Saugus Library holds first annual Teen Art Contest

SAUGUS – Three Saugus students took the top spots at the Saugus Library?s first annual Teen Art Contest.Saugus High School Sophomore Esther Rivas won first place for a drawing she did in art class of a small boy.?We had to choose several pictures and I picked the boy and I drew him,” said Rivas. “It was for practice. It was just a random person. I?ve never drawn a boy before. I normally draw women or men and grown up people, but I?ve never drawn a child. He was looking straight on so I decided he was good to draw.”Rivas said she used different kinds of graphite for her drawing and used the grid drawing technique.?You take a drawing and you make a grid out of it and draw it on each individual square until it?s complete,” said Rivas, 15.It took Rivas about six hours over a course of several days to finish the drawing, and she said she never thought she would win the contest.?I thought I might as well give it a shot,” she said. “I didn?t use any of my personal drawings because I thought those I would just keep to myself. I took this one which was from art class. I didn?t really think about it so when they told me in an email I was like, ?Oh.? I didn?t expect it. I just wanted to give it a shot because I?ve never really done something like this before.”Rivas said she?s been drawing since she was little but has recently become better at it and hopes to continue drawing as she gets older.?I?ve never actually drawn the way I draw now until maybe last year or the year before,” she said. “Then I started becoming professional at it and really getting into it.”Second-place winner Shannon Harrison won for a picture she drew of her 5-year-old Labradoodle, Lucy.?I drew it in my senior year of high school and we were told to pick something interesting so I picked her,” said Harrison, a 19-year-old sophomore at Bridgewater State University. “I saw the contest on Facebook and I figured I should submit it because it met all the requirements.”Harrison just finished an art class at college and said she draws “a lot.”?It?s one of my favorite things,” said Harrison, who is studying psychology.Junior Brian Buckley came in third place for his surrealist drawing of a swing on a tree, which he did in art class.?The project idea was a surrealism piece which is like a dream-like artwork,” said Buckley, 16. “It?s supposed to look realistic but have unrealistic elements to it. So I was just trying to think of something I?ve seen before and then just added things to make it not real with the barren landscape in the background.”Buckley said art teacher Cecilia Baston entered the drawing for him.?She suggested that I do it because she was a big fan of it,” he said.Buckley said he?s been drawing for about three years and, like Rivas, is getting much better at it.?It started off as a hobby but lately this past year I?ve been getting more into it,” said Buckley. “I?m not sure yet but I?d like to continue it.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].