Sampling Week 2

This week i was introduced to hand embroidery techniques and asked to created samples demonstrating spirals, taking inspiration from the drawing exercise that i had done last week. I have never had and previous embroidery experience so i learned a chain stitch, ladder stitch, running stitch and how to create french knots. I have struggled to get the hang of the stitches but I'm hoping the more i practice the better i will become at them. I think the samples i have produced are quite successful as they are my first attempts at embroidery, but i hope that i will be able to become faster and more accurate with my next samples. 

 

Sampling Week 1

Throughout the first week of the sampling unit i started gathering visual research based on the topic of data. I then started creating a few initial drawings looking at my research. I think the most helpful part of this week for me was the drawing task we did with Nigel. Because this taught me that doing the same drawing in different positions can massively affect the outcome of the drawing. I found it a lot easier creating the drawing when i was leaning on the table but i liked the outcome of the one i did on the wall better because it created a more interesting shape and i could see the parts where my hand wasn't as steady. I think through doing this i have learned that using the same technique in a different way can produce a very different type of drawing.

 

Origins Feedback Task Week 2

This feedback week we were put into groups of 4 from each of our textile worlds. This gave us the chance to look at each others work closely to give us examples of what the other textile worlds had been doing. As i am going into the embroidery world next i thought this was really helpful for me to see the work that they had produced. And i hope that it was useful for other people going into print to see the work that i have produced throughout my project.

Origins Feedback Task Week 1

This week i started preparing to look at the next unit. The keywords i was given to look at were Mapping and Measuring so i used these as starting points for my project. To receive feedback from my last unit we met as a group at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. It was here where i started making notes and observations of my journey there and my journey around the museum itself. From this i created some quick and initial drawings to use as starting points for my project. 

Origins Evaluation.

Throughout this project I feel like my work has developed well from taking my initial drawings and turning them into motifs. I was happy with my original motifs when I exposed them to the screen but after I used them in my digital designs I decided to create some more initial drawings to turn into motifs to vary my digital design work. After looking on the Internet and in magazines at existing print I got a much better idea I where I wanted to take my design work. 

When selecting the ideas I wanted to develop. I initially chose my strongest designs and tried them out in different ways experimenting with my colour palette to see what worked well and after that I chose things that worked well alongside my existing ideas. 

I feel that throughout this project I have realised that in my design work I need to use my colour palette proportionately and I need to think about the placement of my motifs in my designs. 

Throughout this project I have learned many different techniques that I had never previously experienced and I think that most valuable one for me that I will use again throughout my work would be screen printing. Not only did I find this technique useful I also found it interesting and enjoyable.

Through my contextualizing practice lectures I have been introduced to many new influences and ideas which have helped me through this project by inspiring me to think harder and in different ways about designing and my own work and the work of my peers and other established designers. This has helped me to see my work in a different way, which has changed the way I develop my ideas.

I feel that my time management for this project has been quite successful because I feel that I have made good use of my studio time whilst also ensure I get enough of my work done in my independent study time. I feel that I work a lot better in my independent time because I am in a more relaxed atmosphere in my room where I have nobody to distract me from working. I feel that my independent time has been spent wisely and my studio and workshop time has been spent doing things that I would not be able to or struggle with at home.

I feel that I am using lateral thinking throughout my practice and that my contextual resources have helped me greatly throughout this project my making me think in different ways about my work and my approach to creating and designing. Overall I have enjoyed this project and although I got a bit sick of my colour palette I feel that this project has been a good experience to me and I have learned a lot from it which I can take with me through the rest of my projects and my practice.

initial Drawing with Colour.

This is another initial drawing i have created to try and create some more varied style motifs from to print with. I thought it might be interesting to use some colour in one of my drawings although i can't use this colour in my motif design i thought it would look interesting. This was a very quick drawing where i used more of an expressive and mark making style which i think created a good effect. I am pleased with this quick drawing and am intrigued to see if i will be able to create any successful motifs from it.

