Line and Order

Inspiration

Line

Order

Gather.

 Continuous line drawing from a line of books/folders in my room.

 I prefer not to look at the paper while I draw and just at the object as I feel that it loses the shape if I keep looking back at my paper.Drawing this way gives a flowing finish to the work which I then like to refine on a separate sheet by picking out certain shapes.

Drawing other objects around my room. A bundle of glasses and candles. Drawing different shapes gives me more to develop later on. The contrast between this different media works well and adds variation.

After my tutorial I aim (over christmas) to carry on drawing everyday items from the home with different media, showing line quality and shape. By responding from things around my room and others I should get a good amount of drawings showing layers and texture.

  

Tie dye samples

I tested out a few dye techniques with direct dye in the vats. At the moment I just want to experiment with a few things to get my ideas flowing for the start of the project.

 Inspiration from Pinterest. Tie dye and dip dye.

 Creating line.

I wanted the colour to be really rich fading into a lighter shade where the dye doesn't reach. At this stage I plan to discharge out of these after christmas. Plenty more research and development is needed for me to design my motifs. 

Locating

The locating unit is made up of a self initiated brief and a live brief.I started off by finding inspiration for my self initiated brief. I am interested in objects which are grouped together. e.g a stack of books, group of candles and other objects found in the home.

 Objects which show an obvious quality of line in different sizes.

I wanted my drawings to be quick and messy, using continuous drawing.I layered the media up using marker, graphite, pencil and drawing ink. I like to draw like this as I feel that the lines i draw create different shapes when layered.

unit evaluation

During this unit I have pushed myself to work in different ways and tried out new techniques. At the start of the unit I found it quite hard to get lots of drawing done as this has always been my weak point but as I got more into it I started to enjoy it, even getting up in the morning and going to sit in a cafe to draw was quite fun, and extremely useful for the project and developed my skills further. In the past I have been very reluctant in going out into the city and drawing as I haven't felt too confident in this area; but this unit has abled me to gain more confidence.As I chose print for my specialist area I knew drawing was vital to develop designs and motifs. I've always swayed towards print and will continue doing so. My aim for this unit was to better my printing skills and knowledge, I really wanted to push myself and go out of my comfort zone and I definitely achieved this!The discharge printing was something I've wanted to try for a while and now I've learnt how to do it, it will be something I will want to carry on doing in the future as well as other techniques.During print I have come across difficulties and felt that I have overcome them well. For example when I was using my screens, because of the nature of my prints and how they are precise; it was a pain to have to keep on masking some of the motifs off I didn't want at that time so probably in the future I will have a screen where its not as tricky to print and have it so I can print the whole screen at once as a design. Doing this, I feel that I would get more samples done. Another thing I found difficult was the photoshop workshops, I've alwyas struggled with photoshop and never seemed to grasp it. When I came to design my visualisations on photoshop I didn't really have a clue what I was doing and felt extremely stressed as i kept trying it after reading through my notes but it just wasn't working, but with help from a course mate I managed to get the hang of it and staying in uni all day (for a few days) to practice and complete my visualisations really helped. I now understand that photoshop skills are definitely something I needed to gain and didn't realise this at the start but sure do now! I definitely feel like I have learnt a vast amount of skills during this unit and I've achieved something and feel quite proud.I will keep pushing myself in the future as I still have a lot to learn (and want to learn). It would be good to collaborate with someone else from a different specialism so I could learn another specialist area but still do print. Its not been an easy unit but has been enjoyable and I have pushed myself to achieve what I wanted.           

Intentions-visualisations

This week I focused on working on photoshop to create visualisations of my prints. This was a huge task for me as I have always struggled with photoshop and never seemed to be able to work it. After a few try's I managed to work my way around it. 

I used the layer mask technique to add my print onto the cushion also used a scanned in fabric sample for the grey one.

Using plain white products for this is better because then by clicking 'multiply' after the print is added, it creates a realistic look. Now I've seen my prints visualised it gives me the confidence to do this again. 

