31.11.12 FIRE

On the night of Halloween we had a housefire, one of the most terrifying experiences of my life! Once everything had been sorted and the firemen had left and we began thinking about cleaning up and getting the house back to looking like somewhere we could live. I took a few minutes to document the markings the fire had left.
This is a moment in my life that I definitely want to forget quickly but being a textile student I also appreciate the beauty in it. It is also pretty fitting with my project. I don't think I am going to start developing work from it but reflect that even when it all seems like it couldn't get any worse at least we have some nice patterns on the walls that give me inspiration to keep an eye out for research whatever is going on or where ever I am. And it wasn't really to bad having a cup of tea with 6 firefights at 5am.

30.10.12 HOW ARE YOU FEELING? DAVID SHRINGLEY

If i'm honest...a little terrified. Excited for this year but still a little nervy when it comes to the year ahead. But there is no point worrying, because if worrying solved anything they'd say worry! This is how i felt after I went to the cornerhouse on oxford road to see "HOW ARE YOU FEELING?" by David Shringley.

Immediately I could tell this exhibition was going to be a little different to the others I have been to in the past. In Gallery 1 I was encouraged to interact with set pieces such as tapping the gong which created a soft noise that I found relaxing. I wrote that I was cold on the white board and stuck my head through a peep hole in the wall to contribute to the exhibition.


In Gallery 2 there was an impressive collection of sketches, the sketches themselves did not inspire me in respects to style, but I took from it that every little detail does not have to be perfect. I did a few quick drawings of the other people walking around the exhibition to capture how i felt at that time.

In the final room there was a large statue of a nude man and we were encouraged to sit down and sketch. Looking at the drawings covering the way I believe we were asked to do this to see how different people interpret things differently. One of the sketches really stood out to me...

25.10.12 TUTORIAL NOTES

Due to increasing panic about my dissertation, work on research and development has taken a back seat this week. On monday I did a few quick drawings and played with layering on photoshop. I took these to my tutorial to try and come up with some new ideas.

TUTORIAL NOTES
From the garment research exercise, which I did to ensure that I had up to date research on what was in stores at the moment. This will help when planning collections to ensure that I am creating designs that will be on trend and desirable.  I saw a reoccuring theme of transforming a pattern to look like another. This idea I think fits well with my concept of trickery and disguise. From this I felt inspired to look at how this could be done through my own work which I have been repeating and layering drawings I did of "bruised lips." This made me think why not do this with my own photography of the lips and try to create my own lace from it. The drawings of the lips do not provide enough depth but they provided the platform to get to the idea of lace. I think this could be an area to really develop into because it is recreating something well known to many people but by turning it on it's head.

This has moved my work on by allowing me to think further how my pattern design will fit within the fashion and textile industry. My next step is to try and take in as much information on art and design (be like a sponge!) when I say this I mean I want to ensure that I know exactly what is going on in the industry and how my work would fit within it.

24.10.12 GARMENT AWARENESS

TARGET MARKET!!

Ensuring that you are aiming your designs at the correct target market is as important as the processes you go through to create the designs. I went to Selfridges to investigate the types of materials being used by designers, placement and fabrics.

Stella McCartney

An illusion - I held up this dress and expected to feel luxurious lace, however found that the lace was infact printed onto the fabric. 

I thought this was clever, but a bit of a cop out for Stella McCartney. She had reinvented the idea of lace, with technology today fabric do not have to made but can be replicated. This idea of presenting something that infact is not there connects well with my project. I want people to look at my prints but not be aware that they are actually looking at something destressing. 

Lace is also a fabric that i am very interested in. In my initial ideas, lace was highly influencial in the direction i went. I was fascinated at what mood it reflects, how it can disguise but also reveal detail. It can be very sinister but virginal. 

 Alexander McQueen

After discovering the Stella cheat I was interested to see where other designers had "cut a few corners." This Alexander McQueen dress was a combination of silk and wool. Very intricately made and detailed. It reminded me of the Stella dress but showed the designer luxury which I think was lost in her dress. 

Placement

Looking at Peter Pilotto's latest collection I was influenced by his choice of fabric, he has incorporated textured fabric with his designs. by doing this it made even fabric he used detailed. When the light caught the fabric you were able to see a whole other light to the print. 

This exercise also made me aware of placement, prints do not have to cover the whole garment. 

