PE Task 2

During my time in print, I focused on developing my work through an interior context. One of my main sources of inspiration came from print designer Lucienne day, who's abstract, organic prints captivate a beautiful hand drawn style, with repeat pattern and fine line. These qualities where ones I found easy to relate with my own practice, as drawing is a large part of my development, I wanted to ensure that these characteristics laid prominent in my own designs.

Overall I was very pleased at how my motifs translated through screen print, I feel that the majority of my samples achieved a detailed, natural aesthetic. My main primary research evolved from subject matters such as crystals, pottery fragments and animal influences, so I tried to ensure that my motifs, compositions and colour palette worked together, to create an organic flow throughout my collection.

Print Design by Lucienne Day

One of my screen printed designs

After conducting my initial research within my mixed media rotation, which mainly excelled from an interesst in line quality and natural curve, I decided to focus on 3D fashion as a context. Iris Van Herpen provided me with my strongest source of inspiration, her magnificently crafted 3D printed designs  captivate the body, made up of the most fluid and detailed lines. This was one of the first times I had explored this means to create, so to learn about so many new designers such as Jenny Hsu and Matija Cop, allowed me to discover a whole new realm of developemnt possibilites for my practice.

The concept of curve became my main reference as my ideas progressed, working towards creating my own designs that wrap around the human form. I worked with a variety of materials such as wood, leather and paper, comprised of both hand and laser cut samples.  My paper work resulted in my most successful designs, which I feel was due to the manipulative qualities of the material, allowing me to bend and curve the structure, acheiving a free flowing yet futeristic concept.

3D Fashion Piece - Iris Van Herpen

One of my favoured paper mannequin samples

For the final three weeks of sampling, I decided to stay within mixed media. Developing my work from the word 'Duality', I began focusing on the term 'Positive & Negative'. My practice evolved towards a contextual theme of Gallery Space work and I began to translate my ideas through the technique of collage. Looking for inspiration, I came across Anna Higgie, who's extensive collection of collage captivate a strong optical aesthetic, using bold cut out shapes with intergrated bursts of black and white pattern.Continuing my search, I aslo drew refrences from fashion photographer Chris Nicholls and Illusion artist Vicor Vasarely, by broadening my contextual refrence points into a variety of specialisms, this allowed me to develop my ideas from different influential loacations.

Mainly concentrating on the depiction of bold shape combined with optical line, I extracted my primary research from Architecture , with the buildings and structures providing me with an extensive pallet of line, shape and space. My collages began to develop from the layering and combination of individual ideas and designs, comprised together to create an image of overlapping detail, shape and space.


Collage by Illustration Artist Anna Higgie

My mixed media Collage - 'Duality'

Final 3 weeks of Sampling-Mixed Media Week 3.

For my final week within this project, I have continued to explore the process of collage, as well as creating digitally drawn designs that I plan to translate on the laser cutter using harder materials.

I have really enjoyed the freedom that this last three weeks has given me, working with collage has allowed me to portray abstract and free flowing qualities throughout my work, characteristics I really enjoy but don't always give myself a chance to express. When viewing my current work as a whole during our weekly crit session, I decided to  take a step back and create collages simply by layering 2 or 3 elements together, and focusing entirely on the cross over of the lines and shapes. This was a different way of working to what I had done in the previous two weeks, however it allowed me to see elements in my samples that had sometimes got lost when i created my more busy, multi layered collages, creating a diversity within my collection.

(Simple 2-3 element collages)

My laser cutting session isn't until the end of the week on Friday, so I will just have to discuss my plans! Extracting some of my bolder designs from my collages, I have began creating drawings that I will translate through the laser cutter. I mainly want to use the cutter so that I can expand my material choices, using textured and harder surfaces such acrylic perspex and thicker fabric. Once I have my laser cut pieces, I plan to combine these with my other material samples, hopefully having the time to create a series of new collages.

I am actually quite sad that this project is over, as I have really enjoyed the work that i have produced and can still see many avenues that I could expand into. The techniques  that I have learned not only in these last three weeks but in the whole of the sampling unit, will definitely be processes that I will re-explore in the future. 

Final 3 weeks of Sampling- Mixed Media Week 2

Throughout my second week I have focused my practice on the development of collage, continuing to use architecture as a basis to expand and extract from. After my tutorial on Tuesday with Julie and Mark, I went away feeling very refreshed and enthusiastic about the possibilites and direction of my work. It was suggested that I begin looking at expanding the idea of collage, lifting it away from just paper and beginning to think about working in a more three dimensional way. This was a process quite foreign to me at first, but as we began to explore my ideas, I could begin to see how the introduction of harder materials, 3D shapes and laser cut samples, could begin to achieve a very unique response.

My first step after the crit was to begin gathering different materials and create a variety of 'prototypes. I began to view my foreseeable collages almost as a jigsaw,  a piece of art slowly built up through independent pieces and shapes, which i felt linked in well with my development focus of 'Positive and Negative'. Using hand cut techniques i began to translate the variety of shapes I had extracted from my primary research, introducing new materials to my samples such as cardboard, printed acetate and black electrical tape. 

My original plan was to book two laser cutting sessions, one this week and one for the following, in which I would develop the ideas I had created throughout my collages, using harder material choices and focusing on achieving solid measurements and bold shapes. However when i went to book, I was disappointed to find out that there was only one session left available next Friday, at the end of the project. This has unfortunately stunted my flow of ideas, as with my laser cut session being so near to the end, i have had to focus my attention back on the possibility of hand cut techniques and how i can still achieve the qualities and design ideas i had planned. 

