For the ‘Worlds Collide’ project we were presented with a task which had a list of words A) and a list of words B), where it was our own job to decide on two of these words and make 2 differing worlds clash and collide in our own way. I decided A) Architecture and B) Botanical as my two words/worlds.

I decided upon these words, 1) mainly because I have always had a particular love for drawing buildings in an abstract way, and I thought botanical may be a nice contrast with architecture due to the unnatural meets natural/ manmade meets nature concept.

I had the idea of the term ‘Concrete Jungle’ where I thought about where buildings and plant life meet. Continuing the idea of where you see plants meet architecture and nature take over in the city.

I thought that collaging some of the elements may make it easier to bring 2 worlds together visually, and more aesthetically. I thought of layering A and B together. I did this in a variety of different ways, including different types of drawing materials, such as pen, felt tips and paint. I also used card, tracing paper, my own existing prints, objects such as buttons and masking tape as collage options.

When researching, I found artist and illustrator, Holly Wales and was inspired by her work. Some of the subject matter she has explored was relevant to my project also, where she uses plant and leaf shapes. Holly uses quite simple shapes in her work, but layers with different colours and transparencies on top of each other. I have tried to mimic this in my own way, where I have found the tracing paper a really useful tool. It is a nice way to layer because it can gradually be built up, by 3D such as card but also by flat, linear, hand drawn elements.

Reflecting back on the project, I am definitely happy with it visually. This may be because of the subject matter in hand, where I particularly loved drawing flowers and buildings in an abstract way. Although from the start, my style and composition direction was quite clear, I think it has definitely developed, where I have made good choices of what works best aesthetically and should be taken further. I am pleased I decided to be experimental and move away from just ‘drawing’ on a page, where I think the collage leant itself really well to this project too, where both buildings and flowers are quite 3D objects. It was nice to work again with colour, however I could have possibly considered a colour palette further and improved this part of my project; some compositions were more carefully carried out than others.