Rising Artist Tackles a Variety of Complex Art Mediums
By: Sarah Dees
Staff Writer
Student Gretchen Immel produces a variety of art despite having two jobs.
Immel has enjoyed art ever since she was a little girl. When Immel was 4, she colored in the lines instead of scribbling across the coloring book like other children.
However, when Immel first got into art, she would look at her friends’ drawings and compare them to her own. She was critical of her own art. When she was younger, kids at school would bully her for being the “nerdy kid” in class. But, when she went to art class, her teachers noticed her talents and encouraged her to be herself.
Immel simultaneously works and goes to school full time. Additionally, she works at Green River in the art gallery. Her duties are ensuring the artwork in the gallery is safe and filling out paperwork. It is difficult balancing two jobs whilst taking classes, and all her free time is devoting to perfecting her art assignments. Unfortunately, she does not have time to create art at home for her own enjoyment until the quarter ends.
Immel has always looked up to her art teachers. She is attending Green River College to get her Associates in Fine Arts degree (AFA) to become an art teacher. Her artwork has improved drastically since she started taking art classes at Green River. When she finishes her AFA, she is transferring to Western Washington University to begin her Art Education Degree. She takes all the art courses she possibly can, which includes pottery, digital design, and drawing.
Immel admires her art professors: Sarah Dillon Gilmartin and Jessie Brugger. They inspire her to become a better artist and to further improve her artwork.
“Teachers gave me the inspiration to continue and develop my art,” said Immel.
Immel wants to be an art teacher once she finishes her AFA and her Art Education Degree. Her art teachers have always had a big impact on her life—her teachers are her role models. They ultimately inspired her to become an art teacher herself.
What initially inspires Immel for an art piece is television, video games, and books. “The Fish Kisser” is a piece Immel created. What gave her inspiration for the piece was watching Miyazaki’s Ponyo the day before she began the project. Ponyo is a Studio Ghibli movie about a goldfish princess that goes on land meets a human named Sosuke. The more their friendship grows, the more Ponyo becomes human-like, so Ponyo wants to stay on land with Sosuke. Immel is a fish owner herself; as of now, she has two goldfish and five tetras. “The Fish Kisser” is dedicated to her passed pet goldfish, Frederick. This is her way of honoring a lost friend.
She started off the project researching artwork of mermaids. Then the next step in her process was outlining everything in black in her favorite Copic markers.
“Universities don’t look at the design, they look at the lines,” said Immel. “They’re looking for students’ proficiency in drawing.”
She emphasizes that the lines are the foundation of the whole artwork. It is the most important part of the piece.
Then, she created the background with watercolor pencils. “The most fun about the piece was drawing the mermaid,” said Immel.
Immel said the hardest part of this piece was drawing the goldfish and figuring out how to color it. The goldfish is a Black Moor, and Black Moors are black, as the name suggests, but their coloring has hints of gold. So, she had to tackle the challenge of creating a complex color scheme for the fish.
Once the piece was finished, she corrected her mistakes in Photoshop.
Immel’s advice to other artists is to take a lot of drawing classes, such as digital design, painting, and drawing. It will help improve their work at a rapid pace.
