Reflection

Throughout this unit, I have discovered that going out of my comfort zone, to create prints I wouldn’t normally helped me to stay inspired, motivated and open to change. I have enjoyed using some techniques I have used in the past but mixing them up with other processes (such as sewing prints together) has varied my work. At the beginning  of the project, I found it difficult to start the project and felt myself lacking in inspiration to create my drawings, as I visited the gallery a few more times, I was able to create drawings and get into the swing of things.

Participating in group tutorials with students from other courses has been interesting. All the comments and suggestions were inspiring and helped me to look at my work in a different way and produce prints differently. As I decided not to collaborate with anyone at the start, throughout the project I rather wished I did because I was finding it difficult to come up with product ideas. If I was to do the project again I would want to collaborate with someone who could make a product e.g. furniture and I could use my prints for the upholstery. I feel that the limited time made me more aware of what I needed to get done for the exhibition but felt I was stressed also. I could have prevented this by creating a larger body of work at the start of the project.

I wasted a bit of time in the print room creating prints I no longer thought were appropriate at the end of the project, so didn’t use them in my work. I felt that this was a learning curve for me and taught me a lesson so in the future I will no longer be distracted in the print room from what I planned to get done in that day, and next time I will have more of a structured plan. Also when prints turned out wrong I was able to call it a 'happy mistake' as this one turned orange in parts where the reactive dye didn't discharge out because of the layers.

Time wasting trying to create a striped fabric (which didn't relate to my work)

 

'happy mistake'

 I can see the development of my work from my very first drawings of trees to drawings of the interior. After I got my ideas together and wanted the interior to influence my work, I was then able to carry on doing so developing more drawings and prints.

I knew I wanted to create something quite heavy weight from the start, and am happy I did so and carried on using heavy cotton. I work best with this type of material and get the results I aim for. I could definitely improve on my drawings and research as I think this is why I struggled with design ideas. Not being able to make an actual product, I find it best to make visualisations with my prints on, giving me an idea of how I would want the finished product to look. 

 

I could develop my project further by maybe making a product which would then be better understood in the exhibition. I could also develop motifs further having a wider range.

Looking around the Whitworth shops motivated me in wanting to create good quality prints. The existing products are very well made and relate well with the gallery so in the professional world, I would want my product to be the same. Overall I feel the project went ok, I feel that I could have used my time more efficiently and could have been more organised but this has taught me that in the future I need to do so.      

Final exhibition

For the exhibition I created a tag design to be pinned onto my samples, I designed it so it was minimul and smart using a contrasting colour.

Self assessment

 

 

Unit X Level 5

Name Anna Carver	College and Project Group Unit X The Whitworth	Feedback session date/time (if arranged)
ID Number 13136880	Link to Digital Submission http://annacarver7.blogspot.co.uk/	Contact number 07825309774

 The Best Bit

Which part of this unit have you engaged with the most and why?

Visits to the Gallery and printing samples, to further my understanding of the Whitworth and develop skills in the print room.

 

   Things that worked

What are the most successful aspects of your work for this unit and why?

My most successful aspects are my print developments as they link well to my drawings, and feel that I produced in the style I aimed for.

 

Things to work on

Which aspects of your work will require more attention in the future and why?

In the future, I would work on more motifs for print development and have a clear idea at the start of what I want to do.

  Self Evaluation – highlight the text that describes your assessment of your achievement for each learning outcome.

Learning outcomes (words in brackets explain simply what will be looked for)	F	40+	50+	60+	70+
Demonstrate an understanding of the relevance of interdisciplinary perspectives and the professional world. (You have understood how the professional model works and adjusted your practice and approach to embrace this)	Little or no engagement with activities beyond own practice and little attempt to engage with or research professional opportunities	Shows an engagement with others beyond the confines of own practice but little understanding or articulation of relevance or impact on own work or professional context	Demonstrated awareness of interdisciplinary practices in the professional world and the relationship of this to their own approach	Shows a clear understanding of the relevance of interdisciplinary practice and its relationship to the development of their own work and professional ambition.	Has explored and clearly articulated an understanding of the relevance of interdisciplinary perspectives in the professional world and embedded this within their practice and outcomes.
Reflect on their practice within a context of ambiguity, uncertainty and unfamiliarity (You have tried out ways of working that might not be your usual model and explored and embraced new challenges and can discuss the impact of this on your own approach)	Little or no engagement with academic challenge or creative risk taking	Has engaged with academic challenge to work beyond familiar norms of practice but with little reflection on impact	Actively engaged with creative challenge and engagement with unfamiliar territory and demonstrated their response to uncertainty and ambiguity.	Demonstrates a willingness to explore and reflect on the impact of the unfamiliar on their own practice	Demonstrates with clarity their responses to creative challenge and active engagement within unfamiliar contexts. Is able to reflect on the impact of this on their future practice.
Demonstrate creative responses through a body of work related to project options and outcomes. (You have absorbed the things you have learned and produced a body of work that shows this)	Minimal submission demonstrating a lack of creative responses to chosen programme option	Developed a body of work which addresses the project but lacks depth and breadth of investigation and resolution	Generated a body of work that demonstrates creative exploration and responses to the identified brief	Produced a coherent body of work, clearly responding to project options, that is well executed and articulated.	A substantial and highly developed body of work that clearly demonstrates creative response to their chosen project option.
Demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively and articulate the impact of collaboration on their own methodology (You have collaborated with others in the most effective way for the work you were dong and can discuss how is has affected the way you will continue to think or work in the future)	Little or no engagement with collaborative opportunities	Engaged with collaborative opportunities but demonstrated little awareness of impact on own practice	Collaborated effectively with others to achieve collective goals. Has articulated what impact this has had o their own practice.	Demonstrated a pro-active approach to engaging with collaboration and clearly articulated the impact on their own practice.	Demonstrated the ability to evaluate and effectively reflect and apply learning from collaboration. Clearly able to articulate effect on their own methodology and future practice.
Confidently present outcomes to an informed audience in an appropriate form. (You have identified the best way to present your work to the external professional audience and pitched it at the right level, and can explain how and why you chose the model you did and have evaluated if it was successful)	Little or no engagement with communicating work to others	Engaged with dissemination opportunities but demonstrated little awareness of appropriate models or context.	Presented outcomes of projects in a coherent manner within established norms	Communicated outcomes with clarity and in a considered manner in relation to the audience.	Demonstrated the ability to present articulately and with confidence to an informed audience with authority and in an appropriate form.

