This selection of student work connects with the theme of figure in environment. Though the pieces span different mediums — drawing, watercolor, ink wash, digital collage — and were made for various project briefs, they share a common thread: a human figure embedded in a space. The strongest work here creates a sense of genuine enmeshment, the figure holistically and believably part of its surroundings. In less successful work, even otherwise well-executed drawings, the figure can feel stuck on — the space collapsing into just two layers, figure and ground. What I find most effective, and what I now direct students toward, is thinking in three spatial layers: background, middleground, and foreground. Place the figure in the middleground, and suddenly it is sandwiched between the other layers — belonging to the space rather than sitting on top of it.
