christmas research

The christmas break has been long but eventful. I've had time for a break recollect my thoughts and do some work. I went away over christmas to Norway yet again to another wedding! This was a low key event but still inspirational! I was inspired buy the colours that the bride had worn it was a beautiful purple gown that had sparkly diamond with swirls and traditional patterns all over the gown. It was beautiful how the gown sparkled under all the flashes of the camera and also how they matched the stage to what she was wearing. I have also taken pictures of my family and what they've all been wearing to use as influences.

Research, research, research.

These last two weeks I have been racking my brains thinking about how I can mix different elements of my life and my culture together to create a new modern concept. Ive been looking at different prints and designs to influence me one of my favourite is a collection by Givenchy (its fashion but at least its a start!) although these are fashion designs the idea of the paisley mixing with solid blocks of colours is something that has inspired me. I have decided mix paisley with something else. I haven't completely decided what though. Yet!

New Brief

So, after finding out that we will be writing our own brief this project I think I will keep it simple and straight forward but try a few new different techniques. I have decided to continue a few parts of my previous research in this new one to see how differently I can take a concept and manipulate it into something new and fresh! I have decided to bring forth the paisley theme i'd briefly included last time but make it the basis of my designs this time. I will also include my personal life into my work and use my experiences from my own life as I feel they make my work have a different story behind it.

Final Designs & Evaluation

Here are a few of my final designs, I have mixed up both my drawings from the beginning and tried to mesh them both I have also used the influences from my first original disposable camera pictures. I think I have tried to mix my elements together well I am pleased with my final outcomes. I have tried to find a nice medium between the subtle colours from the beginning and the bright colours in my second set of drawings and mixed them so theres a mixture of dark light subtle and bright. Although I feel this might not be my best work so far I feel that I have proven that I have taken a risk in making all my final outcomes digital based as thats something I have not done before without help. I have aimed these designs at mainly a young female audience 16+ and I feel that my designs have a bohemian and floral feel to them which I think does reach out to that particular audience. I think my work does show a journey as I have tried to make the work from the beginning a part of the final outcome and I have tried include all the influences and research I collected on my travels. I feel that I have learnt a lot on this unit and will definitely be using these skills in the future. I will make sure to post a picture of my board once I have put my work up!

Interior

Ive been taking pictures of interiors that I think would look good with my wallpaper designs in the back but after photoshoping them I felt they didn't look the way I had imagined them to so it resulted in drawings which I then scanned into Illustrator and drew again. Then in photoshop I placed my wall paper designs in the back. I will only probably have one or two up on the wall but I have made a few for my blog to show the different designs and perspectives. I feel these designs I have made can be used in many different ways such as wallpaper, wrapping paper, notebook covers. They could fit in shops like Paperchase where patterns and illustrations like these are commonly found. They can also be used for cushion covers and bed sheets and also porcelain.

Photoshop Workshop

Today we had another photoshop workshop where we learnt how to make repeat patterns to and use the half drop repeat. This was a very good workshop as it helped me decide what i wanted to carry on and do for my final pieces Its helped me decide how to go about mixing the elements of both my drawings together into a final outcome. I have learnt a lot in this workshop and I feel its made me a little more confident in using more digital as I now know my way around photoshop a little. My Photoshop ability is improving massively and i feel that tghis will benefit me in my future as I think knowing these skills are vital as the technology is improving andlearning these skills are becoming a necessity Here are a few prints I have made using this workshop. I am really pleased with the results.

Developing work

Over this last week I've been thinking about how to mix the two elements of my two sets of drawings together and I've made a few samples that I am not impressed with and doubt i will have them as final samples although I may use elements of each drawing and maybe include it in my final final piece. I tried to use sections of other drawings in these drawings which I think were unsuccessful but I feel that the gradient tool parts are good and I will continue to use that in my future pieces.

work so far & tutorial

We had a tutorial today and I was able to speak to alex about my work so far, these drawings are my favourite so far and I think the represent my research and all my influences that i have talked about before. I have used traditional paisley and henna motifs in my drawings and i have also used these colours as my foundation to begin working on my final outcomes. The feedback was mainly good Alex said to mix the drawings i had done at the beginning with these ones and also maybe make the colours a little more subtle. 

Seer-sucker Workshop

I decided to along to a Print room workshop as I haven't been to one yet because I have decided to take a risk and not use the print room this time (I have used it many times in the past) and opted to using more digital in my work as I feel I am not very confident in using Photoshop because of my lack of experience. So we had a seer-sucker workshop which was very interesting although I won't be using it in this project I probably will in the future! Teresa showed us how to make the mixture and explained how to be careful and what containers to use as it gets dangerously hot and is a very toxic formula. Once she had done the whole mixing procedure she used showed us how to use it by using the screen. the results were very interesting as wherever you placed the mixture the fabric would scrunch up and make a interesting effect! I didn't take any pictures unfortunately but heres one I have found online which is similar.

Trip To Pakistan

So, I went away to Pakistan for the next part of the wedding it was an amazing experience I really enjoyed myself. The wedding was so much fun all the traditions and customs and everything we did was interesting and inspirational I was extremely inspired by the henna artist and the way she used the traditional Paisley in her work on the brides hands I took lots of pictures and used them all as influence in future drawings.

Photoshop Workshop

Today we had a photoshop workshop where we were taught to use the tools on photoshop to place your pattern into an object as I am doing interior this time  have used an interior space. It was extremely useful as I feel it reflects what you are trying to show and also put what your doing into perspective. I placed one of my photoshop designs in to have a look to see how repeat patterns looked and I loved it!

Work so far & tutorial

Today we had another tutorial and I showed my work that I'd done over the following week. Ive been brushing up on my photoshop skills and I'd been changing colours using a technique called replace colour where I played with the colour tool and made colours change. None of these drawings are set in stone they are pure practice. Alex had told me that the drawing with the red part in the right hand corner reflected my initial research (disposable camera pictures) and also looked interesting so i have decided to include i through out my project. I was also told to continue practicing and doing more drawing work.

Research artist

http://www.surfacephilia.co.uk

I have been looking a helens work and have been utterly inspired her beautiful bohemian style wall paper have helped and influenced my direction. The colours of her wallpaper are similar to the kind of colour scheme I am looking to do. Her repetitive hand drawings and patterns are a way that I would like to work in this project as I am also working to make wallpaper. The look of drawings and patterns made on the wall by hand are a kind of style I am trying to use.

Work so far & Tutorial

We had a tutorial today and i got to show the series of drawings i have done over the few weeks. I have used different media such as inks and water colours and different pens. I have used motifs and patterns in my drawings that I've pulled out from different pictures and research that I have done so far. This tutorial went well, Alex was pleased with the drawings I did and helped me with my next steps. For my next step I was told to play around with the colours and maybe go a little brighter to what i have done so far. If I was to go back and do something different about these drawings i think I would introduce a few hints of a brighter colour so it wont be as dificult introducing the whole concept to more colour.

Gallery Oldham

Today we visited gallery oldham, this wasn't one of my favourite trips as I felt all the work we'd seen was not very relevant to anything we'd seen so far. We were told about old hams cotton industry and all their treasured banners which portrayed the stories of different famous things about oldham. The banners were huge with lots of bright colours and writing on them. We were also shown very pretty delicate handkerchiefs from the archives although i thought these were lovely unfortunately the had no relevance to any of my work. We were also shown dresses which were also very beautiful but again not very significant to my practice.