About my Final Major Project

For my final major project, I originally wanted to explore into the development in my own practice as well as looking into the Renaissance era.

I came to the decision after exploring into other illustrators’ practices, as well as, a live brief based of a competition, I realise this was more of a personal project that I decided to set aside and separate from the major project and focus on my Renaissance research.

Unfortunately, due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) breaking out in the United Kingdom and lockdown starting during the early development of the project, I Began to focus on coronavirus. I started my project by Researching and exploring Renaissance work the different movements during the time as well as some notorious artists during the Renaissance. I then began to explore how artists responded to pass pandemics such as; the Black Death, Spanish flu, tuberculosis outbreak and the more recent outbreaks like scars and COVID-19. I knew I wanted to explore digital media more within this project mainly because we couldn’t hand in a physical sketchbook, so I focused on using digital drawing software is both Adobe and Procreate on the iPad.

I researched into how artists are responding to the current outbreak of coronavirus and what part of coronavirus they are focusing on. For example, some artists focused on the message about staying safe, some artists also focused on NHS workers and some explored the anxieties that COVID-19 brings. At this point in the project and noticing on the news reports NHS workers were Praised for their good work and bravery to go to work however I began to notice a lot of NHS workers prefer not to be glorified or seen as heroes for just doing their jobs. I furthermore began to notice the struggles that NHS workers had during the outbreak I wanted to try and explore that. Taking a step back and looking back onto my project, I knew it wasn’t Communicating a clear message.

With reflection, I didn’t know what my message was, so I began to look at my self and how I am responding to the coronavirus. Due to my sister possibly having it there was a lot of anxiety and stress and more fear of going anywhere outdoors. Began to notice objects made me anxious and made me stressed to go out shopping for food as I am one of those who are deemed as high at risk. I then began to focus on the anxieties associated with COVID-19 came across a few artists and their work about anxiety which then help me develop to my final outcome.

My final outcome focuses on objects that I consider anxiety ridden or some form of threat as they are surfaces and objects where coronavirus can sit a large number of days. These are also objecting that I would deem unremarkable if it wasn’t due to more self-awareness about washing hands keeping surfaces cleaned and what I touch regularly on the basis especially sharing a flat In a small area.