Artist Inspiration - Pam Lostracco

The 'Mountain Mural' Bedroom Makeover

After doing some general research of mountains and landscapes i came across an image on Pinterest which i was immediately drawn to. After reading up about the image i found out that it was much more interesting than i initially thought. The image i found was called 'Mountain Mural' and was an article posted on the website apartmenttherapy.com which is a site i regularly use for inspiration and research. 

The article is written about one artists bedroom which she transformed by scaling up a painting she had already created. The artist is a Canadian woman called Pam Lostracco who is an artist and designer. After researching her work i have found many of her designs and paintings inspiring and can see some links between the work i have been creating and her own. I think the main influence for me would be that she works with themes found in Canada like the animals and the landscapes i have been looking at. But i was very interested to find out that the image i found so inspiring initially, was actually based on mountains in Thailand and sold as a calendar on her Etsy store.

'While traveling on many buses in Thailand and Laos, I saw endless ranges of beautiful and sometimes unusual mountainscapes. As we drove along side them, I drew the top edge of each ridge, stacking one on top of the other. The result became a new vista which is how I created this mountain design.'

I was so inspired by the initial painting that when i saw what she had created as a mural on her bedroom wall i was amazed at the talent and skill it must have taken to scale a painting up so precisely onto a wall, not to mention the creativity to think of such an original idea. 

Before

During the Process

'I composed a scaled drawing of my bedroom wall in Illustrator. Then, added a square-foot grid over the drawing which was transferred onto the wall using string. Square by square, I penciled in the drawing. The solid white (top) and charcoal (bottom) were painted first. Then I carefully blended the remaining middle colors to get a gradual gradation from light to dark.'

The Finished Mural

'This mural is 120 square feet and took 3 full days to draw the outline and paint. I used 3 different colors of paint: the white and natural white were leftovers from previous projects so only $50 was spent on a gallon of Kendell Charcoal from Benjamin Moore. The colors were selected to blend with the neutral tones in my bedspread, curtains and furniture.'

From finding one image i liked on Pinterest and looking a little bit deeper into it i have came across a medium that i would have never ever thought about. I find the idea of scaling up a drawing to create a mural a really interesting way of transforming a whole room in whatever way that you want. This imagery certainly has influenced some of the initial drawings that i created for this project but i think it mainly influenced me within my design development. As i was playing around with the idea of layering my drawings and designs up to create a slight depth within my prints, i felt that this was a good example of that. I find Pam Lostracco's work so captivating and inspiring that i could look at it all day and i would happily have one of her murals on my bedroom wall.

All images and information sourced from apartmenttherapy.com

Locating- Week 4

 I started creating some digital designs on Photoshop this week using my initial drawings that I had scanned into the computer. When designing my prints I didn’t want to mirror my images or create patterns. I envisioned my prints being more like a placement print with no repeating patterns. When I was designing I could see them being used as a feature print on a wall or soft furnishings such as cushions.

Although I felt like I had a good body of initial drawings I found it a bit difficult whilst designing to create a series of prints that didn’t all look very similar. I feel that because of the nature of my initial drawings, I had strong monochrome motifs that worked well when editing on Photoshop. I decided that I would keep my colour pallet very neutral only using black, white and different shades of grey. Alongside these neutral colours I would have very contrasting, bright, statement colours.

Locating- Week 3

This week I scanned in some of my more developed drawings that I have created and started to clean these images up on Photoshop ready to use to create some digital design ideas. Although I think that I prefer to look at the landscapes and not the animals I didn’t want to scrap this idea all together. I started experimenting with Brusho to create backgrounds and colourful patterns that I thought worked really well. 

After trying a few things I scanned in my Brusho paintings and printed them out onto paper. I then cut animal silhouettes out of them. I thought this technique looked really effective. I think that my next move is going to be figuring out how to incorporate my 2 ideas and bring them together to start creating some exciting digital prints. 

Locating- Week 2

This week I continued doing research on my Pinterest board and finding more visual imagery to inspire me to create my own work. I decided to create some drawings that were more landscape based, as apposed to looking at the animal side of the wilderness. I think that these worked really well. I mainly used sticks and ink to create these drawings instead of brushes to create a more rugged and unique look, I preferred using this technique because I think it gave my drawings a more rural kind of feel. In this image below i really like the contrast between the black and white drawings and the colourful painting. I think that i may use this technique within more of my work.

I found after looking at the landscapes such as trees and mountain ranges, more visually interesting and inspirational to draw from as apposed to the animals. So I carried on running with this idea and created some more of these landscape type drawings using different techniques and media. 

Locating- Week 1

This week I started my new project ‘Locations’. For my ‘self driven’ part of this project I started with the initial themes of the outdoors and the wild. I started my project by first creating a Pinterest board to inspire me and help me get my ideas flowing. Collecting so much visual imagery on this board helped me see clearly the types of things that I was inspired by more than others. Here is a link to my Pinterest board for this project Into The Wild

After looking at all of my visual imagery I started to create some drawings of my own based on what I was looking at. At first I started creating watercolour drawings of animals, which I found interesting and portrayed the wilderness theme that I started looking at. Here are some of my initial drawings

I am thinking about taking this project in the direction based on interior textiles and not fashion so that I have had a chance to experiment in both fields to see which way I prefer working in. Using the visual imagery i have collected on my Pinterest board i created these 2 visual mood boards.

Locating Brief

For this my self initiated brief for this ‘Locating’ unit I will think of a concept so that I can collect a body of research and initial drawings to then develop into a range of prints designed for an interior setting. I will also develop my print designs to adapt them and make them suitable for a fashion context so that I can enter them into the Bradford textiles competition. I also would like to enter the combined processes section of the Bradford textiles competition. I would like to experiment with different processes in this unit to develop my overall skills and experiences. I am aiming this project towards interiors, as I have not previously designed for an interior setting. I think this project will be a good opportunity for me to try designing for something other than fashion.

What I would like to achieve from this unit is:

·      To create a range of prints for an interior setting

·      To create a range of possible fashion outcomes 

·      To network with the textile community

·      To experiment with different processes 

·      To enter the Bradford textiles competition- Combined processes 

·      To enter the Bradford textiles competition- Printed Textiles Fashion

·      To create a range of fabric samples