Arty pupils face up to leaving school with unique yearbook (From Surrey Comet)

Arty Tiffin school Kingston pupils face up to leaving school with unique yearbook

2:41pm Tuesday 12th March 2013 in News By Ross Logan, Chief Reporter

Leaving school is an important time in anyone’s life, as pupils embark on university or a career with plenty of fond memories from their time as a student.

And this year, students at Tiffin Boys’ School are making sure they depart in style.

A group of talented students are embarking on an ambitious project that will see them create an alternative yearbook, featuring personalised portraits of all 175 school leavers.

The project, called 175 Faces of Tiffin, is the idea of year 13 student Sung Jun Kim, who wanted to create something special before waving goodbye to the London Road school.

Now he is hoping to get enough backers to raise the £2,000 needed to create a book of all the artworks and hold an exhibition later in the year.

Sung Jun said: “As this is my last year at Tiffin I would like to leave a legacy.

“From this, the idea to create an alternative yearbook grew. A yearbook with portraits of the leavers would be unique and a special memory to take.

“Not your average yearbook filled with photos and messages, but a book with art which reflects their personality, style and interest.

“The plan is to draw all 175 students in my year.

“A selected group of artists will take charge of a certain number of students.

“The students will be given a choice of which artist will create their portrait to accommodate individual taste.

“After all 175 portraits have been created it will be made into a book. This will be given to the students in addition to the normal school yearbook.

“Furthermore there will be an exhibition, around June, to celebrate the artwork as well as celebrating the whole year’s achievement and the good times everyone had in the school.”

Head of art Richard Plummer said: “It is pretty out there and ambitious.

“About a year ago he said he was going to learn how to do portraits. As I understand it, he did one a day for a month until he got it. He has a very rare gift, for sure.”

Sung Jun has set up a web page where people can back the project and pledge money towards the £2,000 target.

Visit kickstarter.com and search for “175 Faces of Tiffin”.