For Marco Sosa, 17, making art is about trial and error. “Find your mistakes and improve on that,” he says. A senior at Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, Texas, the award-winning artist hopes to combine his interests in math and art to work in a field like architecture.
Orange Depth
This student artist uses light to draw a vivid still life
How does Marco create depth in his drawing?
Marco Sosa
What inspired this drawing?
I wanted to make my own vibrant still life. Renaissance still lifes typically have a dark undertone. In the grocery store, oranges stood out to me as a way to include color, especially against a blue plastic bag.
What was your working process?
To make the still life arrangement, I cut up the bag and put it underneath the sliced oranges for contrast. I drew the shadows. Then I covered the dark areas with parchment paper. Smudging was my biggest concern. I used a lot of reds and oranges. I added green to bring out the fruits’ shadows.
How did you work with light?
I settled on one large overhanging light source to cast shadows under the orange. I wanted to emphasize the translucency of the orange’s flesh, which was a challenge. It involved a lot of mixing and blending. I used highlights to sharpen the texture in the foreground, creating a realistic sense of depth and detail.
Do you have any advice for aspiring artists like yourself?
Be resourceful. Creating art doesn’t have to be expensive.
Marco won a Gold Medal for his drawing in the 2019 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. To learn more about this program, visit artandwriting.org
Marco Sosa, 17, Gold Medal, Drawing. Images courtesy of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the Scholastic Art & Writing Award Winners of 2019
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