Initial Drawing continued.

These are some more drawings i have created which i intend to develop some motifs from to use in my designs to help vary them because i feel my original motifs where all very similar. For these 2 designs i tried to use a thinner more delicate line to create a different style to the thicker more bold lines i used in my original drawings to create motifs. I originally used a thicker line because i had this in mind for developing onto my screen for printing i thought a thicker line worked better. For these drawings i plan to develop these into more digital designs so it doesn't matter about the thickness of the line so much. I wanted to use a thinner line to create a more delicate look to use on my designs. I am quite pleased with these drawings and think that i could potentially generate some interesting motifs.

 

Initial Drawing continued.

After my initial drawings i felt like i didn't have enough to create a varied range of motifs because my motifs where all looking pretty similar although i was happy with them. I then decided to carry on drawing in different ways but keeping to the theme i feel has worked best for me. This is looking at more natural imagery such as trees and leaves as a posed to man made structures or objects. I have developed these drawings to try and create some more motifs to vary my designs. I am quite pleased with these although they where quite quick and spontaneous i feel that they have been successful. 

 

Sugar Drawing.

I created this drawing using sugar on a black piece of card. I took my inspiration for this from the chance card 'Drawing with dust' The idea behind the leaf came after the stick and ink drawing of the tree that i created which has sparked my interest for looking at other types of trees and leaves. I think that this drawing is quite successful because it has probably the most texture and interesting effect out of my initial drawings and although i won't carry it through into my motif development I'm glad it has sparked a greater interest to look at trees and texture.

Hand Produced Design.

This is the first hand drawn design that i have created. I used gouache paint to paint it because i thought that i would be able to mix the colours closest to my colour palette although i found this more difficult than i thought because i had to mix more paint as i was covering a larger surface area than i have previously worked with using gouache. I am quite please with this design because the placement and the colours i feel have worked well, however i struggled to get the paint to a flat colour whilst i was using such a small paintbrush so my paint has not gone on very even. I was quite disappointed with this because i also found it difficult to keep the consistency of the gouache paint which also made it quite difficult. The next time i do a hand generated design i am going to try and incorporate different types of media into my design to make it more visually dynamic and give it a more 3D look.

Ombre Dye.

This is my fabric sample of the technique ombre dyeing. I have never done ombre dying before but i wanted to try it after doing the dip dying process because it is very similar but creates a different and more interesting look. In the past i have dip dyed and ombre dyed my own hair which after doing some research into textile dying techniques seemed to be very similar so i was keen to have a go at ombre dying he fabric. I was trying to get the colour of the dye to match up with a colour from my colour palette, but as my colours in my palette are all very pale i found this quite difficult as i had to graduate the dye to get paler and paler but it wasn't very vibrant to start out with. Although i found this difficult with my choice of colour i found the overall dying process enjoyable and easy to pick up, i think that i will use this dying technique in the future and again in this project.

Dip Dye.

This is my first dip dyeing sample that i have created in the print room. I chose to use a turquoise colour on one side then black on the other just to see how intense the colours would be. I have never had the opportunity to dye fabric using the dye bath method i learned before and i think that this was a very useful thing for me to learn. i think that my first dying sample has been successful and i am looking forward to dying onto other fabrics and trying out other dying techniques to create other effects.

Motif Design Continued.

These are some more of my first motifs inspired the trees and branch formations i have been looking at. I have taken these from selections of my initial drawings and developed them into motifs from there. I think that i will use these hand drawn motifs alongside my digital motifs to place onto my screen ready to start printing with. I like that i have taken these images from the same initial drawing but they look very different in a sense of shape and style but they still sit together nicely. 

Motif design.

This is the second motif design i have created from my stick and ink tree drawing. I have found this the most inspirational of all the drawings i have created because it is based in a more mark making type of style. I have developed this motif further than the line work by filling it in in with black so that i can develop it further for use on screen or in my digital designs allowing me to turn it into a brush stroke to give me more possibilities within my designs. 

