Independent Practice Proposal

Last year my independent practice saw me work with photography, illustration, and collage. I used the study time to learn more about how I am comfortable working and how I enjoy analogue and digital processes, rather than focusing on a particular theme. As an artist and designer I work with processes and experimentation and then come up with a theme from this, unless I already have one in mind. I experimented with various different film and digital cameras, looking at various subject matters from objects to people to emotion to urban lifestyle.
Street photography and portraiture ended up being some of my strongest work as I was able to combine my interest in emotion and expression with my photography. It’s still not something I feel i’m done with as I still have lots to learn and would like a particular theme I could use within photography of some sort to really see where I can take myself within this creative process.
Screen printing was something I found I enjoy and I want to carry this through as one of my working processes. I feel as comfortable learning and making mistakes with my hands as I do with computer software such as Photoshop. Other processes I feel comfortable working with are: textiles, collage, and illustration (also illustration using a sewing machine). In time I have found that work that inspires me is visual and emotive, I tend to be drawn to pattern and colour.
I think that my interests lie in what is currently popular at the moment, with the ‘vintage’ movement that is currently thriving and has therefore made analogue art techniques popular again. Printmaking, collage, film photography are all things that have made an uprising these past few years and this has certainly informed my work.
Some of my favourite work I have ever done began with me writing a diary and I would be interested to see if I can revisit this and take it further. The relationship between emotion, language, and colour really captivates me and is something that I would like to explore in this semesters independent practice. I am a very visual person, and however much i’d like to broaden my mindset, I love aesthetically pleasing pieces of work. I find myself doodling and drawing various line based patterns all the time and I am curious as to how I could progress and integrate this with my love of colour. When i’m drawing from imagery and taking photographs without thinking about it too much I find that I always end up with images of people. The way you can show how someone is feeling, a snippet of their personality, all through drawing/photography is something I always fall back on in my design work but is something i’ve never taken the time to progress through other than a few images and drawings here and there. Figurative drawing isn’t my strongest point but photography can be at times so I think if I combined the two it could make for interesting work outcomes and also stretch and train me as a designer.