2020 is getting shittier and shittier as it goes on... and when Bojo announced the second lockdown date, I decided that it was time for me to pack my bags and return back home to Wales...However, since Wales was in it's Fire Break Lockdown, which would have been lifted after the lockdown in England started, I had to sneak across the border like a fugitive. Absolutely bricking it, I thought I'd be facing the Welsh police, questioned, interrogated, refused entry, however I made it, I avoided all that with pure skill and unimaginable stealth, they still haven't found me and they never will... They'll release a film about me soon, starring Mark Drakeford (First Minister of Wales) and me. They've already started filming the title sequence:

I am of course talking out of my arse... I got on the train and entered Wales and got home, no questions asked, which was slightly concerning really but there we are, I'm not complaining. 

So, when this brief hit I panicked slightly because I'm not living the lockdown life, I'm living the Welsh freedom life, and by that I mean I can have a pint of San Miguel in the pub before 10pm. So I'm faced with two ideas for my lockdown diary, I could make an account of the fact that I am not living in a lockdown right now and all my classmates are (however everything is still strange and far from normal here). Or I could make an account of the first lockdown we had, which turned out to be an absolute emotional breakdown shit fest and without getting into too much detail, is something that I'd perhaps find too difficult to work on. 2020 is really hitting us with these weird and messed up dramas

For my lockown diary, at first I thought that I didn't necessarily want to create a comic style kinda thing, I wanted to go more along the line of an illustrated story, not too dissimilar to a children's picture book style...perhaps edging on a zine-like format? I know that text is something that will play an important part in my lockdown diary regardless and is something that will bring the series of images together into one 'piece'. 

However, after thinking about it, I decided that using a comic grid format along with just a full page of work for some pages, would help the diary become one coherent story.
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Here's some stuff that I looked at before beginning the project: ​

I quite like the idea of creating multiple pieces of collage, using different kinds of paper and materials to create my diary. I like collecting different scraps of paper, whether it be receipts, wrapping paper, or patterned paper bought from the shop, I like to experiment with them and play about with different possible compositions. 

After some feedback from Tony, I decided to have a political element in my diary. When the first lockdown happened, I would constantly be checking the news for updates and I became rather obsessive over it. I don't check it as much now, since it became depressing hearing the same old negativity. Therefore I decided to make an account of me trying to make sense of everything that was going on and of what was being said by the politicians. ​

Please click HERE for my inspirations page for both modules. Here I talk about my influences as well as give examples of work that has inspired me. 

Perspective has always been a difficult one for me to get my head around. Before the task I looked at a lot of examples and copied a lot of diagrams in order to get my head around it all.

I find that I struggle with practicing perspective because it frustrates me. For some reason I struggle to get my head around it all and this frustrates me, and because of this I start to avoid it in order to avoid the feeling of frustration. Now this is a very silly way to be, because if I avoid it, I won't get better at it but sometimes it really disheartens me when I keep getting it wrong and fail to understand it. 

Stupidly, I have left my digital drawing tablet in Carlisle and can't go back to get it because of the lockdown restrictions. I wanted to practice my shading and accuracy with drawing objects such as bottles and cans. Here are some rather crude and cack handed examples of what I'd practiced, they would have been a lot better if I had my tablet. 

I've always enjoyed portraiture. People fascinate me and I love trying to capture their features in my drawings. I've always found it useful to use a grid method whenever I'm drawing faces as it helps for a more accurate piece of work. I use my light-box for the grid to save me drawing it and then having to erase it on my finished piece.