The main idea that I wanted to communicate in this drawing was the idea of ‘home’ being a place of regrowth and tranquility, but also a stronghold of creative ideas, emotions and feelings. It is the idea that, whenever we are home, we are safe and sound. The stronghold is the storage space of many different concepts, ideas and intentions. I wanted the focus of the drawing to be the castle in the middle. I used a large amount of detail to really capture your eye and draw you in. I used negative space to create a high contrast environment and to keep a balance between low and highly detailed areas of the drawing. 

In this pair of drawings, I wanted to represent the importance of people in my life, rather than places, and reflect the impact of childhood joy in building these strong relationships. This idea manifested as an exploration of my home being split into two halves, and how that has impacted my memory of my childhood experiences before this happened. I selected two photos for the subject matter of my drawings, each from a separate day at the beach, featuring me with one of my parents. I used vibrant colours in primarily lighter tones to create the visual effect of memory shrouded in a nostalgic haze. 

My idea of “Home” relates to my connection with my family, believing in the fact that meals are eaten best when in the presence of my family’s warmth. This artwork is also deeply connected to my childhood as each food item represents each of my family members’ characteristics and individuality. It is an inside joke I created when I was still in primary school. Using oil pastels allowed me to go for a textured and semi-realistic look, adding tiny details by scraping with a palette knife, creating blended shadows by smudging and pushing oil pastels hard to create harsher highlights.