Ugly Beautiful - Development

After collecting drawings and photographs of flowers and architecture and looking at the work of numerous artists and designers i began to draw everything together and create developed pieces. I used gouache in bold block colours to create a background applied using masking tape stencils and a sponge. I then worked in layers using gouache and applying it with a brush and ruling pen. I also used masking tape and masking fluid to create my pieces. Below are some of my earlier developed pieces unfortunately i haven't yet taken any photographs of my final pieces, i will have to remember to do this and upload some images at a later date.

The small pieces in the bottom right and the small piece in the top right of the image below were created using a mixture of bleach, water and gouache applied to black card using a ruling pen. The larger two pieces were created using gouache on black card.

Ugly Beautiful - Source Drawing, Flowers

I used Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens as a source of inspiration for my 'Ugly Beautiful' project. I chose to draw mainly in the glass houses but i also did some drawings in the extensive gardens as fortunately it was a fine day. I mainly worked in fine linear creating quick linear drawings to capture a range of bold and delicate shapes. Below are some of the pages from my sketchbook documenting 'beautiful' flowers.

After visiting the gardens i began to try and merge both 'ugly' architecture and 'beautiful' flowers together. In the piece below i used ink and watercolours. The colours were inspired by one of the flowers in the glass houses.

Ugly Beautiful - Source Drawing, Architecture

I began this project by drawing 'ugly' architecture in Dundee city centre. I explored different materials such as gouache, pen and ink, ink applied using a stick or pipette, charcoal, fine liner and water colour. I did some drawings with my left hand (as i am right handed) and some without looking at the paper in order to create slightly more abstract drawings.

Below are some of my initial drawings with a little more development in the last image which is a mixed media piece.

Stripes from the Sea: Development and Conclusion

Before drawing everything together i spent a week developing my 'Stripes from the Sea' fashion forecasting project work in Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. I tried to transform my work in to inspired source drawings, i also learnt how to put some of my fabric samples in context using Photoshop. This was not quite as successful as i had of hoped although it was still a useful learning experience. The week after this i presented my work based on 'Stripes from the Sea' to a small group of colleagues including my tutor. The experience was very useful as not only did we get the chance to speak in-front of a group of people but we also received useful feedback. Below are images showing some aspects of the presentation boards I created.

The feedback i received was mainly positive, although in the future i think i need to 'de-clutter' my presentation boards and work harder on putting my samples in to context. Overall I enjoyed the project and found it was useful for me to experiment with such a muted colour palette as I am a fan of vivid clashing colours and this tends to reflect in my work. For my next project i get to decide the brief and i intend to do something fun and colorful which incorporates a lot of source drawing.

Tentsmuir and Tayport

Last week I explored slightly more of Scotland with my flat mate, we went to Tentsmuir and Tayport close to Dundee. I took numerous photographs of the harbour in Tayport and also did some sketches of the landscape at Tentsmuir beach. This day out was a source of inspiration for my current Fashion Forecasting project, ‘Stripes from the sea’. It was a very cold wintry day, as I think is visible from the very grey tones of the sea and sky in my photographs. As a result of this my sketches were executed very rapidly. Below are some of the photographs I took.

I have also included images of some of the pieces inspired by the boat masts. I used black Quink ink and bleach to create these images.

Collage & Kat Macleod

Today in our drawing class we had a lecture about collage and how it can be used to add interest to a drawing in the form of colour, texture or print. I have looked at some of the artists mentioned such as Elizabeth Blackadder, Matisse, Miro and Picasso. It was also suggested that we look up Michi Girl http://michigirl.com.au/ I love the fun, quirky fashion drawings by Kat Macleod on this website. Below are some of Kat Macleod’s very inspirational and beautiful illustrations.

After this mornings lecture we had life drawing and were encouraged to use collage. We worked for 90minutes, the model was surrounded by varying shades of red and green fabrics. Some of the fabric was reflective, patterned or textured. Looking at what I have managed to create so far I think I still have a long way to go. The scale and drawing of the models head on my first piece is slightly wrong, i also need to work on composition and I need to learn how to draw portraits and hands! However it was exciting and enjoyable to experiment with collage. Below are some of my first attempts:

Sandra Backlund

I came across Sandra Backlund a contemporary knitter on http://monomoda.com/ which is a graphic design based website full of visual inspiration. I really like the diversity in Sandra Backlund’s work, her knitted garments are usually created using only one colour of yarn but she creates interest by using unusual structures to alter the body shape of the model. I think some of her work relates well to what I was creating in the knit workshop this week. Below are 3 images of Sarah Backlund’s work and an image of a sample I created based on a page in my sketchbook.

Textiles in Practice - Mixed Media and Weave

Every week at university is different for me at the moment as we are doing textiles in practice. This means I am spending each week doing a different workshop. The idea is to translate images in our sketchbooks in to fabric samples. So far I have done mixed media and weave. I still have print and knit to come. I really enjoyed mixed media and felt like the week flew past. Below are some images of the samples I created and what inspired them.

Whilst creating these mixed media samples I was inspired by the work of Alison Willoughby, Claire Coles and Shizuko Kimura who I have also blogged about.

Weave I found slightly less enjoyable than mixed media, I feel my work progressed quite slowly and I think that what I have produced is less successful than the samples I created using mixed media. Despite this it was a good chance to experiment and practice. Below are some photographs of my weeks work, I produced one sample based on the fruit and vegetable section of my research and the other black and white sample is based on the surface of the moon. Whilst creating my first sample I concentrated a lot on the colour palette and the amount of each yarn I used, to create the second sample I used only black, white and grey yarns and aimed to produce a much more textured piece.

Culture Project 3

Since I last blogged about my culture project I have been working on the third section of my project based on something my dad wants to be. My dad wants to be rich! I began looking at warm, rich colours. I collected colour samples from magazines to build up a palette for this section of work. I also looked at ornate patterns as well as objects of material wealth such as gold, pearls and other jewels. Below are some images of the research I have done in my sketchbook.

Culture Project

My culture project is rapidly developing and very enjoyable so it is probably about time I started to document my ideas. A few weeks ago I began with the idea that culture is what you know, what you don’t know and what you want to be. This idea I found online whilst researching culture with examples such as depending on your culture you may know how to catch a fish with your bare hands, build a mud hut or use a computer. You may want to be literate, an astronaut or able to afford to send your kids to school. This I found interesting and so decided to ask my family and friends these questions: What do you know? What don’t you know? And what do you want to be? I asked them to give me three answers to each question. However I ended up with too much information to work with so I decided to base my project solely on what my dad’s answers to the questions were.

My dad knows:

How to grow a tomato (Do all cultures grow and eat tomatoes?)

How to drive a digger

That he pays too much in taxes (I don’t think he does know this he just wishes it was true!)

My dad doesn’t know:

What it’s like to be on the moon

What it’s like to be rich (although in some places he may be considered to be rich)

He also doesn’t know how to fly a hot air balloon

My dad wants to be:

Happy

Healthy

Rich

(I imagined he would answer this question with a profession like my mum did- a travel writer/ photographer)

I have taken his first answer and so began investigating how to grow a tomato. During the past week or so I have been drawing directly from fruit and vegetables, looking at magnified images of fruit and vegetables and also banana cells under a microscope. I am now beginning to look at gardening tools, allotments, greenhouses, potting sheds and overgrown vegetable plots.

Below are some images of my sketchbook pages based on drawing from fruit and vegetables, the photographs within my sketchbook i found online. However i hope to visit the botanical gardens or some local allotments to do some photography this week.