Introducing grey and black and white

After my tutorial a couple of weeks ago with Martin he suggested that I try introducing grey tones and black and white to my patterns to see what effect this had. I really liked all the colors I was using I enjoy to use a wide range of colors in my pallet but Mart in said that grey tones and black and white can look great with bight hues.
 

 

 

 

I feel these experiments worked well I do feel that the colors have worked well together, but I still feel that my bright color palette is more successful for my theme of the 60s. although I didnt take these any further in my project, I still wanted to show and explain my thought and view on how I feel about them.

As I am coming to the end of my project, I have been looking back through my work, reflecting on the success that I may have not developed. I feel the introduction of grey, black and white to my designs has created an interesting look and is somthing which I am going to try develop in Ba8. Although I love to use a bright color palette myself, I know it is not to everyones taste. My hope for Ba8 is to create a body of work which will be on trend and appeal to today market and client, enabling me to give my self the best opputunity of gaining employment.

 

Shift Dress

Today I finally finished my dress; I am so pleased with how it has turned out. When choosing the designs for my dress I knew I wanted to use the large circle design as the main piece of the dress. For the sleeve I used a collage from my sketchbook in which I combined 2 of my floral motifs together through triangles. I changed the colors on Photoshop so that it would blend with the front and back of the dress. For the panel on the side of the dress I chose my favorite mono print drawing which I then developed using Photoshop. Once again I changed the colors so that the patterns I chose would work together. I knew that I wanted to add some foiling to dress, so I felt that by putting it under the arm and down the side of the dress would be a modern twist on a classic 60s dress.

Overall I am really pleased and I feel that this has allowed me to consider my prints for the context of fashion, it made me consider scale and color scheme.

Dissertation Hand In

Today I finally finished my first draft of my dissertation, this felt amazing as writing is defiantly something I would say I struggle with. I really surprised myself with how easily I found writing my draft, which had to be at least 1000 words. I actually wrote over 2000 in the end.

I wrote my introduction which was 700 words then I did an introduction to my first chapter in which I will be explori ng how Celia Birtwell, Barbara Hulunicki and Zandra Rhodes worked in the 60s and what made them the pioneers of that time.

In the second chapter I wrote about how the designers of the 60s are now reinventing there designs for the modern day market. I really found that the words just formed very easily when I was typing, I think this was due to the amount of different resources I used to collate the research to back up my report.

I am nervous to receive my feedback I hope I am on the right track and that I can just continue to write the rest of my Dissertation in the same way that I have my draft.

Final Boards

Today I did my three final boards which show the journey of my project. the first board shows my inspiration of my project showing designers work from today and from the 60s. I also showed my visual research of florals from my own images to pictures I have collected from the internet, as well as my 3 favorite drawings in which i experimented with mono printing and development of lines with felt tips. the final images that i put on the board where my inspiration images from artist which had used geometric shapes within there work, this allowed me take inspiration on how to develop my floral imagery w ith geometric shapes.

 
On my second board which shows my development throughout my project, I have shown images firstly of my developed drawings in which I worked back in my drawings using felt tips. This was something Jill suggested to me in a tutorial and I feel it worked well. The next images show collages from my sketchbook in which I explored combing my floral imagery with geometric shapes. The final images show the collages i created when working on a larger scale out of my sketchbook. In these developments I tried to combine and develop further the most successful aspects of my project.

 

On my third and final board I have shown my final sample developments and the context of my patterns. The first images are of my favorite digital patterns, then I have moved on to show images of my digitally samples which I have worked into through embellishment, foiling and flo cking. I feel that these where a successful aspect of sample development. finally I have shown my color palette and my context images which i created using my dress view finder which Martin Told me to use in a tutorial. I still need to add an image of dress to this board but it isn't finished yet.

 

 

I always enjoy doing these boards at the end of a project as I feel it allows me to reflect on the journey I have taken through my project, enabling me to see how my initial ideas have evovled. 

