This piece is a self-portrait, where I wanted to focus on trying to capturing my happiness through oil paint, an introduction to me.

My piece, Raspberries By The Pool, is a sketch done using both graphite and colored pencils of my little sister, just moments before she is going to go to her swimming class. My dad had taken the picture of her looking up at us, wanting to always be near us. My little sister is always so full of energy and playfulness, which I wanted to capture.

Last summer, my family and I visited Boston where we toured the ‘Freedom Trail’. This piece is done using pen and ink, and it is the Old Boston State House where not only did the Boston Massacre happen, but also where the Declaration of Independence was first read. For me, this has always been a symbol of the United States’s fight for independence, or the beginning of our freedom. I chose to use pen and ink because it gave me the same “old-time” feel reminiscent of the time period.

This piece is done using oil paint and I just thought it would be fun to capture the different colors within nature, within the tiger. For this image, I did look at a reference, but the reference had done the painting entirely using a knife. My task was trying to recreate that same depth and texture produced by a knife with just a brush. This picture stood out to me because of the colors that jumped out from it, making it one of my favorite photos.

Since a common theme of my work is community and family, I decided to draw the physical center of it all: my home. I decided to use pen and ink, not just because it allows me to focus on contrast and detail, but also because to me, it's timeless, much like the foundation my family has built in this home.

This time, I decided to draw my sister a little older, at around 6 years old. Her smile is so infectious, so that's what I wanted to focus on in this piece.

This is one of three is a series of colored pencil drawings I did, where I wanted to focus on my love for nature. I set this one within an "A", which is the first letter of my first name, and drew animals that my family and I love at my local aquarium. I really wanted to capture the diversity of life under the sea.

This drawing is the next in my series of colored pencil drawings focusing on animals, this time using my middle initial, "H" as the fence. Keeping up with the theme of community and family, I decided to use my neighbor's dog, Rocky, as the focal of my piece.

This is the final piece of my series of colored pencils, this time focusing on the air, drawing a bird flying through a P (the initial of my last name) shaped cloud.

This piece is done using pen and ink of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. As a Californian, this has always been an image I associate with home. I choose a picture from this angle because not only did it capture the vastness of the towering Golden Gate Bridge, but it captured the fog and rocks that characterize the San Francisco coastline. I used pen and ink because it was the best to capture the details in the rocks and the bridge, although it was harder to draw the fog.

The piece with the waterfall was done with pen and ink. It was my first time trying to draw water with this medium. My goal was to try to convey that same idea of moving water and the power of a rushing waterfall using pen and ink. It also let me draw a lot of the background rocks and plants with high detail. Nature has always been a big part of my inspiration and this was one of the many waterfalls I've seen while traveling with my family.

This piece is another one of my sister, my biggest inspiration. In these pieces of work, I tried to capture her at three different ages. In this one, she's a toddler where I wanted to portray her curiosity and wonder. In the background, I decided to draw activities that she loves, from reading to swimming to drawing with me.

This piece is done using oil paint. This painting was more inspired by mom. She wanted to have the Tuscany House painting for our living room. This type of landscape was slightly out of my comfort zone, but I am glad it turned out the way it did.

My last drawing is again using pen and ink of a black bear rolling in the grass. I had recently traveled to Yellowstone and it was the first time that I had seen a black bear so close to me, right next to the highway. Drawing this reminded me of that bear. I felt like the pen and ink was the best for conveying the fur of the bear with the level of detail I wanted, while also capturing the playfulness and carefreeness of the bear.

This was done using water color, a thicker kind of it. It was an abstract interpretation of flowers and trees in a jungle.

This picture was done using graphite pencil of a woman, who to me seems to be thinking. I loved really working on the eyes and the hair, helping me practice using graphite pencils (which is one of the hardest mediums to use for me).

I’ve heard stories about the great Buddha and how he was born a rich prince, yet was willing to give everything up just so he could help the people. He meditated to find answers for his questions on human sufferings of old age, sickness, and death. His teaching of peacefulness still are spread around the modern whole today through Buddhism. His story has always taught so much about being moral and truth. I decided to paint him for our living room, with oil paint.

This was my first time using oil paint to paint a person, and I think it turned out pretty well. I think oil painting works really well for people because it helps really blend the colors of the skin together, to get the warm and cool undertones.

This painting was my first time using thin water color paint to paint a landscape.

I love using water color for this type of painting because it allows me to use water to move the paint around, fluidly. It takes lots of coats to build up the deep shadows of the leaves and the background especially because the paint is so thin.

The moment I saw this picture, I immediately thought of Beth from Little Women. It was a fun way to practice using pen and ink, and make one of my favorite classical literary characters come to life.

I like to carry around a small sketch pad that I got for my 15th birthday. There I used graphite pencil to draw this peacock, the national bird of India and one of my favorite animals.

This skull drawing, done using graphite, was done also in my little sketchpad. This picture really stood out to me because of the depth you could create with the hollows of the eyes and the nose. Also, as someone who is also fascinated by biology, it was interesting to draw also what is inside the body, not just outside.

This was meant to be a picture of Jennifer Lawrence using graphite pencil and added the background of being in a seaside town. However, even though the woman didn't not turn out the way I wanted to, I like the depth of shadows I was able to create with the boat and the rest of the background.

I wanted to capture the boldness of a tiger, not just through its features but also colors. I simply created a 3 by 3 grid and used colored pencils.

This is my first time using this type of water color paint in order to paint a person. Although, I wasn't entirely happy about the way it turned out, I love the deep contrast between the dark purples and bright yellows.

I remember this being one of my first oil paintings and thinking that it was really fun. This picture was the turning point for me, when I truly realized how much I loved painting especially. To this day, this picture still hung in my bedroom.

This image, done using oil paint, reminds me of the many times over the summer that my family travels to the California coast, taking walks by the beach. I used oil paint in order to get the thick texture of the flowers and the grass.