This design is heavily inspired by the ‘Mother Earth’ figures in Brian Kirhagis’ work, I wanted it to appear that the flora and fauna was being created by the figure, and growing from within her. I placed the figure floating on water because I wanted the mood created to feel meditative and calm, as women are often thought to have a close connection and understanding of nature. Acrylic paint is a media that I’m very comfortable using and I think it worked successfully with this piece because I was able to build up the rough texture of the tree bark easily, and contrast it with thinner layers of paint used for the water and hair. I’d like to push myself more in this project to use media that I’m not entirely comfortable with, such as gouache paints and collage.

I really enjoyed combining surrealism into my last piece, because it allows me more freedom to experiment with odd colours and forms. With this piece I wanted to continue the concept of flora and fauna pouring out from the human form. I chose to use watercolour paints which are usually outside of my comfort zone, as I find it difficult to control and I often build up too many dark tones, not leaving enough space for highlights. I’m quite pleased with the outcome of this piece, I really enjoyed painting the face and playing with a vibrant colour palette, but I think I could have added in more smaller details with the biro pen.

In this piece I took inspiration from Michele Parliament’s use of colour, with only the nature being in colour so that it stands out from the monotone city. I wanted the buildings and cityscape to appear very dull and lifeless, to directly juxtapose the vibrant nature scene hidden behind the door, as I wanted the nature to appear more powerful and the focal point of the piece. I really enjoyed working with pencils in this piece, as it allows me to add in lots of smaller details, I would like to try and use colour pencil in an entire piece in this project, as I am confident with my ability to create tone, detail and depth with pencil, but I often find it intimidating to combine these skills with a colour palette.

With this piece I wanted to build upon the concept from my first painting, with the subject being made from nature; I wanted to combine more human anatomy swell, and I took inspiration from scientific illustrations. I chose to use some unnatural colours on the skin, as I initially began the drawing using only skin-tones but found it difficult to create much variation in tone and depth. I’m really pleased with the outcome of this piece, I really enjoy working with lots of colour and I think I successfully made the piece vibrant with a wide colour palette, without it becoming overwhelming.

I enjoyed using collage because it enabled me to experiment lots with the composition and layout, which I found allowed my initial idea to develop a lot easier than when using a more restricting media. I chose to incorporate lots of different nature scenes and environments because I wanted the piece to have a surrealist element, and I think it worked well here as I build up depth by layering opposing textures. To improve this piece I would experiment with ripping the paper and shapes instead of cutting everything neatly, I think that this would’ve worked well particularly in the waterfalls to blend the colours together more seamlessly. In the future I’d like to incorporate more collage into my design process as it gives me the freedom to experiment with an initial concept and develop it further very easily.

If I were to do this piece again I would use thinner layers of paint to create a smoother surface texture, so that the water would appear to flow more naturally in the piece, and so that the skin would have smoother transitions in tone. But overall I’m quite happy with my outcome. I chose to do a portrait for my final piece because I knew it would be a challenge for myself, as I often find capturing the shapes and forms accurately very difficult, but I think that I captured the face successfully in this piece. I also think that the colour palette works really well, I chose for the flowers and fauna to be mostly warm tones, as the painting is overwhelmingly cool-toned, this therefore made the piece appear more balanced while also making the fish stand out from the page. I decided to cut off some of the strands of hair with the borders of the piece, so that the viewer can imagine the water extending beyond the confines of the page.