Reflective Statement

A  conclusion to our first Unit -"Introduction to Study in Higher Education" which included creating a blog to record our responses to tasks set in lectures and our Rough Guide Project. 

After starting this course I feel I managed my time well and efficiently. I approached each blog task with focus and my conclusions to each task have been honest and highlight my personal views towards the subjects appropriately. I have sourced the material for the blog tasks to the best of my ability, highlighting points and objects that have caught interest during my research. Thus I have acquired allot of knowledge regarding subjects I previously wouldn't have looked into. The African Masks from the Mining the Museum task I found particularly interesting and I really engaged with the craftsmanship and meanings that each of the different masks represented. However, I feel that in some cases I could have made more of an effort to research deeper into the subjects required such as the pathology of collecting and thus broadening my understanding beyond the needs for the blog tasks.

My visual research for the rough guide project was very focussed, I knew what I was looking for and was able to acquire and expand on it quickly and easily. I like the approach I took by documenting textures in Kensington as it completely detracts the stereotype of a pristine and rich area as some textures are particularly grimey and wouldn’t be out of place anywhere in London. Furthermore my documentation of Kew Gardens supports this approcach as I wasn’t as focussed on the plants as I was on the textures of the plants. I feel I analysed my research well and highlighted the textures that were particularly interesting and different.

I enjoy writing this blog and find it extremely useful in ordering my mind and cataloguing my process through this course. I have tried to make my posts sensitive to the needs of the task and maintain a personal yet professional response to them. Through my blog I feel I am able to compose succinct and clear responses to the blog tasks as well as personally reflect on my feelings towards the course and other experiences I've had so far.

Rough Guide: Surfaces in Kensington

On our first week of term we were given a project where we were to create a rough guide to london. We got split up into 5 groups and were sent to location either;

• Shoreditch
• Brixton
• Kensington
• Soho
• Southbank

My area was Kensington.

Out of the 5 options, Kensington is the place I have the least interest in and know the least about. As an area it's pretty predictable, clean white/pastel houses which manicured lawns and designer clad inhabitants. I decided to focus on parts that they can't gloss over which are typical parts of London; decay and destruction from everyday use, I focussed on interesting colours and textures in Bricks from the houses as well as chipped paint and cracked or stained tarmac on the floor. I took over 100 pictures, here are some of my favourites.

I like the blue stain contradicting with the shrivelled petal. I think it shows a scruffy side of Kensington that would usually be swept under a coat of white paint or tiles or something. It also looks like a mistake an art student would make whilst documenting the area.

I particularly like the vibrancy of this image, this was taking along Portobello road, which is arguably the most interesting part of the area. I like how the crack creates such a strong contrast to the shocking red paint.

I arranged the images as thumbnails and places them in my sketchbook as colour swatches, using colour classification system. The sketches were done using Conte chalks.