Timeline of Educational Projects

A chronological showcase of physical coursework from my time in education, highlighting my growth as an artist and designer through the years. Some of my projects are online, so instead of screen grabbing to include in this gallery, you can find full copies of these sketchbooks or related studies on the 'Sketchbooks' page. This page focuses solely on the physical side of a project, including coursework, physical sketchbooks, and larger-scale experiments.

Disorder and Chaos (GCSE)

This project explored the theme of Disorder and Chaos. I chose skulls as my focus due to their strong visual association with death, which I view as a chaotic element of life. Death has the power to upend lives abruptly, leaving behind disorder and confusion for those affected.

My main inspirations for this project were Victoria Villasana and Jeremy Olson, as I felt their work embodied disorder and chaos. I admired Villasana's use of bold colours and the way both artists deconstruct their subject (people) transforming them into something fragmented and chaotic.

Initially, I planned to create a distorted image of a skull using various colours and impressions. However, my concept evolved into a piece designed to evoke a sense of confusion, mirroring the emotions death can bring. To achieve this, I created a vertically sliced skull using oil pastels, merging three distinct color schemes to emphasize the disarray and unpredictability inherent in the theme.

Circles (A-LVL)

This project was based on the theme of "Circles." I chose this theme because it was a self-directed project, and I wanted to explore the versatility of the shape. My initial plan was to create a collage of layered circular objects and then paint them to showcase and highlight the variety of things that naturally come in the form of a circle. However, my teachers felt that this idea lacked strength and direction for the project.

In response to their feedback, I shifted my focus to pointillism while still incorporating circles by collaging them. I explored this style for a while, but after further discussions with my teachers, I was encouraged to try something more representational, such as painting circles in the form of apples. This led me to research Paul Cézanne and, eventually, to create a painting of fruit in a bowl.

Overall, I feel the project became somewhat messy and lacked proper development because I kept changing direction instead of building on my original idea. In hindsight, I believe sticking to my initial concept of collaged circles would have been more effective. I also preferred my pointillism-style work over my final outcome, as it aligned better with my abstract approach and skills at the time.

Science (A-LVL)

This project explored the theme of Science. I chose to focus on human anatomy, specifically skulls and body parts, drawing inspiration from the style of old science textbooks and scientific illustrations. When selecting this theme, those types of drawings stood out to me more than the other options I initially explored.

My main inspiration for this project was Andreas Vesalius, whose work exemplifies the traditional scientific adaptations of human anatomy. I admired Vesalius's clean, purposeful lines and his use of varying line thickness to create depth and detail.

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to create something related to skeletons. This idea developed into creating a line-drawing image of a skull using board and contrasting elements to bring each skull to life.

Componet 1+2 (A-LVL)

These projects were different then the ones before as they are for the subject of 3D Design so worked and were created slightly differently as the exam was different too the art subjects I took as well as being a different subject so I faced different challenges.

Component 1 was on a theme that I had to come up with which was, “ How fairy-tales and storytelling can influence design when creating a set?”. This Component explored how fairy tales influence set design, creating a carousel-like model inspired by Hansel and Gretel. I researched lots of different options to explore my options, tested different designs and ideas to try and ensure my final outcome would be the best and worked primarily with cardboard as it was create for the time restraint we had. Though my final model moves as intended like a carousel would, its small scale and rushed painting limit its quality. With more time, I’d improve stability and scale.

Component 2 was different as we had many different themes to chose from and my chosen given theme was “Celebrate the Process of Regeneration” and I added the extra task of sticking with natural forms as I felt that fit the base theme the best. For my project on Regeneration, I explored renovating and repurposing architecture, linking it to natural regeneration. Ideas included creating models of buildings before and after renovation, redesigning spaces while retaining original elements, and modernizing historical structures inspired by natural forms. Using floor plans and sketches, I explored the idea to merge restoration with innovative design. However I shifted my project from interior design to architecture, focusing on natural regeneration and creating architectural models inspired by transformative natural processes as this fit better.