This portfolio contains artwork by Arushi Carlra exploring different cultures through various mediums such as batik, watercolors, oil pastels, and acrylic paint. The pieces depict symbols from Egyptian, Arabic, Indian, and African cultures. They include cushion covers with symbolic eyes, representations of cultural signs and languages, and reinterpretations of traditional art forms in a modern style. The portfolio also includes fashion sketches merging Disney princesses with contemporary silhouettes and colors.

1. Portfolio of Work
Arushi Carlra

2. Studio Work
All the studio work produced is for the IB Visual Arts course that I take part in.
They are all pieces that have something to do with culture as that is what I found
interesting and wanted to portray through my pieces.

3. Sweet Dreams
This piece was created using the Batik technique. The eye on each cushion cover are a
symbol of keeping away evil in Egyptian culture. Thus they were the cloth was made into
cushion covers to signify that you will not have any nightmares.

4. This is how I started my batik piece. I drew the outline of the eye out on the cloth with
charcoal. The reason I used charcoal is so that after putting the wax and dying the cloth the
way I wanted to, when the cloth was heated to get rid of the wax, the charcoal would
disintegrate too.

5. Knowing the Signs
This piece was created with watercolour paints and chalk pastels. It signifies how we, as
people, are able to understand the signs of different cultures even though we all speak
different languages. In the background is “hello” written in different languages in different
colours; slowly the colours fade to grey depicting that we’re all the same.

6. Knowing the Signs [Close Up]
This is a close up of one of the hands in the series of three depicted in the piece on the slide
before. This is one of my favourite pieces that I have created as I quite enjoyed working with
watercolours.

7. Untitled
This piece was created with oil pastels and acrylic paint. It was aimed to mimic cubism.
Again it is symbolic of Arabic culture, more specifically Moroccan culture, and the intricately
designed, colourful lamps that they have. To create the Moroccan lamps, I coloured in the
areas with oil pastel, painted over it with acrylic and then scraped out the coloured
segments .

8. This was the first step to create the Moroccan lamps, I drew on of them out and then using
tracing paper, traced the second one out on paper. This also helped so that I knew where
the colour was when I went over the drawings with black acrylic.

9. This was the second step – using oil pastels to add in the colour. The white spaces that I left
was where I wanted the black acrylic to stick. Wherever the oil pastel is, is where I was able
to etch out the colour.

10. Oh My Ganesh (OMG)
This piece was created as a tribute to an artist that I really liked at an exhibition hall that I
visited in Bangalore, India. I used acrylic paint to recreate his work and instead of only
creating one Ganesh, I decided to create 3 and make it a series. I love the brightness of the
colours in each painting.

11. Oh My Ganesh (OMG) [Close Up]
This is a close up of one of the Ganesh paintings of the series. This is my personal favourite
because of the brightness of the green. This was the first time that I attempted to paint with
acrylic paint.

12. Untitled
This piece was made as wax sculptures with paint. They represent the males and females in
Arab culture and how there can be diversity within a culture as well. The man statue is
wearing the traditional kandoora whilst the woman is wearing the traditional abaya. But the
difference in skin colour depicts the diversity within their respective culture.

13. Construction Jungle
This piece was done with acrylic paints. It symbolises how within Dubai, construction never
subsides and there is constantly something being built which is the tallest or the biggest.
This piece is meant to be surrealist and mimic the style of Max Ernst.

14. At this point of this painting, I realised that the painting was too blue and that I needed to
make some modifications for it to tone down and balance out. Therefore, as can be seen in
the final piece, I added red into the sky as well as the cranes.

15. Genie in a Bottle
This was the first studio piece that I ever created in the two years of IB. It was produced by
a variety of media such as broken mirror, bangles, and acrylic paint on a poster board. The
idea behind this piece was to signify who I was. This piece is very personal to me as it
depicts who I am.

16. This is how the piece looked before I had cut it out. I was still figuring out what to do in the
centre of my body because I thought it looked too plain. Therefore I later used John
Pollock’s splatter technique and implied it in my piece.

