Youngarts Portfolio 2026

Welcome to my full 2026 YoungArts award-winning portfolio submission!

After the Ice

I created this piece with Prismacolor colored pencils on black paper. Using reference photos I took on my team bus, I focused on natural, relaxed body language. I emphasized strong highlights and deep shadows to capture a peaceful, intimate mood, layering cool and neutral tones to define the figures while softening the background to draw focus toward the foreground.

After the Ice (detail)

This is a close-up of the figure nearest the viewer from the original drawing. Using colored pencil on black paper, I layered colors to create smooth skin tones and emphasized light and texture to convey vulnerability in rest. The close perspective and contrast between sharp highlights and soft shadows enhance the sense of quiet intimacy.

Moments in Transit

I created this piece using an alcohol marker base layered with colored pencil, based on a candid photo I took on the New York City subway. Using perspective and layered warm and cool tones, I emphasized gestures and expressions to reveal the diverse connections among passengers. By contrasting familiar figures with strangers and softening the background, I aimed to highlight the intimacy and beauty of shared space.

Drowning in Conformity

I created this piece with Prismacolor colored pencils on black paper, using a photo reference of myself. Through gradual layering of light tones against the dark background, I built depth and allowed the hands to fade into shadow. Highlights draw focus to the face, while subtle distortions symbolize internal tension and the pressure of societal expectations.

The Goldfish Effect

I created this piece using Prismacolor colored pencils layered over an alcohol marker base. The composition, created by merging different reference images, intentionally forms a surreal yet grounded scene. I emphasized the hands, phones, and the central glass of water, using lighting and contrast to highlight the goldfish and seagull within a cohesive, dreamlike atmosphere.

Beneath the Surface

I created this piece with Prismacolor colored pencils on black paper. I layered cool tones to build depth and an ambient, underwater atmosphere, using soft lighting and elements like jellyfish and fish to create an ethereal mood that highlights the figures’ relationship.

American Mosaic

I created this piece using alcohol markers and Prismacolor colored pencils. After collaging and editing multiple photo references in Procreate, I blocked in major areas with markers before layering colored pencils for depth and motion. I used dynamic strokes and shifting contrasts to convey movement throughout the subway, emphasizing select figures with richer color and sharper detail while keeping others softer. Subtle color choices in the background also evoke the American flag, symbolizing diversity and shared experience that shapes our nation.

American Mosaic (detail)

I created this detail using alcohol markers and Prismacolor colored pencils. After blocking in forms with markers, I layered pencil to build texture, lighting, and contrast. I emphasized the older immigrant man’s figure with sharper edges to draw attention to his personal story of resilience, reflecting the perseverance behind the American dream of Self-Determination.

Hands That Hold

I created this drawing on black paper using Prismacolor colored pencils. I focused on the emotional range among the three children, emphasizing the central child’s reaching gesture to convey the adolescent vulnerability and connection. Subtle color and lighting choices draw focus to the figures while fading into the background, and a small droplet above the scene adds a symbolic sense of introspection and depth.

Seats of Privilege

I created this piece using Prismacolor colored pencils on beige paper. I layered colors to build depth and contrast, emphasizing the young dark-skinned girl in the foreground and her muted anger at the disparities around her. I highlighted the contrast between empty plates near her and the abundance further down the table, using light, color, and texture to convey inequality and invite reflection on social injustice.

Artist Point of View

My perspective as an artist comes from observation—of people, their habits, and the subtle ways they connect with one another. I’m drawn to the moments that often go unnoticed: the quiet smile between friends lost in laughter, the tired expression of a worker returning home at dusk, the space between movement and stillness. Much of my art begins with photos I’ve taken in everyday life, whether it be on the bus, at home, or in a restaurant. From there, I reimagine what I see. I edit, collage, and alter each image to build scenes that feel both real and surreal, where light, color, and composition can tell stories beyond what the camera captured. What motivates me most is the freedom art gives me to reshape reality, to emphasize what I find meaningful and quiet what I find overwhelming. Through drawing, I can express ideas about identity, society, and human relationships without having to explain them explicitly. I enjoy exploring how people can influence one another and how emotion can exist even in a subtle glance or gesture. As a teenage artist still forming my own view of the world, creating helps me process my surroundings and understand the intentions behind them. Art allows me to slow down, reflect, and translate those feelings into something tangible. Each piece becomes a record of how I see humanity: fragile, complex, and deeply interconnected.

Portfolio Selections

The works in my portfolio are unified by a focus on human relationships and the social dynamics that shape how people interact, connect, and coexist. Each piece explores different aspects of these relationships, from familial and societal pressures to simple friendship. I often begin with references drawn from my own experiences, creating compositions with subtle surrealism to highlight emotion and narrative. I’m truly fascinated by the complexity of humanity—the way people can be simultaneously kind and cruel, brave and vulnerable, innovative and flawed—a theme that threads through every piece in my portfolio. Several works capture candid, intimate moments, such as teammates sleeping side by side after a long figure skating competition. Others reflect broader observations, including my experiences living in New York over the summer, where I became captivated by the diversity of human stories and interactions. Some pieces carry social commentary: “The Goldfish Effect” depicts teenage girls absorbed in their phones as a seagull swoops toward an unnoticed goldfish, representing the disconnection of modern life; another depicts my self-portrait being pulled underwater by grasping hands, symbolizing the pressure to meet unceasing expectations. Although each piece can stand alone, together they document my perspective as a teenager growing up in a world shaped by comparison, diversity, and innovation. My use of Prismacolor pencils unifies the portfolio visually, while recurring themes of connection tie the works conceptually. This portfolio is both an observation of others and an introspection of myself—an artistic exploration of what it means to be human today.