Artist of the Week: Lydia Wickey

Photo by Carson Holtgraves

Ever since the second-grade classes at Art in the Attic, senior Lydia Wickey has found a niche in the second-floor art classrooms. After taking Drawing 2 three times throughout her years at East, Wickey has learned to love the process of artwork inside of school as well as on her own time.

Q: What kind of artwork are you interested in?

A: I really like to draw faces of celebrities like Chance the Rapper, Cara Delevingne and Gigi Hadid. I like to draw their portraits first, and then I do other things in the background or on the face to make it more interesting. I’ll make half the face a skull or something. Right now I’m super into doing background stuff that relates to the person I’m drawing.

Q: Are there any artists that have inspired you or your work?

A: I love Andy Warhol, he’s my favorite artist to take inspiration from. Also one of my friends, Lillian, who goes to East, is an amazing artist. She’s taught me how to work my artwork and media types together since she does a ton of collages.

Q: How did your love and enjoyment of art originate?

A: Probably from my family. My mom and dad used to be really into art. My grandfather is a photographer, but he also does paintings and drawings so I’ve always loved that. Then my great-grandfather was an artist too, so it really has probably come mostly from them.

Q: Can you tell me about some of your favorite pieces of artwork?

A: I have one that’s a half skull and half of Cara Delevingne’s face. It’s an 18-by-24 drawing, so it’s super detailed, and then the one I’m doing right now is the same size and I really like how it’s turning out.

Q: What is the drawing you’re working on now like?

A: It’s a portrait of Kendall Jenner in a gray scale of in pencil. The word “Vogue” is in burgundy since she was on the cover of the September 2016 issue, and then I have different sections of smaller portraits of her face on it in color. It has Kylie’s lip kit logo and “Yeezus” on it too. It sounds kind of chaotic, but it’s sort of like a poster.

Q: What is it like in a typical day of beginning a drawing?

A: I usually go onto Pinterest and find a really interesting face, or look up someone who I already know that I want to draw. Then I will start sketching out the face or subject. I’ll sketch it all out super light and get all the details in the background ready and make marks if I want a certain color or shape somewhere and go from there.

Q: How often do you start an art project outside of school?

A: Probably once every two weeks.

Q: Do you plan on pursuing a career in artwork or continuing it in college?

A: I don’t plan on making a career in art. However, I do want to use my creativity to my advantage like being a creative director or something to use my art experience for. I definitely want to take some art classes in college and I’ve applied to a couple art scholarships for different colleges.