Matt+O'Toole

On my way to school each and everyday, it is an experience of different pieces of art. Some are amazing and I envy, others; not so great, and that is what I love about graffiti. It allows people to build and build their skills on art without having to come up with a new image or something else to paint or draw every time you want to. Instead you come up with your own letters to put together and find new ways to say it. Coming up with a tag is almost an art, it definitely takes creativity to come up with a fun word to write and then you have to make them work together. It is definitely an inspirational art as well, seeing these pieces inspire me to make mine better and to some day hopefully be on their level. Graffiti is also a way to express your art and show your skills improving, it turns the city into a free museum. Also you have no idea who’s behind the artwork, which is nice because it is more of a modest way to do art. It creates an entire name for you that in turn establish stories and allows people to appreciate the work without knowing the genius responsible.

In my work, I simply sketched the letters ATRO in a style that I liked and could do, on a paper in my sketchbook. When choosing the colors, I asked people as well as put them together on a separate piece of paper to see how they would look when together. If they look good, I then try to create a background that can take away the blankness in the art and add some contrast. I couldn’t really think of anything too good so I put some blue behind it. The lightning bolts are because I figured yellow would go well with the blue and add some contrast with the dark colors. When using the paint markers it looked cool making puddles of the paint by pushing the tip down, which explains all of that silver.

I write ATRO from the word atrocity, I like the power of the word and just destruction. In the future I would like to do some pieces with chaos just happening in the background and things that relate to atrocity also add in some pieces with the entire word atrocity. But I’ll save that for when I get a lot better.

-Matt O'Toole _________________________________________________________________________________________


 * __Fourth Quarter Portfolio__**



In class I get pretty bored and drawing helps me take that away. I am constantly trying to create new things and use different skills. I practiced with dimensions and shadows. As well as arrows and faces to fill up space and try to make it look as best I can. I also practiced a lot and learned how to draw stars pretty well and with out using anything other than my eye. In the one drawing, I have a tribute to GURU who died April 19th of this year. He is a huge icon to me and is one of the best rappers of all time, I looked up an image of him and used it to look at while drawling. I never really drew a person before so I tried my best.