Evaluation for current project

I began this project unsure how to proceed without any kind of brief, I had many ideas but didn't know how to begin. I started in the main way I know how - to draw inspiration from my favourite artists.
From this I analysed what it was I liked about these artists and found the common denominator to be the subject of vanity. I progressed working in the style of the artists to produce portraits that express vanity but didn't seem to be getting anywhere, the subject wasn't direct enough.
Starting again I looked back at my favourite artist and found that I was also curious about how he expressed the relationship between humans and animals, particularly in the face of vanity. I began exploring this concept which easily transformed into animal testing in cosmetics.
This process was completely new to me and at first I found it difficult to move my project on alone, it took a while to realise my project had to keep evolving and changing if I was to stay interested in it. However, I managed to discover that as long as I kept on producing imagery and thinking about my project, not giving up, producing new ideas came easier. Eventually I ended up combining anthropomorphism and advertising imagery to produce art that made people question the role of animals in cosmetics.
As I wanted to experiment with collaging in this project, I found myself drifting away from drawing and painting and simply putting images together which I was uncomfortable with. Although I liked the results, I personally felt like I was cheating to have not physically created any of the individual images in the collage. However, when it came back down to painting, I found I didn't know the best way to portray animals - what media would be best? As I have never focused on painting animals before without working in the style of an artist at first it was difficult! On the other hand I did enjoy figuring out different techniques, getting it wrong and trying again.
All in all I feel like I have really matured as an artist during this project, coming up with my own ideas and working in my own style. Although it's been tough I've enjoyed the challenge and look forward to continuing in this way.