Contextual Refrences.

Anna Higgie

While beginning my contextual research, Anna higgie is an artist who's work has embodied all the qualities i have been looking to represent in my own practice. Her collage based pieces where my main source of inspiration, Higgie uses a strong combination of bold shape, optical patterns and reflections of identity within her collages, aspects that related strongly to how my ideas have developed since investigating the word duality. What I hope to be able to extract from the inspiration i have gained through Annas work, is the connection of shape, using a variety of line qualities, materials and photographic sources to intertwine singular ideas and refrences into one collaged piece.

                            

Chris Nicholls 

Fashion Magazines May 2013 issue, hosted an amazing editorial by Fashion Photographer Chris Nicolls. The high contrast lines and shapes Nicolls expressed through his photos and editing offered me such a strong source of inspiration. I have begin to see the extent of how effective the simple idea of positive and negative can be, combining and reversing black and white to create almost optical like pattern. This is an idea that i feel can relate really strongly to my architectural research and i plan to experiment with translating and representing the shapes extracted from my photographs with this approach. 

Final 3 Weeks of Sampling Unit - Mixed Media Week 1

For the final three weeks of Unit 2 : Sampling, I have chosen to continue working in Mixed Media. Looking back on the work I have already completed in this specialism, has shown me that there are many elements of my work that have progressed and expanded, due to the opportunities and possibles presented by Mixed Media. I would like to use this next three weeks to continue this new creating process, to see if mixed media could be a potential future for my degree.

From the list of words provided, I decided to investigate DUALITY....

'an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something'

My initial research led me to narrow down the idea of contrast, focusing my development process on the concept of  'Positive ad Negative'.  In conjunction with my early contextual referencing, I began conducting primary research, mainly in the form of photography and drawing. Using Architecture as a main focal point, I began extracting ideas from my surroundings, looking at the variety of different shapes that are creating either within a buildings structure, or when buildings begin to intersect or appose each other.  In response to my research i began conducting a series of drawings, mark making pieces and collages.

(Onsite drawings of architecture around Manchester)

 (Developing idea of positive and negative shapes through collage)

After gathering inspiration from artists such as ; Anna Higgie and Chris Nicolls, I have begun to explore the possibilities of collage in more detail. Using strong shape and line extracted from my original photography work as well as adding ideas from external influences and drawn line. Since beginning to explore the possibilities of collage this has sparked many new ideas which I plan to pursue next week, increasing the scale as well as introducing new materials into my work. 

(Two final collage pieces responding to positive and negative)

Mixed Media - Week 3 Review.

While in the final week of my mixed media rotation, my attentions have focused mainly on creating samples that illustrate the connection between my ideas and chosen context, 3D/Sculptural Fashion.

Working with a mannequin, i have been able to create a variety of different samples that elevate my ideas and finally illustrate their purpose. After the previous two weeks using paper as my main source of material, it soon came to be a process i favoured and began to excel in. When i finally became to realise the manipulative properties of the paper, i was able to begin exploring and creating interesting curves around the body.  The past three weeks has been one of the first times i have explored the possibilities of fashion, so for me, working on a mannequin and exploring my ideas through a fashion context has been a completely new experience, one I have throughly enjoyed and hope to explore further in the near future.

During our final week we also had the chance to book another laser cutting session, i decided to take this opportunity to experiment with scale and different materials. Using a variety of different leathers i created samples that explored how my design would work when reduced in scale....

Although i enjoyed the properties of the leather, especially the reverse side where the burn marks from the laser had altered the surface, the miniature scale didn't represent the line quality as well as i had expected, due to being so small, when layered together the samples got lost within each other and there was no definition amongst the curves or edges.  If i where to have had more time I would have liked to have created large scale cut outs using the leather, as like with the paper models, i feel that the leather could have been well manipulated and would have begun to introduce new colours and textures to my designs.

Mixed Media - Week 2 Review

Throughout the second week of mixed media, I have spent my time  refining my ideas for our laser  cutting session, as well as creating more thought after 3D sculptural pieces.
After gathering a body of contextual reference work and initial drawings, my ideas started to become more original and more relatable to my initial reference points. While continually experimenting with paper, I began using the technique of layering, cutting simple shapes and then overlapping the stencils, creating a variety of different lines, as well as interesting curves and shadows. Due to the fact that my drawings where simple, this allowed me to recreate the cut outs quickly and i could  begin to visualise how these shapes might react when made of different materials or manipulated in different ways.

I decided to pursue my layered motif idea in the laser cut session, I now had the chance to change up my material choice and create samples using harder surfaces. I really enjoyed my time in laser as this was the first time i had ever used the machinery. Seeing my designs translate through the technology, sparked an array of fresh ideas and has led me to look into sampling with different material options such as leather, woods and a variety of papers.

(Laser Cut Sample using MDF Wood)

After my laser session I had time to reflect and envision how my layered samples could now translate into a 3D Fashion context. Looking back to my contextual references and initial starting points it was clear to me that the idea of curve was very prominent in my work, my ideas led strongly to creating a structural piece of art that moulds and works with the natural curves and edges of the human form. I began working with collage and abstract fashion illustration, imagining the variety of bends and arches i could achieve when working on the body.