In the afternoon we discussed the 5 subject themes we have to choose from. 

At first, I really wasn’t sure which I wanted to choose. I was worried about choosing one then later regretting it and feeling tied down to my bad decision. But upon reflection, regretting my decision later on in the project will allow me to work harder and be more creative with my ideas, like a challenge to overcome. I decided to brainstorm during the break and write down everything that came to mind when thinking about each topic. I didn’t finish this in the studio, but I became drawn to ‘the portrait’ more and more even before I’d finished. The tutors talked about this project being about leaning into who we are as illustrators and what we really enjoy doing, and personally I’ve always loved drawing people. 

I had doubts about this because it could definitely be possible to include portraits with other themes, and I worry that choosing a theme that feels safe for me won’t allow me to grow, but I decided that I can still push myself out of my comfort zone and create something great even with a subject that seems familiar. The options are endless.  After uni I walked home and sat in burgess park to finish my mind maps. Even though I had plenty of ideas for the other subject themes, ‘the portrait’ is what excited me most, and I think a project needs to be exciting for me to get the most out of it.

In the first exercise we were shown a series of images, that we had to respond to in relation to our subject theme/project brief and a sentimental item we brought in. My item was a collection of tiny lucky cat charms that I bought throughout a trip to Japan in 2019. I was quite confused with this task at first, I felt that I needed more time to process what I actually had to do, because by the time I started getting it, the 5 minutes was up. I didn’t understand how to just write stuff down so quickly that was related to the brief, the photo, and my important possession. This task wasn’t so helpful because I didn’t understand it. but I think I’ll give it another go and see how it can be useful to play around with random ideas. 

Once the time was up we spread the drawings out and looked at them. It was amazing to see how some people could just think up these perfect scuba divers in their heads, makes me want to be better. After this, we were taken through the assessment criteria, and the whole point of the drawing was revealed. That in order to get an A we have to be deep see divers and go super deep into our work and the process/research. 

I drew the entire image of my room on top of the other whole drawing in red fine liner so it would stand out on top of the thicker lighter orange underneath. This choice made it interesting and more difficult to draw since the waxiness of the pastel underneath prevented the fine liner ink from marking the paper. It did however strip away som of the pastel to create a cool negative, which means you can still see what I was drawing. 

For the drawing of the most important thing I chose my bedside table because I think it has the most character and the most ability to tell a story with all the variety of things that are on. I used a pencil on top of some of the other drawings and it was soooo noticeable to me how much more comfortable I am drawing with pencil and how much satisfying the result is to me. The pencil is my preference, but I don’t think using it has created the most interesting image, it lacks character that the other drawings have. I used pencil for the line only drawing too.

I cut out the bed and table as the most important part of the image, but the 5 mins was already up before I had a chance to start doodling on it. I quickly sketched in a person in the bed.

Next I used an oil pastel to quickly capture the objects texture, the grain of the paper helped with this. 

By keeping these drawings on the same page I am able to see how an object can be captured in multiple different ways, this will provide insight into what I create moving through the projects in this unit.