Sun 04.08.13

This is an image which I have just found on the Falmouth University website, taken of my final exhibition space during the private view. I am pleased with the way in which my work is able to look quite professional in both its finish and the way that it has been displayed. Once everyone else's work had gone up I also really liked the way in which my work interacted with the pieces around it; the result of careful planning by the tutors and my specifications for where I would like my space to be. I am pleased with what I was able to achieve and proud to be featured on the Foundation page of the University 's website, as this time last year I was a nervous A-level student looking at that same website which I am now a little part of!

Final Exhibition Space, Title: Cross Cultural

Tues 13.05.13

Yesterday I went up to Wellington at 9.30 where we were briefed again about this week and hanging the exhibition.  I then came back up later to use Laurence’s printer in order to print out my designs onto A2 glossy paper. In the afternoon I went to Tremough to pick up my digital fabric print.

I was slightly disappointed with the fabric prints because one had turned out a bit blurry and pixelated, this must have happened at some point during the digital design process, but I had used the same motif in another print and it had come out clearly on this one. It was difficult to really visualise what the finished fabric would look like just by seeing it small in Photoshop and this may be a reason why I did not pick up on this at the time. Also, I think that I might have done better investing in a more expensive fabric with a different surface, such as silk, because the cotton wasn’t a particularly tight weave and I think it doesn’t quite show off the designs in the best way. Also, I think a slightly sheer surface might have looked more luxurious, but at the time I thought it would be too much when coupled with the busy print.

In terms of the paper print designs I was again happier with them when I saw them on the computer screen than I was once they were printed out to a larger scale. Some blurring had occurred where I had used the fill tool to change some areas of colour, but this was only really visible once the designs were blown up to A2 size. 

When I came to hang the exhibition today Claire advised me on how to separate my one big piece of fabric into 4 separate design strips by sealing the fibre with masking tape, cutting along the edges of the design, folding and ironing the edges so that they were straight and clean cut. She then showed me how to make a line using thread to hang all my pieces straight along and I decided how high this should go and how large the space should be between each design. I then attached the fabric to the wall using pins and left it hanging down at the bottom. I wasn’t sure about hanging the paper prints, especially at A2 size but Claire said that she thought they looked fine and that displaying them on A2 paper meant that I could demonstrate my work in another kind of dimension as supposed to the very small designs on the fabric prints. I hung them a short distance from my fabric and quite close together so they were obviously a collection and but they could also be seen as one big design.

Overall I was quite happy with the look of my exhibition space. The fabric prints were hung really neatly and looked good in the white space, especially with the natural light from the window. The paper prints meant that I could better fill the space and another aspect of my work was only display. I am going to print out my catalogue onto A5 paper and place it on the windowsill next to my wall. I am planning to spend the next two days completing any written or practical work I need to do and making sure everything is ordered and well presented.

Fri 10.05.13

 I have used Photoshop to arrange, repeat and layer my design elements. I started my first design by using some elements which I thought would work well together; the tribal mask and the flower motifs. I wanted to give the image something more of an overall composition, rather than a large area of repetitive pattern. I started building a background using the fill tool and repeating parts of the flower motif, and then added larger elements on top. I also varied the sizes of some of the elements that I did put into repeat, such as the smaller flowers, so that the design was still varied. I made some changes to my painted images using the magic wand and the fill tool to add slightly different colours to some areas.  Using digital media allowed me to manipulate and experiment with my motifs to a huge extent and within in minuets I could completely change the look of the design or change it back instantly. 

Once I was happy with my first design I started another one, this time using the motif of the dancing people. I was intending for this group of designs to hang in the exhibition next to each other and therefore I wanted them to have features in common and look like pieces from the same collection. However it soon became apparent that this motif created a very different look compared to my first design. I’m not sure why this was, I think it had something to do with the fact that the second painting used more muted and harmonious tones and there were less smaller details or darker lines to make it more defined. I preferred my first design to my attempts with the second one and so I decided that for the purposes of the exhibition I would use a group of three design which were slight variables on my first one and I would keep the other motif and what I had done with it for development work and a separate group of designs. 

With the second two designs I used the same elements and motifs, but played around with colour, scale and manipulating what I had to create new design elements, such as deleting the centres of the flowers to make flower outlines or using the centres to make dots. I spent a lot of time trying to develop three designs which were varied but also sat well together and I think that I ultimately succeeded in achieving this.

Thurs 09.05.13

Mask Design

Today I finished the drawings for my designs and began painting them. I found it a lot easier to paint these designs because they were much larger. I also had my inspiration sketchbook and lots more colour trials in my colour book to refer to so I spent a lot less time deliberating over which colours to use. It still took me quite a long time to do, but I didn’t want to rush the work. I think that with these designs I have been able to use subtler colours than with my first set. I have tried to put opposite colours together and to keep the palate quite earthy and muted. I have also left some areas of white space which I think will be useful when I come to digitally manipulate my designs.

With some of the elements which are purely pattern and I know I will want to put into repeat I have only designed one of them (eg. the beads) but in lots of different colours so that once in Photoshop I can the arrange and repeat these as I want. I have made a few smudges on my work, I think that this has happened more when working on an A2 scale and reaching across the larger page, but I will remove these digitally so they should not effect the finished designs. I have chosen not to paint all of my drawings, but have selected the ones which I think will work best and have the most interesting decorative features. Tomorrow I will scan in my paintings and begin to manipulate them on Photoshop.

Wed 08.05.13

Danielle Hensby

I have decided that I would like to hang some other work alongside my fabric prints at the exhibition and although I may use some work which I have already completed, I want to try and produce some more designs which are very developed and have been informed by the work I have already done. Over the past few days I have been deliberating about whether to use print, painting, digital work or a combination. I would like to use my drawing and painting skills, but because I am wary about time I have decided to design and paint some motifs which I will then manipulate in Photoshop. I began work on my drawings for the motifs today. 

After having re-visited the work of digital print designer Danielle Hensby whilst compiling my artist influence for my catalogue I have thought about whether I would like these designs to be entirely repeats like those on my fabrics or more of a collage of different elements composed together in a design which looks more like a picture. Hensby’s work is less about repeating one central motif and more about layering together lots of different things. I think that I would like to take a similar approach with these designs. For my drawings I have picked out interesting elements, some which are patterns and some which are figurative. I will use of the elements alone within the design and others I will repeat.  I have also decided to draw and paint these much larger than the tile designs I did before as they were difficult and very time consuming to paint. I think that a combination of paint and digital work will give my designs an interesting feel as I think, had I added colour completely digitally, the overall look of the work would not sit well with the more ‘earthy’ and hand-done art which has inspired it.