Samples In Context

Today I started to put my samples into context using bias binding and different forms of pleating and gathering to suggest how the samples would look if they where used to create fashion garments. I find that this helps me to see my fabrics in a more realistic sense of context compared to if I did this digitally or using my dress view finder like I have.
 

I am really pleased with how my samples have turned out so far. today I only managed to finish my 12 A2 samples. I still need to do the same to my 9 A3 samples I am hopeful that these will be as successful.

In this project I also stated that I wanted to show my samples in a more realistic context by making a shift dress in the style of the 60’s. I am really excited by this, I feel that this will allow me to understand the importance of a print within a design focusing on scale, direction of pattern and color scheme.

Final Print Room Developments

Today was the last day that I had booked in the Print room; my aim of the day was to finnish off my final samples by applying the successful aspects of my previous pieces.

The first thing I did was print small circles onto the long piece of silk sateen that I had pri nted for the side of the shift dress I am making for my Final outcome of this project.

 

To be carful I made sure I washed the screen between printing each piece as the foiling paste dry’s very quickly and can block the screen. I am really pleased with how these turned out. This is the only part of the dress which I have chosen to print onto. I want to act as accent to the side of the dress adding a modern twist to the 60s style shift dress which I am making.

 

 

Next I used the foiling paste with a paint brush to add a subtle effect to the sample above, I feel that this was an effective way to add foiling to sample which had a busy print on it.

 

 Finally I added clear foil to the large circle print below, I felt that the sample needed a little something extra but not anyt hing which would distract from the patterns. I chose to use clear foil as this was successful in my experimental samples.

 

 

I am really pleased with how this sample has turned out the foil has worked exactly how I wanted allowing the whole pattern to still be seen but with another dimension being added from the reflection of the clear foil.

 



 



Premiere Vision Development

During this week I have started to think more about developing my Premiere Vision work. To do this I have started to play around with my paintings in Photoshop incorporating my ideas of my own theme of the 60s.

I wanted to look at other designers who have used more realistic floral drawings with geometric shapes for inspiration. To do this I used Pinterest.

 

This piece is by BCBG Max Azria Spring 2014. I really liked this piece, I think the combination of shape and motifs work well. The contrast of bold colors against the black works really well and looks very effective. This is something which I want to incorporate within my designs. I also like the contrast of sheer and block fabric this is something I will keep in mind when picking a fabric for my design.



 

This is a dress from the 60s by James Galanos, once again I love the way black has been used for the background to create a contrast with the floral motif. Within this pattern I particularly enjoy the contrast within the scale of the pattern which is true to the 60s. This piece also shows a contrast in block and sheer fabrics. In this garment the sheerness of the top is soft and delicate in comparison to the bold and brighter colors upon the block material for the skirt. From this I am going to take the idea of scale the contrast of materials used and the effect this can create.

I am also going to incorporate the successful aspects from my project, these being stickers and geometric shapes; I am going to use my favorite technique of collage to combine all these aspects together. Within Photoshop I used this inspiration to start to develop my floral paintings; I took inspiration from BCBG Max Azria within the layout of my patterns. I also experimented with using black to create a contrast against my floral paintings.

 I think that these first initial Photoshop developments where successful; I feel the contrast in colors and shapes has worked really successfully. To develop these ideas further I am going to start to use collage to add further details and geometric shapes.

 

Here I have used stickers and cut out geometric shapes from my floral paintings to add more details and color to my designs. I feel these have been successful allowing me to add the successful aspects from my 60s project making my floral s more me.

 

Next I started to think about how the designs could work for the context of fashion. To do this I used my shift dress view finder, I found in my 60s project this allowed me to consider placement of design.

 

 

I think that to continue to develop these ideas I need to go back and produce some new paintings and continue to develop theme in this way I am hopeful that I will create some exciting outcomes.