I would like to see my prints in stores such as john Lewis and on the sly textiles. I feel that these two company's are good quality and use simple designs.

Intentions-designs

As I have used discharge printing for a few of my prints I wanted to show this through paper design. I painted my grounds with brusho ink and used bleach to bleach out areas then collaged over the top.

These came out a bit too blue and it's not really in my colour palette but I like how they turned out as it's a different technique rather than adding media.

I pleated the fabric to see if I could get a tie dye affect, this didn't work to well as the bleached seeped through quite a lot making the lines thicker.

My collaged designs are simple and show my colour palette well. I added scanned in prints of my tie dye prints into this as it brings my collection together. 

Intentions-print development

Reduction paste(discharge print)...

As I have been pulling pigment through my screens, I wanted to try and reverse the process. Using neutral discharge; I was able to take out colour from my dyed samples. I had to make sure I dyed my samples using direct dye saying 'good' on the front, this shows that the discharge will work to it's full potential. After making the reduction paste I pulled it through my screen, after letting it dry I then steamed it and washed it. (Carried on repeating on a few more samples)

It works great on the tie dye fabric as it shows more layers. The process can be tricky, when printing you can't see where it's been pulled through on the fabric as it's clear so the results can only be seen after steaming. My screen is really tricky to use as I always have to mask out parts I don't want to come through. My designs are linear and have to be quite precise where I place the screen or everything will be wonky (as my prints are quite simple).

Adding scattered squares over the discharge print using pigment adds even more layer and a splash of colour. Here I masked the motifs off I didn't want to print.

 

I added the navy rectangle and a few mustard squares. This technique works great and is my favourite by far so far. This process does take time but it's definitely worth it. In the future I think I will design I screen where I can pull the whole thing without having to mask out things as it takes too long and has to be really precise (For the designs I want to make). Lucienne Day inspired me whilst I was creating these prints as her work is simple yet shows a good end result. Layering pigment over the discharged out fabric is something I want to carry on with in the future.

Intentions- print development

Another day in the print room!...

Pigment printing onto linen. Once this was took off the table I didn't really like the result as it looks quite messy because of the nature of the fabric.

Using my hand drawn motif over the 'foam print' pigment prints.

So... After I fixed my mono print designs I wanted to try and bring back the linear more 'straight' designs by layering over. I also wanted to focus on how the different colours overlap and create different designs in themselves eg colour and shape.

I started my hand designed motif print on thin cotton. I prefer printing onto cotton rather than the linen as it shows the print better giving it a crisper edge. This was quite tricky to do as I had to mask the designs off on the screen I didn't want printing then waiting for it to dry to be able to print again. For this design I wanted it to look like my contour line drawings where they are loose. By printing the more structured designs underneath it gives the print a layered quality exactly how I wanted. 

I added I tiny bit of foil on the right to add a final layer as I felt the print needed something extra. This print is very different to the others so far as I wanted then to be simple but use a technical technique.

Intentions-print development

I want to try discharge printing (taking away colour). To do this I first needed to dye my fabric using direct dyes so mixed these up and tested them out. I wanted a navy and a light grey, depending on how long the fabric is left in the vatt for decides on how deep the colour is. 

As I was dying I thought tie dye could be interesting and I could die in squares.

To try and create squares I ironed and folded fabric then wrapped tightly with elastic bands.

I left this sample in the vatt for a while to get a deep navy, the outcome is exactly what I wanted and gives a twist on my linear designs.

I love how each fabric dyes differently. My favourite is the heavy cotton as the dye goes deeper in colour. My aim for these is to use neutral discharge to pull through my screen so it removes the dye revealing squares and other linear shapes. 

I will need to make the reduction paste (neutral discharge) rather than illuminating discharge as I want to remove the colour rather than add another colour in. This should work as I've used the right fabric and dye.

