INTRODUCTION: Items of personal ephemera

These are 6 objects which each hold not only sentimental value but also symbolise a variety of passions and personal memories which, I believe, have made up the person I have developed into over 19 years and are items related to my personal identity.

Before focussing on my personal items, I traced out my hands in an attempt to delve deeper into my identity through the use of my own body. By tracing the outline of my hand, I could express the use of my hands through an artistic approach. In the outline of my hands, I wanted to express my passion for art and design using this metaphorical artistic approach. The aim of this was to represent my hands as tools of the passion of design inside and by incorporating vivid colours and abstract patterns I believe I was able to do not only do this but to also create a piece of work as a metaphor for my own individual identity.

One of the items I brought in can be seen in this cartoonesque sketch which is my film camera. During selection of items to focus on that had personal value to me, this camera was the first thing that came to mind. My passion for photography has been a very large part of my life and I was introduced to it by my father who owned the same model camera. Whilst growing up, my father was a lighting technician at Her Royal Majesty's Theatre and in his spare time would get his camera out and photograph anything he could, from the building to the ballerinas backstage and the portfolio he would keep inspired me to explore photography. My dad gave me his camera when he retired and it has been put to extensive use since.

This is a simple graphic I then drew of a Zippo lighter I have had for many years. Despite not being superstitious I have always through of the Lucky Ace branding as my own lucky charm. The simple style of this piece was aimed at producing a digital illustration out of it, drawing on a mixed media approach.

Using Photoshop, I simply used the pentool to trace my illustration, creating shapes out of the each part (separately so as to enable easier changes of colour to each part of the image). I greatly enjoyed this exercise of my Photoshop skills as it allowed me to explore the ability of mixed media pieces.

Upon reflection of the work I produced, although it was a simple task, it helped me to draw inspiration from various objects of personal meaning and also allowed me a brief experimentation of artistic mediums in a free space with no set style to follow. 

This task also boosted my confidence in my drawing and sketching capabilities as I have never classed myself as able to draw. This exploration allowed me to do this by giving me the freedom to create my own style of artistic expression on paper where I usually would not have the confidence to.