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Started the process in making several mind maps, with both text and images to explore key ideas within my theme, very quickly two different aesthetics were created (light and dark),in my mind maps I'm trying to reflect the conflict of emotions I have, in this particular phase of of my life, so light and dark themes represent the good and bad feeling like excitement and stress
The mind map was made with secondary sources like magazines and images from the internet so I feel it lacks personal details and emotions so to solve this I will also create a primary source with my own photography

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mind mapping with magazines to see if any broader interpretations are made for my theme and a gallery visit to the V&A, visited a Donatello Exhibition where I saw variation the Virgin and child piece. within my theme I look at my support circle and my mum being a big support and I think I could interpret Donatello's piece in similar way

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I made a visit to the Barbican and their Alice Neel Exhibition,
I found exhibition relatively uninteresting, I think this may have been because I couldn't overly relate to the artists experiences or strength of views, with some politically pushed artworks I feel a disconnect, but I did like recognising the change in style from before and after she attends therapy ,as her view on the world around her seemed to alter
The building itself was very outside my comfort zone as I focus a lot on natural and colourful subjects but I think brutalism could find a place in the darker themes of my project.

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Created my first artist response to Vincent Van Gogh with oils pastel and water colour, I tried to recreate his iconic mark making two different ways and thought they both went well, I really love Van Goghs colour pallet of orange, yellows, and blues and feel some connotation of these colours would work really well within my theme so this will be taken into future works as well but I felt for Van Gogh a portrait should be included so I went to create another response, an acrylic painting of me and a close friend, I did not like this outcome because mark making was lacking and colours were muddy so I recorded mistakes and repainted with warmer colours and added pencil for precise mark making

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I started the week off with Primary research, taking some photos of myself and items that have meaning to me.
I also made a double pages spread for expressionism and artists who specialised in this after feeling Inspired by Van Gogh, One that caught my attention was Edvard Munch because of his very recognisable piece "Scream".
Also researched and created a response to Johnson Tsang where I squashed my own face and sketched it, I thought this piece was a smart and clear way to represent stress and my hand placement reminded me of "scream" This piece leaves a spark and will most likely be taken into my Final Piece. I prefer to make art that isn't overly abstract in style or meaning because I feel then a wider audience can be interested and not intimidated

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Freud- thought this artists mundane vibe would suit darker sides of my project, my struggles with low mood and lack of motivation
Material exploration using Lino, used similar colour scheme to Van Gogh as works well with my theme
Yellow/ happiness
Blue / sadness
Made two Lino designs to create different compositions will plan to collage as further development. Really like how Lino was executed.

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Started a response to Donatello after a visit to V&a, really fascinated with “the virgin and child” and it’s reflection of a mother and child’s relationship, this piece of work reminded me of my own relationship with my parents and the close bond with my mum, this moved me to use clay to create a relief portrait of me and my mum as like a modern day remake
Clay was very difficult to use as it’s not a medium I use often  but the outcome was better than expected.

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finishing off responses to collage artist Kensuke Koike using a sketch of myself, the sharp shapes they use remined me of the Barbican and the negative connotations so this artist became an example of my stress and loss of identity, which I found ironic because the artwork I took inspiration from had a rule to not add or take components and I broke that rule in the process of my responses. I also added a previous experimentation page to one response, because the texture reminded me of having a scrambled mind and further developed the idea of distortion adding another medium
I want to use more textural aspects in future work, I like how it adds another sense and another way to process my work, the viewer and can see and "feel"(double meaning) my emotions

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created a response to Tracey Emin which i feel did not go to planned. In response to the artist i made a sketch of my own bed in marker pen to experiment with different mediums, also to explore texture i tried to recreate the mess on my bed with crumpled and folded paper, i feel the approach turned out quite abstract. Regarding the marker pens i did not like the outcome, as there not a medium i use very often i felt the quality of my work decreased, i also kept line-work simple which if i were to try this piece again i would change

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started planning final piece and looking back into my book for artists that will influence this outcome, i created a few thumbnails exploring a colour scheme for my piece, a set inspired by Munch and a set inspired by Donatello.The thumbnails inspired by Edvard much were small orange and blue portraits that felt too bright for myself but i wanted to try pushing a new style, moving forward i will most likely use a lighter colour palette similar to my Donatello thumbnails and background in my Freud response to create a soft dreamy effect to my piece as this will also match chosen subjects within my piece.
pastel blue and yellow=sad, happy dreamy, hazy
subjects=memories, good moments, bad moments

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I've now painted most of my canvases (a4 size) and have one larger one left to paint, these smaller ones have my good and bad emotions reflected onto them and act as small parts of my mind, eventually framing a large bust portrait of myself. Originally all canvases had a yellow background to stand out from a bigger blue canvas but I felt this would confuse audience between my happier and sadder paintings so I repainted the sadder ones blue and will choose a different shade of blue for bigger canvas. My happier canvases are painted with faces of family because they're people I love, people who support me and they represent my best times, the sadder portraits happen to be by myself although this was not a conscious choice, I feel it relates to feeling isolated when in a bad spot. I think its quite common for people to forget who they have when they feel any negative emotion because you get inside your own head. The self portraits should reflect fatigue, stress and grief.

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I have been altering small details on my final pieces and going back into my book to complete some of the heavier annotations . I've also made a start into my digital portfolio and will be making a start onto my last and largest canvas