Here, I decided to use some water colour paint to experiment with since i haven’t used paint in a while and I don’t think it’s my strongest suit. It was hard for me to draw the hands initially as I haven’t practiced hand drawing a lot. I plan on trying to improve my hand drawing more during this project.

Here, I decided to practice mark making using different materials and techniques. I used a piece of card and some pain brushes in different shapes and sizes. I really like the fact that when I was using the card, as it got wetter from the paint and water, parts were breaking off on to the paper creating some texture. I also used water colour paint for this in a few different colours. I used some different colours. I used some different techniques such as dabbing, dotting, cross hatching, creating different gradients by adding more and more water after each brush stroke going from more dark and more pigmented  to light and very watered down. I also used a technique called wet on wet where I used a very watered down colour and added another wet colour in when the paint is still wet to create a bleeding effect when dry.

These are some sketches I did using a 3B pencil to see what techniques I could use for my triptych. For the one on the right I gave myself 5 minutes to complete it. I didn’t end up completing it as you can see. To improve I think I need to start doing my sketches more quickly and stop worrying about if they are at a good standard. For the sketch on the left I gave myself 10 minutes to complete so I could add some more detail. I used a smudging technique on the hair to make it look fuller.

For the feminist topic I have a few ideas to create an image of how women feel when wearing certain outfits in public and around men. For my racial topic for my second set of words I will draw different hands in different colours (not skin tones) holding each other in a circle for the word togetherness. For the word loneliness I will draw a tiny fish in a big bowl (with a black skin tone and an Afro). For the word congested I will draw a woman with an Afro with loads of white people touching her hair.

For my first set of words which are threat, bravery and safety I am going to focus on women, their bodies and body image linking to feminism. For my second set of words I will be focusing on race and equality within race. I will be using a mixture of drawing and water colour painting and/or Lino printing.

I decided to do another word association timed, sketching exercise but using the words congested, togetherness and loneliness. For the first set of sketches I gave myself 1 minute to complete the sketches, for the second set of drawings I gave myself 3 minutes to complete and for the final set of drawings I gave myself 5 minutes to complete. I used pen and coloured pencils again. I struggled thinking of what to sketch for this set of words this time round. I think that I could’ve given myself less time for these sketches as I didn’t use all the time given towards the end. Or I could’ve used my time more wisely to create more detailed sketches.

For this sketching exercise, I did some timed drawings of what images come to mind when I think of the words threat, bravery and safety. The first set of drawings I did in 1 minute each, the second set of drawings I did in 3 minutes each and the last set of drawings I did in 5 minutes each. I used pen and different coloured pencils to complete this exercise. I enjoyed doing this exercise as it allowed me to really use my imagination and creativity to think of what images I would attach to each word.

The literal meaning of a symbol is: a thing that represents or stands for something else. Especially a material object representing something abstract. E.g “the Rolex was a symbol of his wealth and Authority.” The literal meaning of a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. I believe the difference is that you would use a symbol more objectively to represent something. E.g giving someone a rose to symbolise your love. Whereas, you would use a metaphor when trying to further explain something using an example of something more simplified for people to understand E.g “he ran as slow as a snail” as we know the person is not literally running like a snail but we identify snails with being very slow and it emphasises the point the person is trying to make.

After asking a few of my family their favourite 90’s R&B songs. My auntie said her favourite songs were”I wanna be down” by Brandy and “I’m so in to you”by SWV. She said they both remind her of being younger and sitting for hours listening to both songs over and over on her radio. She also said they make her think of a better time when there were no worries. The songs used to be her form of escapism from school, worrying about what outfit she’s going to wear he next day, sports, friends and her younger sister. So I decided to do another illustration of those childhood memory. I used pen to create this sketch. I really like this sketch as I think I successfully incorporated her passions and things she wanted to escape through music. However, I would also like to incorporate a bit of colour in this illustration as well.

Moving in from the previous sketch, of my mums song nostalgia, I noted that I wanted to improve on it by adding colour which I did here. I really believe this sketch made the image look a lot more instinct I added the colour. I used colouring pencils create this. I do believe I should’ve given myself more time to work on this so that I could’ve used more materials like water colour.