Photo by Hayden Corwin ’15 – Martin Bonilla ’15 works on a piece of art during AP Studio Art, Feb. 25. Bonilla draws large scale, detailed pieces.
By Hayden Prescott Corwin ’15
THE ROUNDUP
Martin Bonilla ’15 is a senior artist who said he found his passion for art at a young age.
“In all actuality, I started around third grade,” Bonilla said.
His first art class at Brophy was Intro to Fine Arts.
Since then, he has continued to take art classes, but not just to fulfill school requirements.
Art is very enjoyable, he said.
Bonilla draws large, detail oriented pieces that Mrs. Debbie Cronin, Bonilla’s AP Studio Art teacher, thinks start from impossible references.
“I would say that Martin chooses the subjects that I think are going to be impossible, but somehow he pulls it off,” Mrs. Cronin said.
Ailan Samuel ’15 said he likes the detail in Bonilla’s drawings.
“I like the detail,” Samuel said. “His ability to capture emotions and expressions through details is really cool. I also like the size of his drawings. He spends a lot of time putting in the details because of how big his pictures are.”
Bonilla said he usually goes on Google Images to find a picture reference to draw.
His subjects tend to be people and silhouettes.
He uses standard means and media to create his artwork, his favorite being charcoal and pencil.
“I like tracing, it’s pretty easy,” Bonilla said jokingly. “But actual art would be charcoal drawings because I use it to shade, or basic pencil drawing.”
Chase Petersen ’15 said he likes the way Bonilla uses charcoal.
“I like how he contrasts the light and the dark colors using charcoal,” Petersen said.
People generally say that they use art as a way of expressing themselves.
Bonilla said he gets satisfaction from drawing, but he also gets anger.
“Anger is a big part of art because if it looks terrible, then you feel bad, and quite frankly that’s what motivates me the most, to not feel bad about myself,” Bonilla said.
Bonilla said that only he and his brother have artistic traits out of anyone in his family.
“I’m the only person that does anything semi artistic in my family besides my brother,” Bonilla said.
Hard work and belief in your abilities is crucial to success in art, according to Bonilla.
“Do your best and believe in yourself, no matter how cheesy that sounds because if you don’t you’re going to fail,” Bonilla said. “There’s not really much of an in-between there. Just try hard and if you don’t like how something looks, then try harder. Keep going at it day after day.”