Finished Digital Samples

Over the last week I have had my favourite digital samples printed on to 2 types of silk fabrics. I went for silk as it has a more high end feel which is what I see my design being for, I also like how the colours appear upon the fabric with the gloss of the silk giving the design a sheen. 

I had 6 designs printed on silk sateen which is my favourite fabric to digitally print onto and I also had another 6 designs printed on to silk Habotai, which is not a fabric I have worked with before. 

I really liked the sublimation prints which I did on polyester georgette and I wanted a similar fabric to this. 

Last project I used silk georgette, but I didn't like this, the feel of the fabric was ruff and the colour I felt was dull. I am really pleased with the look of my prints of the silk Habotai the colours are bold and the feel is more smooth which is what I wanted.

8 of the prints I am leaving how they are and 4 I am going to work further into 2 by appliquéing my own embellishments on and the other 2 by foiling onto them in the print room. I have chosen to foil the samples instead of flocking them as I feel flocking makes the fabric stiff and this isn't something I want my samples to be.

Embellishing

Today I have been working on finishing my samples using the samples I printed on Thursday as embellishment pieces by cutting them up and appliquéing them on to my samples.

Here I cut a foiled sample in squares and then I appliquéd them on a sublimation print which I had already flocked squares onto. I really like how this experiment looks I feel that it has given the sample a finished look.

Here I cut a foiled sample in squares and then I appliquéd them on a sublimation print which I had already flocked triangles onto, I  also had printed circles onto the sub print with disperse dyes. I really like how this experiment looks, I especially like the juxtaposition of the circles within the square appliquéd embellishment. I feel that it has given the sample a finished look.

Within this sample I experimented with the scale of the embellishments I appliquéd onto the sample. I like this and I feel that it has given the sample a playful feel and has made it more eye catching.

On this sample I have experimented with very small embellishments adding a subtle but a more dense look.

Premiere Vision Drawings

I wanted a break from my project on friday night so I decided to work on my drawings for Premiere vision. This week I invested in some new Gouache paints, as I have really enjoyed using them for my pv drawings.

With my new paints I have worked back into some of my paintings from jills workshop adding new details and flowers and trying to feel the blank space creating busy flowing paintings. I have also started to paint new drawings of my own using the ideas that I learnt in Jills workshop.

We have to start to think about how we can incorporate our own projects into our Premiere Vision work, so for me that is geometric shapes as I am doing these already florals with these in the style of the 60s.
I have a few ideas i was thinking maybe using the same ideas of my work but adding the geometric shapes in a more subtle well to suit the delicate and pretty nature of my drawings. I am thinking of using mark making to add the geometric shapes giving the shapes an organic feel which will be less structured and rigid like the shapes I used in my project.
I am also thinking about different colour palettes in particular monotone and greys with a flash of neon this is in keeping with my 60s theme from my own project.

For Premiere Vision and my own work I am going to work for the context of fashion using my shift dress view finder which I used in my project I have started to look at my drawings in a more abstract way focusing on a large scale print which is also in keeping with my 60s theme from my Ba7 project.

Preparing Embellishments

Today I spent the day in the print Room once again this has become my second home this project!! Today I have been printing onto small cut up samples which I am using as backgrounds to print my geometric patterns on top of using foiling and flocking. I am going to us these prints to cut my embellishment pieces from.

When creating my fabrics for my embellishments I tried to use up my left over pieces of flock and foil. I found if you use a piece of flock twice you get a really interesting effect where you get 2 depths of flock with 2 different patterns. I really like this effect and is something I am going to take forward with me into Ba8.

Another thing I discovered is how the appearance of foil changes if it is placed under the heat press twice it looses it sheen and has more a glittery look this is shown on the left of the image above with the foil being heat twice at 60secs and the right of the image is foil which I heated for the advised 60secs once. For my embellishment pieces I  prefer the normal look of the foil, however I am glad I have discovered this alternative look for the foil which I think is more subtle.

