On our first day we met Diana Taylor, a professional artist who would be guiding us through the project. We also met James and Lizzie, who are art students and volunteer at the RA. I had never been to the Royal Academy before, and spent time the first week delving into its roots. With a camera, I toured the building and soaked up its history.

Week two and we’re into drawing. We started by doing some site-specific drawings, including the sculptures in the restaurant in the Keeper’s House. However, the highlight of that day was visiting the Life Drawing Room in the RA Schools. Here Diana Taylor introduced us to her own work, and told us a lot about the history of the Life Drawing room and how it’s still used by RA Schools students today.

In the third week, we explored the idea of collage, using historic photos. I like the idea of taking away and layering old photos – it gave the photos a new purpose and had an interesting way of making us look at everyone else’s ideas. The week after this we tried silkscreen printing, my first time using this technique. I really enjoyed the experience. I was able to experiment with my designs and colours and work with others to achieve the designs I wanted.

The sculptor Richard Wilson came to visit us in the studio to talk about his own installations, the processes and work that goes into creating them. The work of his that caught my eye was a piece called Slipstream – a twisting aluminium sculpture simulating a falling aeroplane. It was the most amazing work I have seen by a UK artist.

One thing I took away from the talk by Richard Wilson was what he said about the creation of ideas. He mentioned how when he has an idea, he doesn’t go straight into making or building, but instead he develops his thoughts to get the most out of it. I found Richard Wilson’s talk very influential and I took a lot away from it.

During the last two weeks we’ve been experimenting more with different techniques. Firstly, we’ve been drawing statues from around the RA using chalk and pastels. To begin with I was worried about drawing with chalk and pastels since I find them hard to use, but it gave me a chance to further my skills. But I was pleased with the outcome and thought it was a positive experience. Then in week seven, we finished off the class by creating monoprints as our final designs for the hoarding.