In the first part of this course we focused a lot on drawing and mark making, which I really enjoyed as I hadn't worked on drawing for quite a while. In the first project we were given a series of words which we had to visually explore. I think my most successful piece is the "gagging order" picture, which is shown below, as I think the layering over the water colour works really well. In the second project we had to create six pictures of a scene from the book "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I did find this quite difficult as the novel was so descriptive it was hard to create an original image. I focused on the relationship between the father and son. The latest project had the title of "Out of the ashes". This led me to look at the poem "Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath. It's brilliant imagery and the romanticizing of death I found really intriguing. Drawing and making is something I've always done since I was little and I still find it fascinating. Doing A-level textiles gave me a real understanding of different materials but I think what really interests me about art and ultimately illustration is that it’s about storytelling. I think that this is also why I have a keen interest in cinema and theatre as it allows people to engage with others stories. Illustrating for fiction would be wonderful but to be able take that further through animation is something I’m really keen on learning about. I think that this course could offer me that opportunity as well broaden my knowledge and skill in illustration.

Still life of a skeleton. Pencil.

Life drawing. Ink, pencil and chalk.

Life drawing. Pencil.

Sketch book. Experimenting with the idea of censorship.

Water colour and black pen on tracing paper.

Sketch book. Using biro.

An etching in black.

Sketch book. Experimenting with tea bags and ashes. Looking at Frank Auerbach.

Mud, ashes, glue, pastels, chalk, charcoal.

ink and cardboard.

Acrylic and photo montage of ashes.

Brown pen.