About
Hi there! My name is Justice Kwakye, and this is my portfolio website. I am 22 years old. I am currently in my second to last year at California State University San Bernardino. My major is in Studio Art, and I have a minor in Animation. My preferred medium is digital, but I don't mind painting with acrylic or oil paints. I also do video editing and some video art.
Artist Statement
Artist StatementWhen I work, my medium of choice is digital, usually Clip Studio Paint, Procreate, Aseprite and Resprite are my preferred programs. When someone looks at my body of work, the first thing they will notice is that I like to experiment a lot. My style constantly changes and my color choices are sometimes limited on purpose. I like to start my work off with a circle, whether I want to draw a character or a scene and use the circle as a reference.
My work is not connected to other things I make, though that may change in the future. They could be considered connected through most of my art being fan art of various media and franchises that I enjoy. As I continue drawing and making art, I am finding that the thing that is most important is expression. When first starting art, I saw technical skill as most important for art, and while still important, having a unique style is more important, as well as being able to effectively communicate in art, and I am doing that more in my art. I like to draw pokemon a lot, and through that, I have realized that I enjoy drawing creatures and character art, and that is something I can focus on improving at.
When someone looks at my work, my goal is to make them ask, “What made him choose those colors? Why use this character?” It should be a conversation started for me to explain the inspirations behind my work, maybe some sort of niche technology that no one in the modern era uses anymore but that I think is neat, or a concept I find interesting. When people look at my art, they should say “What a cool piece of art, it has so much detail, I’m noticing something new every time I look at it.” My art aims to bring a sense of wonder and maybe a little bit of nostalgia for past technologies.
Writing Sample: Mandala of Jnanadakini Report(2022)
Justice KwakyeChristopher Rowland
English 101
01 February 2022
Mandala of Jnanadakini
The Mandala of Jnanadakini was made in the late 14th century by an unidentified painter from Nepal. It was made using distemper on cloth technique. The mandala is a representation of the six armed goddess Devi, with each part of the mandala depicting something different in each corner. The mandala is surrounded by concentric circles that have lotus petals, flames, vajras and the eight great burial grounds.
The mandala is primarily colored red, blue, and yellow with white and black highlights in the painting. I find this mandala interesting because it has an interesting design. While it is somewhat common looking for a mandala of that era, this one in particular caught my eye, and I can’t exactly figure out why. Maybe it’s the more detailed nature of it, because while it looks like other mandalas structurally, it features a great amount more detail than most of them.
If you look closely at it, you can see twenty-six “portraits” in the painting, thirteen on the top and thirteen on the bottom. In addition, there are five circles in each of the corners surrounding the mandala each depicting a scene, such as dancers or a ritual of some sort being performed. It seems to expand out from the center of the mandala, where you can see Devi(the six armed goddess) surrounded by eight representations of herself. From there, it seems to multiply, with intricate designs in the area surrounding the central square. This is my favorite part of the mandala because it has designs in a black field of sorts that emphasizes the designs painted in them. This mandala is as detailed as possible, and every area you look at has some kind of image or depiction or representation of something, and it is fascinating.