Like in Prada's collection the print was reoccuring throughout the designs but you only caught glimpses on some garments

22.10.12 ABBEY WATKINS POWER OF ILLUSTRATION

Abbey Watkins left MMU in 2011, her work shows the power of illustrative fashion illustrations. The designs/prints/patterns are not placed specifically on the body/illustration. The idea is for the illustrations to present an idea for each new viewer to hold independantly. You are not telling them exactly how the print should be placed on the body, you are allowing them to decide. 

In my project there needs to be an element which not even i am in control of. Emotion, bruising and healing are personal to each person, everyone is different. I need my theme to run through my development, my prints and presentation. Her work demonstrates this idea perfectly.

19.10.12 TUTORIAL NOTES

From the painted image of the boy with shaved head and bruises - Look at religious imagery?

From his hair and face it almost looks like a wreath around his head.

Work further with lips - this is my strongest imagery so far - move away from the images that are not mine.

How does skin heal itself - Cells - Repair. We were once injured but then recovered - How does it do this - Look at Man Uni library 

Layering in photoshop of lips

Looking at the importance of Texture, Colours, Pattern, Repeat, Placement, Scale

Prada Spring Summer 13 - Good example of a whole collection and seeing a theme running through them which makes the clothes immediately recognisable

How am i goingto present my work 

Fashion illustration can be very different - Either Fashion illustration where the pattern is placed in the illustration or where the illustration helps to convery a mood of the patterns. It may not be on the body. 

17.10.12 LIPIN

Trying to decifer my own methoods of photography, I had looked at the causes of bruising and how they change on different people. I chose to create it on myself. in these images I used watercolours and ink on my lips. 

I did this is keep my project up to date and wanted to inks to run freely across my face like bruise would. I was in control of where i placed the ink but once i pressed my lips together I simply photographed what occured. From this experiement I think I have provided myself with very strong imagery which i can work from an take into other mediums, such as recreating the lips by embroidery  onto fabric. Using sections of the images in photoshop to layer to create new patterns. 

These images are very strong because they are relatively simple but are powerful in colour and black and white. The difference the quantity of ink i used also make a large difference to the final image. 

I think where you are able to see the cracks of my lips provides a more shocking image. It looks as though they have been damaged, however where the ink is hearvier and in colour it looks as though it is bleeding. I do not want to work to be provoked by violence or emotion but see the beauty in it which i think has been captured in these images. 

I could further this work by bringing it onto other parts of the body and seeing how the inks create patterns depending on how i position my body. 

15.10.12 MANIPULATION

Manipulating imagery and trying to further my work.

Using simple methods to manipulate an image to develop ideas, previously used a paint brush to manipulate what I saw I am now using methods that i am less in control of. You are not sure of how the final image will turn out but i feel these work well. 

I do not think this is a method that I want to carry on with through out the project, but it has been good to see where i can take an image and whether it brings emotion to it. 

Going to Manchester University library i began looking at abuse, however this is not a route I want to look further into, i found the imagery very distressing and did not want to address that topic in my work. I decided to focus my main attention at bruising, i did this because I there can be an image behind every bruise which was first triggered after seeing the builders bruise. From the images I have collected I have found my colour scheme. I will look further at Garment awareness and ensure I capture the correct trends for Autumn Winter 13/14.

Another path I had begun thinking about moving my work down was to look at galaxies, this idea came from looking at the patterns created from the bruising.

Using bruising as the main focus I think i could get stuck just looking at the colour, an idea was to look at galaxies 

11.10.12 TUTORIAL NOTES

Tutorial notes -

Captured something in the paintings, found my own style

Not there yet when addressing patterns - still early

Zoom into the images, make them unrecognizable

Think o what other methods i could use to take the images further

drawing, laser cutter, embroidery

Play with the scanners - don't go onto photoshop yet, need more stuff to work with

I have been able to find imagery but at the moment only my own face and eye are my own photography. Keep working to get my own amount of photographs, I have worked out what to do with them to develop.

The week coming -

Capturing my own photographs to work with, what can be done with them.

Look at bruising - what does bruising me. How does it effect us all.

Look at injuries, we are all effected by injury and can create the story behind it.

Get collection of my own images of bruises - understand what bruises are and why they occur.

Go to Man Uni library for further information.

