I took the Leadership and Innovation course as part of my Year 9 Semester 1 electives, and I really enjoyed the experience. Our task was to ideate and execute a project that aligns with one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), demonstrating how we can create positive change on the local scale. I was in a group with Charlotte Parker, and we decided to create Precious Plastics Keychains to sell and raise money for SDG 13: Climate Change. I feel like the freedom we were given to create our projects based on our interests and strengths was what made the subject so enjoyable. I honed my skills related to time management, leadership, communication, and in many more areas.

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Below is the definition of leadership that we collaborated on at the start of term 1. Please reflect on where you have had the chance to grow in this space and what you would like to develop in the future.

Leadership for this group is a set of skills and qualities that allow you to take charge of their own lives and make a positive impact on their communities.

It involves taking responsibility, setting goals, making decisions, and inspiring others to work together towards a common goal.

Leadership is a skill that can be developed over time, and it’s never too early to start.

1. Communication skills: Being able to communicate effectively with others is essential for a successful leader. This includes being able to articulate your vision, listen to the concerns of others, and facilitate productive conversations.
   • I felt like I demonstrated and excersized my communication skills effectively. I gained experience in writing professional Emails to organise collaboration sessions (e.g. with Mr Scotti and Ms Brookland who helped us immensely with using the Precious Plastics machine), and venues where we would sell our keychains at (e.g. Year 7 and 8 Christmas Markets, and possibly Kaicon). I also made sure to communicate efficiently with my group member Charlotte; we split up responsibilities and tasks, contributed feedback and suggestions to each others ideas, and regularly checked in on our progress.

1. Self-awareness: Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, and being able to work on them, is crucial for effective leadership. It also involves understanding your values and beliefs and how they impact your decision-making.
   • I feel like we chose a project that aligns with our strengths. As Charlotte and I have skills in art and design, our project is very suitable as keychain design involves illustration. One of my weaknesses was operating machinery in the woodwork room (such as the drill), however, I asked for guidance and was slowly able to use them more effectively. We value sustainability and believe it is one of the most crucial issues, hence why we chose to focus on that goal for our project.

1. Responsibility: Leaders take ownership of their actions and decisions and are accountable for the outcomes. They don’t shy away from challenges, and instead, look for ways to find solutions. Leaders need to be organised and help the organisation of their team
   • One of our responsibilities was to commit to the work we set out for ourselves to produce keychains – we set the goal to make 75 keychains and we achieved it (we might even make more if we have spare time). A challenge of our project was during the ideation process – we needed to use a material that was sustainable and durable at the same time for our keychains. Fortunately, we thought to use Precious Plastics, as it recycles otherwise wasted material. I demonstrated organisation through breaking up our big task into smaller steps and creating a thorough To-Do list alongside it.

1. Empathy: A great leader is able to understand, connect with and show compassion for the perspectives of others. This enables them to build strong, fair relationships and to effectively collaborate with a diverse group of people.
   • We aimed to empathize with our target market of the Year 7 and 8 cohort, so we sent out a survey collecting their suggestions on improvements on our keychains. We gained valuable feedback to incorporate into our designs as we progress.

1. Confidence: Confidence is important for leaders because it helps them inspire others and make bold decisions. It’s important to note that confidence doesn’t mean being arrogant or ignoring the opinions of others.
   • We displayed confidence through our idea pitch at the start of this course, which involved public speaking to the class. Reaching out to our target audience and communicating with teachers and facilitators also excersizes confidence.

1. Creativity and adaptability: creativity is invited and encouraged by leaders along with the resilience and courage to adapt and pivot where necessary
   • We demonstrated creativity as our illustrations need to be original and fresh to be marketable and to avoid copyright. We adapted through the multiple stages of the project ideation process, as we had to change our product focus multiple times (first, we didn’t even know what material to use, then we thought of using the laser cutter, but using Precious Plastics was the best option, so we adapted to use that).

I took the Traditional Drawing elective in semester 1 of 2023 (Year 9), and throughout the process I have learnt lots of new techniques and honed my existing skills in realistic pencil drawing.

Photos of my Self-Portrait Progress

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1. Evaluate your Skills

I think my work is successful because I tried my best and put a lot of effort into it, I made sure to try and focus as much as I could in class.

I believe I was good at shading and comparing my drawing with the reference photo in order to get the most accurate copy possible. I also believe my shading technique was very smooth, and I liked the contrast values in my art. I made sure there was no smudges as I used a handguard. I really looked closely at the reference image and marked out the shadows and shapes, which helped the image look realistic. I made confident strokes when drawing defined lines and I shaded smooth gradients for soft shadows.

I struggled with time management, as I found myself running out of time if I had to complete the drawing to the best constant standard that I could, as the way I shaded took very long to build up the layers. I also sometimes find it hard to break down the image into simpler shapes, and sometimes I lose track or focus on which area of the reference image I was copying, as the image was quite complex.

2. Most helpful Technique

The most helpful technique I learnt in traditional drawing was to build up layers when shading.

3. Process and Choices

Starting from an introductory lesson, we sketched a quick self-portrait via mirror, along with still life drawings. We then learnt new techniques and methods for drawing and shading, and practised and experimented in class. We moved onto taking reference photos to base our self portraits off of, I experimented with different angles and light sources and intensity. I chose to use the photo of me with a strong highlight and interesting, intricate, contrasting hair shadows to challenge myself. I heightened the contrast and resolution of the photo and changed it to greyscale to make it easier to copy with pencil. I then printed the photo out and I used a transferring method (shading graphite on the back of the paper and then tracing the main outline of the image with the graphite side face down on the final canvas) to ensure that my final portrait has accurate proportions (I chose this over other transferring methods as it was easy to use).

I incorporated what I learnt from the entire semester’s experience into starting a practise self-portrait, experimenting with the watercolour paper and pencils, before working on my final portrait. Throughout the process, I made sure to regularly compare my art and the reference image with the aim of it to be as similar as possible. I also used a handguard, kneadable erasers, and pencils I brought from home. I also measured proportions using my pencil to copy my photo accurately. I worked on shading it left to right in order to avoid smudging, starting with a 6H pencil as I wanted to mark out the main shadows and build a smooth and solid foundation before setting the darker values in. I then shaded over it with a 2H and finally a 6B for the darkest values. I’m very satisfied with the progress I’ve made so far.