Intentions- print development

For a few prints I wanted to make them look hand drawn I decided to use mono print so painted a blank screen and printed on to heavy weight cotton. 

The prints are slightly bluer than I wanted but I'm going to print grey over using my screen. I painted the screen too thick (not watered down enough) so when I pulled the manutex through, some of the dye came off and was left with a peeling affect. The contrast between this and my screen designs will hopefully work out well. 

I manged to get my grounds down in lighter colours so I can go ahead and add my other screen designs over in brighter shades of pigment. 

Screen designs

Design ideas for the print room is essential, I find it easier to go in with a rough coloured copy so I know exactly what I'm printing and means I'm not wasting time. Various fabric samples and my gouache colour strip.

For my screens I wanted to have two which complimented but also contrasted each other. As my work is layered I wanted one with simple block designs which I designed on illustrator with a few illustrator 'hand drawn' designs. The other I used an opaque pen to draw the hand drawn designs using my previous drawing as inspiration. 

I want to try heavy weight fabric such as linen for a few of my prints. Rather than have a fully white plain background I thought it would be good to re-create the sponge from my hand drawn designs, so used sheets of foam to paint pigment on and then print onto fabric. 

I placed a sheet of paper underneath the fabric while I was printing, and realised it had made this pattern which is quite interesting. It shows the weave of the fabric. 

Intentions-inspiration and colour

Lucienne day is a 1950's printer, the prints are bold and abstract showing how I want my prints to look. They are minimal and simple.
 

Colour palette...

Using some of my images from the summer project and visual research from Manchester.

My colour palette involves teals, blues, greys, mustards and greens reflecting my summer and the city. Most of it reflects the weather.

I wanted a few hand drawn designs in my collection to look different to my screen prints. I used my previous drawings from the city to the re-draw and select which ones work best. I wanted these to look layered so started with a sponge print and added over the top using brushes, pens and graphite. Lucienne day inspired me greatly for this. Using block water colour shapes I think the other media on top works well and shows a layered composition with contrast in colour and texture. 

Using fabric samples to pick up my colour palette...

I ordered some samples as close to my colour palette as possible, they turned out to be perfect.

Intentions- visual research

Amy and I sat outside one morning, I feel that the mornings are a great time to draw as they are quite busy and have a fresh feel. 

I tried to capture the texture of the bricks and the arches, the buildings in the distance we're quite difficult to draw but once again I wasn't trying to draw perfect, I was just getting the feel of the scene. I enjoy working with graphite and using other softer pencils to create darker lines. 

Drawing blind by looking at the building I tried to get things drawn in an abstract way. I like the teal writing and think because I wears only looking at the sign I capture the font well.

I thought of manchester museum as the building is amazing so thought the inside would have interesting shapes. Carrying on with the rectangle theme I seem to have going on, the stairs and cabinets we're perfect to draw.

I wanted to change the way I was drawing so played around with this one. I had different media in both hands and looked at the stairs whilst I drew them. It creates a kind of semetrical look but doesn't really look like the stairs. I could improve this on photoshop by repeating the print.

Standing in the glass hall way of the museum to look out to the city worked well. The contrast of buildings abled me to use different media to get the feel of them, as they all we're different especially the museum as it's an old building. I already had the wash on the background and reflected the mood quite well as the day was dull anyway. I like to work quite abstract and picking up the different block colours from the scaffolding and the drain pipes adds a splash of colour. I enjoyed drawing this and could improve by drawing it on a bigger scale to get more detail of the different buildings. As I'm specialising into print I think my work will consist of rectangular shapes with repeats and layers. My colour palette is mainly blues, greys and tones of greens with splashes of colour. This I think reflects the mood of Manchester as during visual research it's been quite gloomy and rainy (no surprise there).  

During the summer I visited Amsterdam, the place is stunning and the buildings are beautiful. The structure and linear qualities are perfect for this project. I like how the windows are repeated and some are different to others with little separated windows in each.