10.10.12 EMOTIVE PAINTINGS

This week I worked from my own photos and photos that i found triggered an emotion from myself. I want to provoke a feeling of uncomfortableness that i first felt when i looked at the Hussaidn Chalayan image.
I started by choosing imagery that has become famous through media coverage. I chose to use gouche paints to soften the images, from the results I am now interested in other methods to change an image but keep the message within them. I could try zooming into th eimage to make it unrecognisable but keep elements of the most important parts to allow you to refer back to. For example, In the above image red could be the main colour going throughout the pattern but the statement green eye could be centered in the middle.
I am beginning to build up a group of images that i can begin to work on to experiment on, I want to take my experimentation further and use other methods to manipulate, this may be through embroidery or the laser cutter.
These images are strong because i have been able to develop my own way of working, I was inspired by Jenny Saville and her method of painting freely and capturing emotion but from my development I am able to see how i want these images to progress.

5.10.12 IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

I visited the Imperial War Museum, at this early stage of my project I am going to research into as many different areas of the project that I can. In this exhibition there were some large, bent, rusted steel shards. I began photographing the marks made from the rust and damage caused to them, i went on to read where they were from and found out they were window sills from the World Trade Center.
I looked closer and was able to see markings written on the window sills.
I was surprised by how much colour is in the steel shards. The letters sprayed onto them makes me think of people that worked to build the trade center and the journey that has happened since and effected us all.

Photography could be a very powerful tool in my development of this project. It will make the prints more lifelike and relate able rather than a drawn image of my own interpretation.
The images are very textured so i have tried to recreate this to make my work more 3 dimensional to bring it to life. I will edit these photographs further and play with different colour ways and how it could be put into repeat to make it unrecognisable and see where this takes me. The strengths are in the scratch marks, only once you know the story behind the shards do you see them as violent or upsetting. But to everyone else it is simply markings of the ware and tear to the building and nothing else. I really like this idea of an untold story.

There was also a car from Bagdad that has been destroyed in a carbomb. The metal had twisted and bent out of shape due to the power put against it. It looked like fabric drapped over itself, uncontrolled and natural. This juxteposition against what had really happened to the car made me think about controlling what the viewer thought they saw and what was actually there.
I could try and recreate this with drawings and fabric. Looking at how fabrics fall on the body and distort figures.

3.10.12 EMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

This week I have been thinking about how to manipulate imagery or drawings to distort what you think you see with what is really there. 

I zoomed in really close to images to capture detail and fine print that would be missed by the naked eye. 

I took photos of the body after being inspired by my life drawing classes. 

Some of the imagery looks sinister, this can be achieved by playing with filters and lighting. The images worked well but I do not think there is enough information to work from to allow my ideas to develop into print design. This could be a idea to develop for a look book. I shall contiune practicing with the camera I have hired from the AV Store. They were pretty helpful so I think I'll go back and see what they recommend I do to achieve even more detail. 

LIFE DRAWING 1.10.12

I went to life drawing classes at Victoria Baths today and found the classes really helpful.
We were a small group which really aided my learning because I have only done life drawing once before so this was quite nerve racking. We began by doing 30 second quick drawings, this was to understand the body and recognize what your brain tells you is in front of you is sometimes very different to what is actually in front of you.
I think after a few more visits I will get a better grip on getting the full benefit of this exercise, you should look at the shapes of the body and the shading and not at the outline which I began drawing immediately.

This exercise is useful to ensure that I really look at what I see infront of me and not distort what I think I see by trying to use my memory.

We then moved onto two twenty minute drawings, I initially picked up a pencil to begin drawing but my tutor said to use charcoal, you can be a lot free-er with the lines and develop shading and texture.
I feel my first drawing went very well. I need to commit more time to looking at the body, sizing is very important, a method to help understand the lengths of the arms against the body is by holding a pencil at arms length and hold the nib at the shoulder and mark with your finger on the pencil where the end of the arm is.

From this class I now understand the importance of shading and taking the time to look at what you are trying to capture and stepping away from the aisle and observing.

In my project I want to capture moments in time that provoke an emotions. This can only be achieved if i look in depth at the imagery myself and am able to see in an image or on a body what are the most vital pieces of information that will make it recognizable but still beautiful.

I want to continue drawing and using different mediums to bring texture and colour into my work.