17. Change
This piece was based on a tribe in Africa called the Ndebele. In today’s time they have very
colourful tribal designs but that only happened due to Western influence. Before, the tribe
had very basic designs. This piece also looked at the transformation of street art from
graffiti on walls, to more installation and pop out work.

18. Change [Close Up]
This is a close up of the top of the piece. This part of the piece showed the olden Ndebele
designs on popping out pieces of card stuck on the canvas. This was done to show the new
street art being produced. The shapes correspond to a street artist named Eltono, who
creates these unconventional shapes in his work.

19. At tis point in the production of this piece, I was still trying to figure out where to put the
card board pieces. In the end I settled with this formation.

20. The Media
This was a chine collé piece that I created at a workshop in my IB year one class. We used
magazines to find images and text to put on our poster. Then using poster glue and coloured
tissue we put it all together, pressing it with a printing press. This was a really fun piece to
make.

21. Random Sketches

22. Gazelle Sketch
This was a sketch I made of a Gazelle head. This is one of my favourite sketches that I have
made. Pencil is one of my favourite media to use as there is a lot of flexibility and it is easy
to create tones.

23. This sketch was created to practice drawing eyes. I used a variety of pencils to create this
work.

24. Abstraction
This is an abstract self portrait that I created. It was done with a variety of pencils with
different hardness levels as well as progresso and colour pencils.

25. Fashion Sketches

26. Cindy
This fashion sketch was done with a variety of pencils and colour pencils. It was made to
depict a modern Cinderella. The colours used are a navy blue, and a magenta pink, which
correspond to Cinderella’s final dress in the Disney interpretation. The dress is more
modern with the leg slit and the corset-like top.

27. Poca
This fashion sketch was made to mimic an outfit for modern-day Pocahontas. This sketch
was made with colour pencils. The colours used are all warm colours, except for the blue,
which is what can be seen through the Disney interpretation. The poncho and the tight-
fitted pants have traditional designs but portrayed in a more stylish way.

28. Jazzy
This fashion sketch was done with watercolour paints. It depicts an outfit that Princess
Jasmine, from the Disney classic Aladdin, could wear if she lived in the modern times. I
decided to create an Indian sari for her. It is not a traditional sari as the blouse is more open
than usual. I decided to do a back view so that the blouse could be seen.

29. Bee
This fashion sketch is a modern interpretation of the Disney princess Belle, from Beauty and
a Beast. This sketch was done in watercolour. With this outfit, I gave Belle a more chic edge;
rather that a full skirt, I made a pencil skirt with a collared top. The tones of blue and yellow
that are used were taken from her original outfit.

30. So Natural
This sketch was made with colour pencils and was inspired by natural colours such as
brown, orange and green, which are depicted in the clothing drawn. I decided to focus more
focused on the top than the skirt, because I wanted to make the top stand out due to the
style of it rather that incorporate the skirt as well.

31. Workbook Pages

32. This was an eye study that I did to see how to draw eyes realistically.

33. This page corresponds to the studio piece on the 6th slide. It is the planning page.

34. This page also corresponds to the studio piece on the 6th slide. This was the page where I
tested different methods out.

35. ! !
These two pages correspond to the studio piece on the 13th slide. The page on the left is the
planning page and the page on the right is artist research as well as trial of techniques.

36. These two pages were taken from the studio piece shown on the 17th slide. The page on the
left shows how I tried different techniques on the cardboard before choosing one and the
page on the right shows my research that I did on street art and how it has changed in
today’s time.

37. ! !
These two pages correspond to the studio piece on the 5th slide. The page on the left is
where I not only worked out my composition, but also got practice drawing hands and well
as researched different languages. The page on the right is where I tested out different
papers to see which one worked with the watercolour.

38. These two pages depict sketches and drawings that I have done. The page on the left
depicts an upside down drawing of a man with an axe. This was done in pen and was to
enhance my skill of drawing with a sense of direction and without many mistakes. The page
on the right consists of 3 still life sketches done with pencil to enhance my drawing ability.

39. End.