Maddie's Amazing Art!- The Sketchbook

This week we were asked to use our sketchbooks for the first time. We were supposed to illustrate what graphic design means to us. Now, to me, graphic design is about creativity, artistic expression, and creating something recognizable. And what's more recognizable than the world's most famous feline herself, Hello Kitty?

My sketchbook drawing.

Now, when I was first deciding what to draw, I looked up "logo" and looked through the results. The Hello Kitty logo was the first that caught my eye, and with my love of Japanese media such as Hello Kitty, I couldn't resist. So I recreated the Hello Kitty logo to the best of my ability, and decided if I did the Hello Kitty logo, I need to draw Hello Kitty herself. But then a thought came to mind- since graphic design is about creativity and artistic expression, why not make her an artist? 

So I sketched Kitty in a smock and beret, painting a picture. (The picture she is painting is a still life of three apples, because it's said Kitty weighs the same as 3 apples, and the apple is a symbol of the Hello Kitty franchise.) However, I was dissatisfied with the amount of empty space around Kitty, so I decided to draw other works of art that she had presumably made. The first thing I did was a parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, quite possibly the most famous painting in the world; however, instead of a woman, I drew a cat. (Hello Kitty probably has never seen an adult human in her life, since her world is populated by anthropomorphic animals, so I'd assume she'd use one of her own kind as the subject for her painting.) The rest of the artwork she has made are parodies of famous pieces of art starring her and her friends: a parody of Sandro Botticelli's The Birth Of Venus with Kitty as Venus and Tuxedo Sam, Chococat and Keroppi as the people surrounding her; a parody of the Greek Discus Thrower statue with Kitty as the discus thrower; a parody of Grant Wood's American Gothic with Kitty as the farmer's wife and Dear Daniel (her love interest) as the farmer; and a parody of Edvard Munch's The Scream starring Kitty as the person in the foreground with the shocked expression. I finished it off with a sign saying "Kitty's art studio: A place to get creative!"

I personally love this artwork and how well it drives home the message of creativity. That's what graphic design is about, after all. So go out there! Make your masterpiece! And don't be afraid to get creative!