Ambassadors Programme

The ambassador programme is an annual project in partnership with the University of Portsmouth CCI department where a group of students learn about Aspex and creative careers through a series of masterclasses. This year it took place virtually over lockdown where the students learned about current exhibition, Emergency, including talks with the exhibiting artists. Students developed their own creative responses to the exhibition, and we’ve selected two pieces of work to show here by recent Illustration graduate Naomi Trueman and level 4 fashion and textile student, Amy Barnes. 

Digital Learning Resource – Naomi Trueman @naomi.rt_designs
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‘I was really inspired by Eugene Macki’s work in the way he uses transformations and natural materials. I wanted to create something that would help get families outdoors to explore their natural surroundings and then be able to create art from it. Using the transformations was a great way to learn and explore the natural shapes of the objects, as well as having fun finding and placing the objects into patterns to draw or move. All the objects I found were from Southsea Rock Gardens or around Canoe Lake.’

A day at the Laboratory – Amy Barnes 

‘Jessica Wetherly’s Laboratory collection inspired my fashion illustration. I used Illustrator and Photoshop. The textile print on the dress was inspired using an image taken from Jessica’s web page, it was an image of three demijohns containing a blue liquid that appeared to have been extracted from or used to rehydrate the reptile that is attached. I made it into a multidirectional pattern with different levels of opacity to give the perception of depth. My colour palette was taken from various items throughout Jessica’s collection, my favourite being the main colour of the dress, this was taken from the hanging skin that appeared to have once belonged to a crocodile. To merge Jessica’s photo and my illustration I used a tool called Image Trace, this allowed both images to work as one.’