Why I chose Illustration
From a young age we discovered that I had dyslexia and though out all my school life I found most academic lessons very challenge. My dyslexia meant I found reading and writing very difficult, resulting in me not enjoying the academic side of my school life. I quickly discovered that I could express myself though drawing and painting. There rapidly became a huge barrier between my struggle with academic studies and my love for art studies. One id hate and the other id enjoy.
From a young age id spend most of my time making models from the small arsenal of Art Attack books I had. Id clear myself a nice big space on the kitchen table and start to bring the book to life, slashing glue and paint all over the kitchen to which my mother did not appreciate. I’d often find myself getting interested in over models in the book and start to make them before finishing the last. Leaving a huge collection of part finished part unfinished models.
As I progressed from my primary school to my middle school I began to explore and experiment with my art work. This was a time for exploring media and colour combinations. At this school I was introduced to new media I had never seen or used before, such as mod roc and basic forms of printing such as lino. This was a good time to me to experiment with all sorts of different media and begin to have an idea on what types of media I enjoyed and didn’t enjoys.
I then moved on to secondary school where I started my G.C.S.E’s. It was clear to me that I would defiantly choose Art as one of my options. This was my 1st chance to really excel and should them that I was keen and passionate about art. Thought out my G.C.S.E.’s I worked hard on developing my drawing and acrylic painting skills. I worked hard and came out with an A*. Pleased with my work and final grade I was very enthusiastic to get stuck into my A.S. Level studies. I chose a very creative and expressive three choice’s which were art, design technology and photography. I was very excited about started photography as I have never done it before. I instantly fell in love with it and spent my time wisely exploring various techniques. Although I enjoyed photography and it made an interesting change from my art studies, I knew my passion lay with art. Though out my second year of A level art I began to really become inspired my artist work and for the first time I began to build my own style and structure of work. For my course work I studied H. R. Giger and more or less became obsessed with his work. As to this point all my art work had been ‘clean’ and easy to the eye. Giger completely changed my way of thinking and I realised just how dark art can be. I was fascinated by the strong underlined message of sin and dark evil beings. I found his work hugely powerfully and disturbing, yet you get the urge to look at it no matter how evil it looks. I find dark, evil pieces of art work much like Giger’s are often some of the most powerfully types of imagery. Discovering H.R.Giger’s work was defiantly a strong turning point in my artist life. From that day on my art work began to get progressively darker and more powerful. This, including my strong passion for Science Fiction, became the back bone for most of my work, in school and out. Although I had experimented a fair amount with different medias thought out my A levels, it became clear to me that I had a strong interest in sketching and illustrating. Combined with the Photoshop element of photography I was able to apply elements of digital work to my art work as well.
When the time came to fill out the UCAS information it was obvious I was going to choose the Artistic path way, but as to which one I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. I decided the best way to help me with my decision would be to do a one year foundation course in art and design to help me decide what my strongest and most enjoyed aspect was. Thought this year we experimented with all different types of media, some of which I hated and some I really enjoyed. Rather quickly I came to the conclusion that my passion lay with illustration and visual communication, and so applied for an illustration course at PCA.
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