At the beginning of component 1 at college, I was given the opportunity to explore different styles and techniques by selecting an area of choice. This independence allowed me to undergo a more personal journey and during this time I was fascinated with the Manga Japanese style of work. I decided to follow that route but also played around with different techniques and materials. I first looked at the Japanese writing and how beautiful, both the way they create them and the meanings they have. I also experimented with different techniques such as wax etchings, printing, charcoal, fine line, cut outs, laser cut, oil paints, sewing machines etc. After completing my work, I was able to reflect and looked at what I thought was my strongest and most effective work.

I chose to use my photographs I have taken and use the cutouts as it was bold and strong like the Manga style comics. But something I modified with my final piece cutouts that differed from my coursework book which contained one layer of black cutouts on white, was the additional 3-4 different shaded layers. I used black cutouts for the really dark, bold shadows, then dark grey, light grey and then white. This made my final piece have more depth, tone and texture to it rather than using just black and white.