Portfolio

The inspiration for my work comes from a desire to want to document the world around me, whether that be documenting a trip or my emotions, thoughts and feelings. Most of my work looks at interaction, not only with how we interact with the world around us but how different elements of the human figure and form interact with each other. 

The Human Figure

This collage is from a project, where I looked at the human figure. I wanted to show how we quite often try to hide who we really are and mask our figures in pursuit of being what the world around us expects us to be. To do this I took two images of female faces and layered them on top of each other, in a variety of ways (for example the use of circles and strips), so as to create a final distorted image. 

For the painting above, I experimented with ink so as to make the shadows the most prominent feature in this life drawing. I originally started off with a line drawing and then added water to the wet ink in the areas where shadows featured heavily. After that I worked back into the image with graphite, so as to make some of the shadows even darker. This was a later life drawing from the same project as those shown below.

In the drawing above, I wanted to quickly document the human figure and so did this through life drawing, where the model changed position every 2 minutes. I also chose to use complementary colours to make sure that the drawings didn't all blend into one. All of the following drawings are from the same exercise.

The painting above is a combination of printing, etching and ink drawing, to create an image of a silhouette that focuses not only of the human form but also on other natural forms, through the use of circles, ovals and egg like shapes that contained imagery including that of flowers and leaves. 

In the mono prints above, I chose to look at how the human figure interacts with a given environment, in this case the before, during and after a drama performance. Of course this was a staged scenario but the element of acting still applies. I also chose to have this in the format of a line drawing, so as to allow the excess paint from the mono print to create the shading. 

Photography

These images are from a Zine project, where I focused on using several different types of media to further develop and display my photos.All of the photos look at the idea of not only documenting a journey but also creating a journey of their own, through the way they have been developed. The block photos in the corner were created through Photoshop and the use of a grid and many different blending options. The photo in the top right was produced by laying two images on top of each other and then printing it off onto grid paper before being scanned into my computer. This inspired me to create the image in the bottom left, as I scanned in a folded photo, which was placed above another image, which had been torn into pieces.  It also inspired the image at the bottom right, where I have scanned in a photo that had been scrunched up on top of the original photo. Finally I created the image on the bottom row in the middle by partially printing a photo onto a magazine page, so as to create this slightly faded powered image that I then scanned into my computer.  

In the modern world, we are easily able to take our own photos (as shown through the popularity of selfies). However, I wanted to look at what happens when we are confronted by things we don't like (in this case a sour sweet) to create a portrait that we wouldn't normally share with others. This resulted in these abstract images.

For the photos above, I wanted to experiment with using a slow shutter speed. By using a slow shutter speed I was able to blur out people in the middle photo, create "ghosts" in the top photo and make the water seem like a mirror in the bottom photo. The slow shutter speed allowed me to create distorted photos of reality. 

In contrast to the photos above, these photos where taken using a fast shutter speed, which allowed me to freeze the pieces of fabric in mid fall, when taking these photos. 

The photos above, are part of a project where I looked at how we interact with the space around us. For example the girl in the top photo uses her room to pursue her hobbies, whilst the people below use their room as a place to socialise. The lighting in the photos also reflects the use of the rooms, as the girl needs strong lighting so that she can read the music in front of her, whereas the group in the kitchen have a dimmer light to create a more intimate atmosphere. This work led me to further explore the impact we have on the rooms we own and produced the final piece which can be seen below.

Drawing and Paintings

The graphite drawing above was a development of my human figure project (which can be seen at the top of this page). Here I wanted to take elements of natural forms and combine them into a paper sculpture to draw from. The pod like shape created reminded me of various elements of viruses that pass through the human body, at one time or another. 

All of the drawings above look at spaces and their different elements. The top drawing is a pen drawing that shows an empty table on a train, which although only a moderately sized element makes up the environment created in the train. Then there's the pencil drawing below, which shows just one aspect of a garden giving a quick glimpse into that space. Finally there's the pen drawing of a view, which shows a space as a whole and how each element interacts with it.

All of the images above are from a project where I capture knots using different mediums. This project allowed me to experiment to create several images that look similar but that aren't similar. 

I sketched and painted both of these images, whilst travelling and was inspired by what I saw around me. This can be seen particularly in the painting above, as it was inspired by the paintings in the Buddhist temples and the paintings in the northern Indian palaces.

These sketches were produced using charcoal and show elements interacting with a space. The sketch on the right was produced by drawing a scene from many different angles and over laying them by only partially removing the last sketch.