Samples Everywhere

Today I have been looking at the samples I have created so far. I am booked in to the print room  tomorrow  and I have been looking over my designs and trying to work out which I feel are finished and which I feel need that little something extra added to them.

From looking at some of my design I feel that could benefit from a final embellishment in a more subtle way than being printed onto. In my last project Ba6 I started to explore creating my own embellishments though foiling and appliqué. This is something which I feel was a successful aspect of my last project and is something i want to explore further within Ba7.

These are images from my Ba6 project showing the embellishments I created from foiling on the left. 

On the right is one of my final samples which shows how I appliquéd the embellishments on to my samples to create a finished look.

I want to develop this within my Ba7 samples exploring different shapes and scales for my embellishments, as well as exploring different ways of arranging them up my designs adding to finished look of the design.

Working On A Larger Scale

I feel that I have got to the point of my project where I want to start to develop my work out of my sketchbook developing scale, pattern and motif through collaging and drawing using mark making.

In this first A1 collage / drawing development I have explored my floral motifs developing their scale as well as this I have experimented with working back into initial drawings using felt tips and mark making to add more definition to my initial mono prints. I think this has worked well the only thing I think is that maybe there is too much pink in the pattern, this  has caused some of the motifs to get lost through them blending together instead of standing out how i would have liked.

In the second A1 development i have continued to work in the same way as in the above collage / drawing development. i feel that this second one has been more successful i feel this is due to the contrast in colours.

In this developed large scale drawing I have started to experiment with working with both floral and geometric motifs together. In this piece I have tried to focus on placement of the floral motif I feel this has added to the design in an effective way. I especially like the textures within this design it adds depth to the colours of the design.

In this developed large scale drawing I have continued to experiment with working with both floral and geometric motifs together. In this piece I have tried to focus on placement of the floral motif I feel this has added to the design in an effective way. I especially like the shapes within the design it has created a flow within the piece between the different motifs.

In this developed large scale drawing I have continued to experiment with working with both floral and geometric motifs together. In this piece I have tried to focus on geometric shapes using the same floral motif to add a consistency to the design. I especially like the texture the hand drawn dots have added and this aspect has added a great juxtaposition in scale within the design.

In this developed large scale drawing I have continued to experiment with working with both floral and geometric motifs together. In this piece I have tried to focus on geometric shapes using the floral motifs in different scaled stripes. I especially like the texture the hand drawn prepared stickers and geometric shapes have added to the design.

In this developed large scale drawing I have continued to experiment with working with both floral and geometric motifs together. In this piece I have used my developed digital designs to  create the main geometric shapes of the design. I did this by using a folding mirroring technique similar to the one used to create paper snow flakes at christmas. I especially like the texture the hand drawn backgrounds have added within the design.

In this last developed large scale drawing I have continued to experiment with working with both floral and geometric motifs together. In this piece I have tried to focus on geometric shapes using a mosaic style of collage. I especially like the texture the hand drawn dots and prepared papers have added to the design. I also think the use of block colours has worked well to break up the busy prints being used.

Working Back Into My Drawings

Today I had a drawing workshop with Jill in which we worked on are Pv drawings, during the workshop I took the opportunity to have a one to one tutorial with jill showing her my sketchbook work.
Jill really liked the way my work is progressing but she told me to look back at my drawings working into the negative space and the backgrounds as I have worked on to a lot of white paper. I tend to do this as I find that it enables me to develop my drawings in amore successful way in photoshop.
Following on from this mini tutorial with jill I began to scan my drawings in and then I printed them back out working back into them using felt tips and mark making techniques, I feel this worked really well. I found that it enabled me to develop my motifs and from working from another copy of my original drawings i was able to show how I developed my ideas.

I feel these have worked really well, my next step is that I am going to start to develop this idea of mark making in my other work as well as developing these drawings on a larger scale out of mu sketchbook.