Abstract, contemporary, surrealism, classicism, cubism — these are just some of the most popular art styles. But one special art style never goes unnoticed on campus: anime. 

AP Studio Art has fostered its sense of appreciation for the anime style by creating a collaborative mural, which will be displayed at the Visual Arts Gallery Show April 18-22. The mural consists of a variety of anime-style characters, including characters from popular anime shows, music icons like Hatsune Miku and characters that the artists created themselves. 

“I felt like the class wasn’t very well connected. There weren’t many collaborative activities, unlike the other classes, so I just felt like starting a mural would be the easiest way to invite other people from the class to work on a project together,” senior Michael Vu said. “I feel like the more collaboration there is in the class, the better people can improve because they’re constantly being exposed to different types of approaches to art.” 

For senior Adelynne Wong, who normally draws digitally, she was able to gain a better understanding of how to make colors through a new medium: acrylics. 

“I was really hating what I was drawing, and because of that, I was having an existential crisis. I was like, ‘I can’t draw, but that’s what everyone knows me for,’” Wong said. “[Anime] was a lot easier to come up with very imaginative and creative concepts without having to stay constrained to what I felt a realistic style would do to me.”

Since AP Art Studio primarily focused on individual art for their submission for their upcoming AP test, the students rarely had any interactive opportunities as a class. However, through this volunteer-based mural, the students were able to cooperate and work with each other for the first time, according to visual arts teacher Kearci Moir.

“It takes a lot of work, cooperation, to have each other’s visions in mind and kind of meld that with your own vision,” Moir said. “You have to be a little bit more flexible and communicative, so I think it’s a great skill building process. Especially for this piece, they did a lot of communication, proper process of what they liked, what they didn’t like. They each kind of had their section that they’re working on, but they worked really well together to make a cohesive piece.”