From tales of valiant knights to the world surrounding him, senior Jonas Szepessy has gathered a library of inspiration for his illustrations.
Influenced by his parents and British literature, Szepessy’s work often reflects stories he heard as a child, including Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
“I tend to start from a story that I’ve learned, think about what I want it to look like, and then I draw what I can draw, and I’ll be happy with what comes out of it,” Szepessy said.
At the beginning of Szepessy’s artistic journey, he was taught to use watercolor, a challenging yet rewarding medium to work with.
“It’s a very special medium to me, but it’s not an easy process, just because it’s such a mean medium,” Szepessy said. “You can’t get rid of anything after you put it down, unless you’re willing to just leave it there.”
Depending on what he is drawing, Szepessy enjoys using different mediums for different subjects.
“For ink, I enjoy drawing people, but for watercolor, I am a lot more fond of drawing landscapes that are not necessarily true to what the landscape is literally, but what it feels like,” Szepessy said.
Taking figure drawing classes at Moore College of Art gave Szepessy the chance to refine his skills and challenge himself by studying models.
“You’re also not supposed to make eye contact with the model, which is really hard, but I just drew people over and over again,” Szepessy said.
Through taking AP Art and Design, Szepessy built his portfolio around stories in other cultures, allowing him to broaden his knowledge.
“I’m focusing a lot on how nature interacts with civilization and story,” Szepessy said. “I’ve been trying to branch out from just English literature, so I have a piece for Gawain, but I have also decided to do something for the Ramayana and Gilgamesh.”
Creating his portfolio has provided Szepessy with a better sense of what he truly enjoys about the process of creating art.
“I had started out not loving doing tons of research, not loving doing intense character work, or setting and composition,” Szepessy said. “That all was just something I did free-form as I went, and I started really enjoying how I could mix free-form and a lot of planning.”
Over the past year, art teacher Ms. Jennifer Rodgers has been able to see the development of Szepessy’s work through each of the pieces that he has created.
“I think he leaned into the fact that he works really well with lots of different materials, and was able to use different materials to explore different stories,” Rodgers said. “It’s almost like the art material supported the story and vice versa.”
With their shared love for literature, English teacher Mr. Matthew Morris values the discussions they have about the stories that have served as inspiration for Szepessy.
“I know he takes a lot of inspiration from that, and I love talking about mythology and folk tales with people, and talking about different epic stories and stuff,” Morris said. “We had some good talks about that. And I know he’s inspired some of his art from those stories that are very important to people, and sort of put his own spin on them.”
Szepessy plans to go to Oberlin College in the fall, where he will be able to experience a handful of unique artistic opportunities.
“They have a program where you can take home a Picasso,” Szepessy said. “Apparently, nothing bad has ever happened to any of the art, so I was like, ‘what if I’m the first person to spill chili on the Picasso?’”
As a career, Szepessy hopes to pursue art by illustrating children’s books and book covers.
“I have a few friends who write books, and they’re like, ‘will you make a book cover?’ But they’re writers, and they don’t know what they want,” Szepessy said.
Morris recognizes the strength that comes with being creative and offers his advice to Szepessy as he prepares for future artistic endeavors.
“It’s always so important to be filling your own well, so that you have the water to drop out of it. For any artist, they need to constantly be refreshing themselves, and that doesn’t have to be in the medium that you work in,” Morris said. “You can watch a movie to inspire your writing. You can read these stories to inspire your art, just so that you’re constantly having material to work with and so you don’t feel like you have to create out of nothing. That’s not possible, and that’s not what creativity is.”*
