Art Portfolio

My portfolio comprises of GCSE artwork and independent pieces. Unfortunately I do not have access to my GCSE portfolio, so I am limited to images that I had already taken of my work. Some of my independent pieces expand on themes and ideas that I studied for my GCSE. Work marked with an * are examples of independent work.

Music

The Resistance album cover by Muse in acrylic paint.

God Save The Queen single cover by Sex Pistols using pencil, watercolour and collage.

One of my GCSE Art themes was music, in which I explored what music meant to me and how it linked to emotion.

Ian Curtis, Joy Division in biro.

Portraying the all too real lyrics he wrote, I drew the mountain-like lines from the album cover for Unknown Pleasure coming out of his mind. Ian Curtis suffered from epilepsy and mental illness, committing suicide in 1980. I showed this by giving the piece an unfinished look, implying that his story was also cut short.

Identity

The theme for our exam was identity. As it followed my music project, I was keen to continue studying how factors such as music, the media and those around us impact our identity, both consciously and subconsciously.

My key topics were our obsession with self image, drugs, and emotion.

Artist copy of Lucas David’s portrayal of Madonna using a combination of watercolour and fine liner.

Lucas David’s work presents the dark side of celebrities. In particular, he looks at singers such as Madonna, Lana Del Rey and Sky Ferreira. Smeared makeup, pasty skin and bloodshot eyes uncover the pressures to look good enforced by the music industry. Drug use is also a major theme in his work.

Like You Do

Everyday children and teenagers are exposed to drugs and alcohol, sex and society’s harsh misconceptions of beauty. Combined with the need to be treated like an adult, these issues can each be just as damaging as the others. Thanks to TV programs, music and the media, such topics have been normalised to the younger generation. 

Over 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, most of which begun in early life, with cases concerning children as young as 6 years of age. For many sufferers of anorexia, mirrors show a harsh image of themselves which is a distorted version of how others view them. The mirror is the enemy. I dressed my sister up and did her make up to mimic a young girl trying to look older, perhaps wanting to be like her big sister or mum. On her tip toes, imagining herself taller, she sucks in her stomach in her fight for thin. She is turned away from the mirror, not wanting to see how to actually looks. I wanted my series of photographs to tell a story that starts seemingly innocent, hence the subtlety of the ‘getting ready’ scene.

The cause of such misconceptions of beauty can be put down to anything from relatives and friends to the use of Photoshop and social media, whether we are conscious of these effects or not. Additionally, the popularity of characters such as Cassie from Skins, who suffered from an eating disorder, degrades our negative view of the subject.

In the following pictures, the story gets a lot darker. The girl goes out drinking for the first time. Along with alcohol, she is introduced to cigarettes maybe drugs and older boys. These activities are perceived as cool and may win popularity. She goes along with it ’like you do’ to fit in. In the first couple of images she is captivating, both curious of and fearing the unknown. As she gets more drunk in the third picture, she loses control with heightened emotions. One minute she’s laughing, then crying, then flirting again. In the final image, we see her recline. She asks herself if she’s really having fun. I edited my photographs to add warmth, giving them a fuzzy feeling. I also included smoke to make them seem more lifelike.

Again, I was influenced by the themes demonstrated in the series, Skins. Even though the program attempts to show the harmful side, a show with a fan base as large as this can not help but glorify drugs, sex and alcohol. In particular, girls idolise beloved character, Effy, for her wild behaviour and seemingly carefree attitude. The music industry uses similar themes to create a certain image.  Managers of young music artists still encourage them to smoke to seem edgy and cool.

   

One of the most effective ways to tackle the issue of drugs is to visually demonstrate their negative impact. We should focus on what people look like when regularly taking drugs, over simply circulating the same forgettable facts. Combined with research into the side effects of Meth addiction, I was inspired by Roman Sakovich’s project, “Half”, depicting individuals before and after drug addiction.

* Painting representing a meth addict using acrylic paint on canvas.

Towards the end of my project, I began to concentrate more on the factors and people that make up my identity. My father is subject to high levels of stress at work and my drawing portrays this. Using exaggerated colours, I drew deeper lines that highlighted his emotions.

* Dad, the stress-head, in coloured pencil.

How Do I Look?

For my final piece, I took a closer look at my own image. I asked all the students in my class to rate my facial features and assigned each a colour based on its rank. My favourite colour is blue so the colour scheme flows from blue to green. I used acrylic paint on canvas.

1.  Lips  = Blue

2. Eyes = Purple

3. Eyebrows = Red

4. Hair  = Orange

5. Skin = Yellow

6. Nose  = Green

I placed a cage around the canvas to present the idea that I am trapped within a self image obsession, constantly wondering what others people think when they look at me. On the cage, I stuck thoughts about myself and shards of glass and mirror. The shards mean that sometimes the view sees ‘me’ and sometimes they see themselves. Along with the quotes, this gives the piece an interactive element to it, as they encourage the viewer to question how much their image rules their lives. Overall, the cage offers a distorted image of the viewer and ’me’.

Tim Burton

Another theme I developed at GCSE was Tim Burton films. Two of my favourite characters to study were the Mad Hatter and the Corpse Bride.

This collection explores the idea that ‘my road’ represents all the places that have become part of my life, instead of solely relating to where my home physically stands. Since studying in Lichfield, I feel as though I belong there, despite it not being my hometown. Therefore, I chose my road to represent my daily journey to school each day.

* I have drawn my physical home as a starting point.

Following this, we drive over rivers, canals and past Hopwas Woods until we are travelling straight though Packington pig farm.

  

* Packington pig in pencil.

Passing the Whittington Barracks, Golf course and over the bustling A38, we arrive in Lichfield. From any point on the grounds of King Edward VI school, the spires of the church and cathedral, can be seen. During the summer prior to starting sixth form, one of the things that excited me most about studying in Lichfield was the opportunity to spend lunchtimes in such an ascetically pleasing city, by far my favourite feature being the Cathedral.

* Lichfield Cathedral in watercolour and fine liner.

Birmingham Library

Birmingham may not be known for being ascetically pleasing, having been described as a ’concrete jungle’ for decades. However, I view the city differently. Vibrant installations coat the buildings surrounding the custard factory in Digbeth and with the construction of Grand Central and the new library, Birmingham is undergoing extensive regeneration.

* The new Birmingham Library in biro.