on Youtube, reading a book, listening to music, or viewing posts on Tumblr. But for Cerritos High Junior Arthur Chen, winding down means picking up his sketchbook and drawing.
Chen prefers oil paint, acrylic, 3-D animations, and spray paint instead of the typical pastels for his art. He hand-crafts stencils, which he explains is the most difficult and time consuming part, and spray paints the background.
“You have to use the same paper as you do for the background…draw your subject and then cut it our appropriately,” Chen explained, “[Then] once you cut out the stencil, you place the stencil on the paper and spray paint it. The background behind the object of the picture is usually the lightest spot, while the other parts of the background are darker.”
Making an art piece usually consumes around four to five hours of his time.
Chen began working with spray paint in 8th grade after being fascinated by a street artist.
“I was walking around the streets of Hawaii, and a big crowd started to form. I noticed a guy spray painted while dancing to Michael Jackson’s music and I was intrigued. I watched him paint for about an hour and got to see his beautiful end result. People applauded and were impressed by what he was doing. I then realized that I could also try out spray paint, and maybe I would get the same recognition as that man on the street.”
Not only does Chen submit his artwork to various competitions, but he is also currently selling his pieces around campus. Each piece goes for about five or ten dollars.
He hopes to continue getting better and have “someone buy [one of his] pieces for $100.”
As Chen pursues his ambition, it is fair to say that he will soon reach his goal. He says, “The one thing I like about art is that you can only get better”