Colour Palette.

This is my chosen colour palette that i will be using throughout my project. I extracted the colours from the image at the top trying to match the colours as best as i can using Gouache paint, also trying to keep the colours in proportion to one another. I feel like i completed this task quite well because i have never used Gouache paint prior to the course and i feel this exercise was very useful to help me learn how to mix colours and get the right consistency with my paint. Now that i know these techniques i will carry on using them throughout this project to help me match my colour palette as closely as i can. 

Motif inspired by tree drawing.

This is the first motif development i have created from using my stick and ink tree drawing and I'm actually quite happy with the way that it turned out because at first i was unsure but i think that it has created a really interesting and unique pattern that i would like to take further. I can see myself using this motif throughout my design work.

Ink and stick motif development.

I also used stick and indian ink to create the drawing on the left and i liked the pattern and the texture so i developed this drawing to create the motif on the right. Overall i like the texture that using the stick and ink has created and i really enjoy working in this way.

 

Stick and Ink.

For this drawing i used white indian ink and a stick that i found on the ground outside. I was very expressive whilst creating this and didn't really care to much about the line work because the stick created more than one line. I think that this has created a really interesting effect and i am pleased with the outcome. I think i will use this as a starting point for my motif development.

 

Mark Making.

This is an example of some mark making i have created using a wooden coffee stirrer. For this i dipped it in indian ink and pressed it into these shapes that i took inspiration from a photograph i have taken of a sheet of pressed metal. 

1 Drawing every 5 Minuets.

I created each one of these 12 drawings in 5 minuets taking me an hour in total. I chose to do this from one of the 'chance cards' I know that theses drawings are not the best but because drawing them quickly i think they have become quite stylised. I like this because i think it gave me a better idea of the way that i like working in and i created some interesting more sketchy marks.

5 different pencils.

For this drawing i used the chance card 'Use 5 different pencils' I got my inspiration from an image i had taken of some pressed metal. I took the pattern of the metal and repeated it 5 times using different pencils and drawing it in different styles. I enjoyed doing this drawing although i don't think that the technique is very interesting. I would possibly use this technique again although i think it would be better suited to a different project brief as i feel with the picture i chose i was quite limited.

25 Percent.

I really like this drawing because i used a continuos line drawing for each object and positioned them in a composition to create a repeat style pattern. The chance card i used was 'fill 25% of the paper' i think this was a successful drawing because i liked using the chance card and the drawing style that i chose.

Indian Ink.

I used different size paint brushes dipped in indian ink to create this drawing. It was influenced by a picture i have taken of some bunting hanging between some streets in the city centre. This was a really quick way of working and i think the outcome was quite successful so i think that i will be using this technique in the future. 

Drawing with a found object.

To create this i used the end of a lolly stick and black indian ink on a piece of recycled card. I chose to do this as my 'Drawing with a found object' chance card and i took my inspiration from a picture i took of cracks in a concrete wall. I liked using this technique because it gets you away from typical drawing materials and created an interesting effect i think that i will use it again in the future.

Long Drawing.

To create this drawing i used the 'long drawing' chance card. At first i was unsure what to draw that would give the long drawing consistency so i chose to split my long drawing paper into 4 sections and draw the same image in each section using a different media. I think that it has created an interesting effect especially looking at it from the angle i have taken the photograph on but overall i feel quite indifferent about this drawing. I think that i would like to try this chance card again with a different project brief.

Crumpled Paper.

I created this drawing by first folding the piece of paper in to various different shapes and then crumpling it. When i opened the paper out again i started creating my image. I took my inspiration for this drawing from an image i have taken whilst out and about in the city. The image is of a Manchester city centre sign post. I took the 'M' and drew it using fine liner. I then took the colours used in the sign post and used water colours to create the coloured lines. Overall i am quite please with the outcome of this drawing mainly because it did not take very long but created a really interesting effect. I think this was one of my favourite techniques from the chance cards.