Assignment 2 - Project 4 - Developing Design Ideas - Stage 2 - Part Two

Looking for Shapes and Drawing
Exercise 2 and 3

I found this exercise really enjoyable so I extended this exercise using a number of images, experimenting with different media. I chose some very different subjects to explore how nature, technology and art could all be used as inspiration to develop future work.

This first series is based on a painting by Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka. She has a very distinctive style, firmly set in the Art Deco era, with strong contrasts, limited colour palette, strong lines and very striking poses for her subjects.

It was an interesting challenge selecting part of the human body to interpret into pattern and here's what I did with it:

Top left is coloured pencil, top right pencil and bottom is pen and ink. Of the drawings, the most identifiable as a human (!) is the coloured pencil drawing, largely, I imagine, because we can related these colours readily to the familiar tones of the human face.

The pencil and pen and ink sketches, on the other hand, especially when viewed in isolation (and if you had no knowledge of the image source) are much less obviously human features. They becoming interesting shapes rather than looking like an image taken from a viewing frame!

I was intrigued by this so tried something even more distinctive - the eyes. I deliberately chose an odd angle to see how quickly the mind ceased to recognise the image as human features, working again in coloured pencil, pencil and ink.

 

 

Again, once translated into pencil and ink, the image loses its human-like qualities and is broken down into simply pattern, shape and structure. 

I went on to find a completely different postcard, a classic sunset over the sea from Cornwall.

 I chose two areas to use as my inspiration.

These were the images I created by interepreting the selected areas, again using three different media, coloured pencil, pencil and oil pastels. On reflection, the lines in the original image weren't as interesting as I first thought and this wasn't as successful for me. Of the different interpretations, the simple pencil drawing is the most promising for future work.

Industrial imagery next. An image selected from a beautiful Art Deco gate, taken from the book that accompanied the amazing Art Deco exhibition (sponsored by my erstwhile employer) at the V&A. This was a very detailed, "busy" image so I wasn't sure how easy it would be to break it down into a format that could be re-used, but in the end I felt it had a lot of promise.

My interpretations were in gouache, natural dye ink, charcoal and pencil.

I also found these fascinating corals while researching for another project. The images were a bit small so haven't photographed too well, but they give the idea of what I was working from. By complete accident I was laying these out on some bright coloured funky foam which produced some very interesting effects when changing the background colour between different shades of the foam (pics in my sketchbook album).

Pastels, marker pens, watercolour, pencil and pen and ink line drawing.

Assignment 2 - Project 4 - Developing Design Ideas - Stage 2 - Part One

Looking for Shapes and Drawing

Exercise 1

 I chose this postcard as the image for this exercise. I was drawn to the colours and the undulating shapes. I was curious to see how well the various aspects of the photograph could be interpreted on paper.

Drawing 1 - surface textures
This was the image for surface textures:

 The printing "block" is actually one of the feet you stick under furniture legs to stop them scratching the floor. Made of quite firm foam material, it had a nice weave-like structure that I thought would work well in my interpretation of the weave of the fabric.

 To rule colour out of the equation I worked in natural black pigment ink.

Oh dear, not very successful! There is some weave texture in there but my attempts to create delineations where the folds are by using more/less dense printing can only be described as an epic fail :-(  There are some areas where it has almost worked but even viewed from a distance it would be impossible to see this as anything other than a series of muddy boot prints!

Drawing 2 - Colour
Second onto the colour drawing:

This was painted in Anilinky watercolours with the paper quite wet to create lots of colour blending. I pared down the shapes to the barest limits to focus purely on colour, taking just three basic sections of the viewing frame. I used a limited palette of colours, allowing variations in the paint and the lines made by the brushstrokes to create the different tones within the woven structure.

I am pleased by the simplicity of this piece and think the tonal changes, particularly in the blue/teal section, have worked well.

Drawing 3 - Shapes
To enable me to focus on the shapes (so difficult when I am always drawn to colour!), I chose a very simple line drawing in pencil.

The photo here is a little pale but I can see how, despite being a fabric, there are nonetheless strong shapes made by the undulating folds. The shadows created by the light falling on the fabric emphasise the shapes yet further. I could see potential in working with these shapes as the basis for a repeating-print fabric.

And I should credit Christina Chisolm as the weaver of these beautiful wraps:

Assignment 2 - Project 4 - Developing Design Ideas - Stage 1

Introduction and preparation

Here are some examples of using simple shapes to create images with energy and movement.

And here are my lines creating energy....

And passive, calm lines....

Assignment 2 - Project 3 - Understanding the Textile World

My chosen piece for this exercise is a cushion cover.

It was handwoven in Afghanistan and was originally part of a traditional camel bag. These bags were used by nomadic tribes to carry their belongings and this cushion would have been made from one pannier of the bag. The fabric would be woven in a long piece with a central hole to throw over the hump, or in two pieces with a pannier either side. There are many beautiful designs for these bags, mostly geometric in design.

My cushion It is backed with a hardwearing fabric, also handwoven, probably a rough wool judging by the feel. 

The front of the bag is woven with a cut pile so it feels like a tough velvet!

It had a fringe at some point in its history as there is some fringing left on one edge.

 The stitching is clearly done by hand and appears to be a rough, strong yarn, again probably rough wool that wasn't suitable for spinning.

Older examples of these bags would have been handspun and naturally dyed as well as being handwoven. The fabric on the reverse of the bag has the more rustic look of a handspun warp and weft as there are slubs and colour variations I wouldn't expect to see in a commercially spun yarn. It is clearly finely woven as it has a beautiful, delicate woven border which would indicate a good quality piece (lesser quality pieces would be plain on the back to save time and cost).

There are corded edgings to the top and bottom, again suggesting a piece of fine quality.

The way the colour has aged on the back suggests natural dyes were used.

 I would expect madder for the reds/orange/golds and browns, pomegranate for the buttery yellows. When viewed in good light there is some blue in the darker sections of the pattern, most likely indigo. For the black (which is very rich even after so many years) I would have to guess at walnut or a modified pomegranate, and over-dyed with indigo or maybe a local bark/plant? The most common black would be logwood overdyed with indigo but this would be the wrong part of the world for logwood which is mainly found in Central America.

As the practice of nomadic travel has declined (or as they are worn out/damaged), these bags are re-used and recycled. As well as adapting them into cushions and housewares for the Western market a common use is to find them slung over the back of a moped or motorcycle!

I particularly like this piece because of its rich history. It is beautiful but had a very practical purpose. The fact that it is clearly handmade and incorporates many of the techniques that I use in my own textiles today (handspinning, natural hand-dyeing and weaving) makes me feel a connection to the original makers. I love the idea that in all probability an entire family were involved in its production, with the men rearing and shearing the sheep, the children preparing the fleece, the women spinning the fleece into yarn and the men weaving the bag.

Sadly but unsurprisingly the lifestyle of nomadic peoples is under threat and the remaining nomadic tribes are struggling to retain their cultural traditions and in some cases, basic human rights. This site speaks a little of one such people.