 

                                                                       

Mood boards- product ideas

I needed to create a wider understanding of other products I could design my prints for so created boards to show my thinking process and inspiration in visual form.

The idea behind the rolled products came from looking at leather straps I could attach to the cushons so they could be carried about. I then thought of the camping products as they could easily be attached to a bike when going camping or for a picninc.

Development

Throughout unit x I have been developing samples relating to the gallery and my drawings. A couple of my prints are inspired by the floor plan of the gallery. Creating masked off areas when printing reactive dye through a blank screen, I was able to create clean lines on canvas.

 

I was inspired by this and was when sewing my prints together creating 'boxes' of colour, texture and pattern.

 

 

 The samples are quite simple but show depth and quality of line.



Investigations

I have been working on a range of prints, each one being unique. I started by dying heavy cotton in grey and mustard relating to the Whitworth colours and the mood of the gallery, then folding, ironing and tying the fabric to create a tie dye/ shibori background. This adds depth to the prints which will allow me to add simple motifs over concentrating on the technique and process.I found it difficult to make the exact 'mustard' coloured dye, after a few attempts and adding different colours I got what i wanted.  On a few other samples, I have created marks by pulling discharge through a blank screen creating abstract marks like some of my mixed media drawings. This technique reflects the gallery’s atmosphere as the discharged parts are like the light shining through from doorways into the darker areas.
 By using brushes to create marks with discharge gives the prints a handmade limited quality which   my aim.

 I am developing prints to look like my drawings linking to the gallery. From my drawings, I developed motifs, which I can layer, showing a playful, continuous drawing feel. My drawings are from the interior of the gallery showing texture and layout, including the paintings, tiles on the floor and exterior details.I used heavy cotton as I like the finish it gives when discharging dye out and keeps the quality of the weave. 

 

I am making my prints abstract but with certain elements including making stencils to fill with reactive dye adding colour, discharging out with other motifs.

 

... The blank screen with dyed fabric and stencil under with reactive dye ready to be pulled through.

 I feel that working in an abstract way, my prints link to my drawings better and gives me a better understanding of how my final prints will look.

With inspiration from a few artists, I have created prints to be simple but showing layered effects. Visually analysing how the artists make marks I was able to use my prints as a form of drawing and each one differs from the layout of the motifs to the background colour and style. I made stencils (which I used a blank screen to pull reactive dye through)  to reflect the layout of the paintings in the gallery, this added a small amount of structure to the prints giving me areas of block reactive dye to discharge marks out of.

collage from my sketchbook influenced by Melinda Tidwell.

Abdul Basit Khan

 

 I also started to rip up fabric I dyed and discharged marks out of it, to then print blocks of reactive over. I will use these to sew together developing further.

I have furthered my research into what I want my prints to be made into. After my tutorial last week with Sharron, I feel I am swayed towards large floor cushions, which can be sold in the shop or used in the gallery for when the children can participate in certain activities. As a print designer I won’t be making the product as this will take too much of my printing time away, and so far I can only book into the print room for two days. I need to know exactly what I want to achieve from the limited time, and have been developing samples further by adding layers of different processes. After my tutorial and explaining my ideas, my group thought it would be a good idea If I stitched the fabric together to look like my paintings e.g. paint strokes and block colours. This also shows the element of the prints being limited edition and each one is different. I then carried this out using some of my samples I ripped up. Stitching them back together I created a few samples which I then printed onto discharging the colour out and adding a motif back over with a darker reactive dye.

          Placing the sewed prints together creating a larger print.

I have never sewn prints together and have only worked on flat prints/ fabric. sewing them together I can relate to my drawings and may do this in the future.

Researching further product ideas, I came across the idea of designing my prints for outdoor activities such as picnics on the park or camping.

 I looked into how to waterproof fabric and could do this by using certain sprays and wax bars, but as the time is limited I won’t be carrying this out.

I developed more drawings to create more of a link between all my work, after speaking to sally I felt that I could have a range of filled backgrounds. I developed my prints further sewing more together and finalising ones for the exhibition.

Different prints sewn together showing the areas and floorplan of the gallery.

 I feel that developing drawings to create samples is vital which I have struggled with in the past but throughout this project I have been consistant and shows through my samples.