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Yasmin Nakano
ENC 1101
November 20th, 2017

Can text become a form of art and vice versa? My answer is yes. Art has been something

that has been with me my whole life and now I am just starting to explore it in as many ways as

possible. With this being said, I have found ways to translate my words through my art. When

created a painting there are many steps that I take before I consider it to be complete and

throughout this essay you will see where this journey takes me from beginning to end. As well as

writing, mainly for school and the assignments that come along, I use similar techniques as I do

for my art. There are a lot of elements that can be balanced together by each of these two

completely different subjects that go together quite nicely. Even then, sometimes my words can

be put into art and thats a whole other concept we will explore later.

To start off, when I create a new concept of a painting, I usually tend to explore many

different options in search for inspiration on whats next to come. Whether its something that I

am feeling or rather something that I saw from an outside perspective such as nature, a billboard,

or the human body, its typically not too hard to move onto the next step. This next step goes

straight into the purpose of it all. At this point you may be finding yourself asking Why am I

doing this? For me, this gives myself a sense of urgency and that little extra push to make sure I

am doing more than just the bare minimum by adding in little details and elements that can turn

it all around. Similarly, the way I write corresponds to this. Inspiration can come from many

sources such as a book, research and your own experiences. With this, I can guide myself in to

which direction that I want to take the reader to, which can be a variety of different directions it

does not have to be just simplified to only one. The purpose of it can simply be because I am in
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ENC 1101 and this is what I am supposed to do in order to get a rewarding grade that reflects on

it or for personal satisfaction so that I can grow as a writing and improve on each piece I decide

to write next. Either way, this is how I begin my process throughout both art and writing.

Figuring out the elements you want to add in is probably the most hardest part of it all

when it comes to both art and writing. This is where I start brainstorming and creating a sketch

onto the canvas and really trying to visualize where I should put what, while also taking away or

adding in more detailing to enhance the look. It is super crucial that when I am sketching out on

to the canvas that I pay close attention because it will make it easier for you once you start

putting a paint brush onto the actual canvas when painting. It is much less stressful when you

make a mistake and all you would have to do is go back in with an eraser and get rid of it. When

messing up with paint you are having to go back into your color palette and having to cancel out

colors, waiting for it to dry and reapplying several coats to get it back to the same shade and

texture. Creating a draft is also helpful when it comes to writing, especially for an assignment.

Throughout the course of my ENC 1101 class, Ive learned to make this a healthy and proactive

habit of mine when writing any major paper. Creating an outline and having to have at least 90%

of a draft complete helps me out with minor tweaks here and there that can be later fixed before

having to turn in the final draft.

For the next few final steps that go into my painting, I focus on three important things:

Painting, going back and revising, and the overall completion of the final product. Painting can

be a little difficult at times but being very tedious and mindful of the sketches that were drawn

early make it less of a hassle. I would say that this step takes the longest out of them all because

this is what is right before the final product, similar to the draft but after the fact. When I am

done making sure that most of my line work, shading and depth perception is on point, then I can
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finally go onto revision. Revision on a painting can take a little time because when you feel like

you are done with the painting, you might look closely at the details the next day and notice you

missed a few things. I give myself 12 hours or more before looking at the canvas again. Think

about it, youve been sitting down working non-stop on something with your eyes glued to just

one object for a generous amount of time that the last thing that is on your mind is to go back and

search for areas requiring revision. This may cause you to overlook many micro things but after

those 12 hours or so, youll notice them and itll make the world of a difference. Writing of

course doesnt have a painting portion but it certainly does require a lot of revising. After the

draft I am currently used to giving and getting peer review comments back and based on those I

decide what needs a little fixing and touching up on. Typically, the peer review comments help

me branch out on some extra ideas, fixing commonly missed grammar errors, transitional words

and elaborating on certain subjects. Once I am done with that, I am done with my essay.

Overall, the journey between my process of making art and my process of writing can go

hand in hand and are surprisingly almost identical. Painting of course takes much more time but

along the way it becomes less challenging for me when I follow my own route. The same goes

for writing. I can definitely see the difference in how I write now versus how I wrote back in

high school and I might stick with it for as far a know. I can say that ENC 1101 has helped me

figure out an effective and efficient way of overcoming my worst subject and making the most

out of it. Having a step by step routine not only makes these two completely different subjects

faster to accomplish but once I see the results I am truly surprised of what I am capable of.