Describe something that you have created at school.

You should say:

What it was

Why you made it

What process took place

And explain how you felt after it was completed.

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Ok, thanks, well, I used to be quite active in school art projects, and I was quite interested in calligraphy, which is a form of Chinese painting for certain characters. In middle school we were encouraged to do as much artwork as we could, mainly because our school needed the decorations to beautify our school. You see, my school wanted to make a name for itself as the best school in the city for arts. So our headmaster really pushed our art teacher to make sure we produced big quantities of high quality artwork. In a funny way, the students who were most highly favoured were those who were most artistic. So, you see, producing art wasn't just for fun, it was fairly serious business; and I, like every other student, took it quite seriously, too. Anyways, we were given a lot of competition-type projects, and I decided to sketch a landscape of the scenery at Shidu, a beautiful area just outside of Beijing that slightly resembles Guilin. My uncle and aunt lived out there--they were farmers--so it was easy for me to spend some time out there.

Well, I did the actual sketch in three days. Many people don't realize that although the strokes in Chinese sketches seem simple, they have to be done with perfect rhythm and flow or otherwise you have to do it again. I did the strokes, and if I wasn't happy I'd simply do the whole sketch again. So, probably I did about nine different drafts, threw away about four of them and compared five of them and chose one.

After I had completed it, I felt a bit on the edge. In my mind, I felt it was quite carefully done, but I had no way of knowing since I knew I was really just a beginner. So, when I submitted it I was full of fear and expectation. My art teacher looked at it quite favourably, but not with incredible excitement. It did not turn out to be the winner, nor was it chosen for the exhibits, but it received quite a good grade, and at least I knew that-although it wasn't fantastic work--it was at least a good start.