A bowl of fruits, flower vase, books, or perhaps a random pitcher: some common items of a traditional still life. When one imagines an art class, their concept may be limited to only working on this stock of “boring” works, but this could not be further from the truth.
The Cary-Grove Art Department caters to students who use a vast range of styles and mediums. With not just traditional art, but photography and graphic design courses as well, there is something for everyone.
For instance, this edition’s featured student artist, senior Avery Boone, specializes in the realm of digital art.
“Right now, I’m taking AP Studio Art and Design Production,” she said. “I’ve been taking art classes since freshman year, and I’ve been in at least six at this point.”
Design Production is a unique course for those interested in graphic design. It allows student artists to function like an in-house design firm, producing nonprofit work for both school and community events. This includes merchandising, publicity, and lots more.
“It is very, very good experience for us because when you’re a designer, you will get real commissions one day, and you have to learn how to communicate with the person that’s taking the commissions,” Boone said.
Most recently, Boone completed design work that will be featured onstage in the upcoming school musical, Urinetown.
“There is a scene in the musical where they’re at Urine Good Company, which is essentially the bad guys of the show,” she said. “They’ll have the little mini models of people like, ‘Okay, here’s the plan: you’re gonna go here, you’re gonna go there. We attack’ and whatnot. That’s essentially what we’re doing with these characters.”
Boone’s character models will also be featured in the Urinetown-themed art display in the fine arts gallery during the show, so audience members will be able to get a closer look.
Boone described some other current projects in Design Production, including designing stickers and promotional work for the 2026 Women in Educational Leadership Summit.
“You do get a bit more creative liberty with [projects like] those ones, but sometimes they’ll give you a prompt to go by,” she said.
Boone, who is now a senior, began to take art seriously back in middle school.
“I remember when my sister was younger, she got this drawing pad for her birthday. I started experimenting with it and I actually really liked it. And from there on out, I just kept finding different programs. Now I just use my phone and my fingers.”
Boone’s program of choice is the popular app IbisPaintX.
“It’s free, and it has so many different features on it,” she said. “I think any beginner artist has probably used it before.”
Over in AP Studio Art, Boone is focusing her portfolio on how humans relate to nature.
“I want to be a character designer one day,” she said. “So I kind of just think, let’s say a flower– how would that look as a person?”
One such project was Boone’s series of the eight planets drawn as human characters.
“I tried to think, what are some facts about these planets that could be incorporated into them as a human being?”
As examples, Boone detailed the inspiration behind some of her design choices.
“So, Jupiter is known as the King of Planets. It’s the largest one. I thought, well, if he’s a king, I might as well make him a king, right?”
“This is Mercury, and it’s the smallest planet. But they’re also the fastest. So I gave them a track uniform and goggles, and then I made their face more textured because of all the craters.”
“Venus is known to be a very warm planet. I used a heart necklace because it’s known as the Planet of Love. Saturn, of course, is known for her rings.”
Boone estimated that each piece took around five hours each, and the full series was completed within a week and a half. Like most of her digital artworks, all of it was made using just her phone and hand.
“It was frustrating, but also kind of fun at the same time,” she said.
Another one of Boone’s digital pieces was influenced by an Art Four/AP Art field trip to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, where a plant called Blue Star Juniper caught her eye.
“When I heard of Blue Star Juniper, I thought of a little kid,” she said. “So I tried to draw a child, and then it was like: what else is associated with stars? Nighttime. And just magical things.”
The piece was completed in Photoshop using school computers.
A piece many students might recognize is Boone’s “Chalk the Walk” contribution. “Chalk the Walk” is an annual event for the upper-level art classes, where artists spend the day creating large chalk artworks on the pavement out in front of the school. 
Given Boone’s more cartoony style, one more notable piece is her parody of Norman Rockwell’s famous Triple Self-Portrait.
“I don’t really care for realism, and I’m not very good at faces in that aspect of it. So I turned it into a stylistic choice,” she said of her decision to cover the faces with confused verbal expressions.
In terms of Boone’s general style, she described it as being very inconsistent.
“That’s something that I used to not really like about my art,” she said. “I used to get very frustrated and thought, why can’t I just stick to one specific style? I do appreciate it more nowadays because that means I can kind of expand more with how I do art.”
In the future, Boone plans to continue into the art field, aspiring toward studying animation or concept design. For anyone interested in getting started in digital art, she recommends utilizing online resources.
“I feel like there are so many tutorials out there for digital art that people take for granted. If you’re new to technology, look up different videos on how to do things. That’s how I started learning,” she said.
“I also don’t waste a ton of money on fancy tools. I promise you don’t need super expensive programs to make good art. Expensive doesn’t equal good, essentially.”
To support and explore more of Boone’s work, be sure to follow her Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/aboone.art?igsh=dDhsNXk2ZW50cGkw
Thank you for reading! If you would like to learn about more of our student artists, check back on the Trojan Times website in the future for more features like this. You can also visit the CG Art Department’s Instagram page.
If you are an artist currently enrolled in a high-level Cary-Grove art class (Design Production, APs) who would be interested in your own feature, feel free to send an email to this account for more information: [email protected]