Week 4

Today we had a pin-up session with both Mark and Julie’s tutorial groups which was a beneficial to see where my work is now at, and to get another perspective from a much larger group. I’m pleased Julie found my drawing style “contemporary and original” but suggested playing with digital/sublimation print to produce grounds, and to push exploration of translating drawings into material. She questioned my context and perhaps this is something I have to consider more; costume design is a possible avenue Julie could see my samples geared to. I aim to push experimentation this week and become a bit more playful with my materials.

fragment drawing, Julie found the line qualities interesting; I aim to translate this to materials

felt tip, graphite and blue gouche

Ethos sample with hand aplique; very pleased with this illustration

Inspired by a drawing of a lady on a postcard I acquired in the Barcelona flee markets I continued to develop my ethos skills this week with a colourful piece. I feel satisfied with the quality of the illustration, yet I need to explore more ways to experiment more with the ethos.

Week 3

This week following inductions on the ‘Ethos’ system (multi-head embroidery) I recognise the advantages of digital embroidery and translating my very figurative work. Following Mark’s advice from previous tutorials, I’ve spent a lot of my time developing my skills on the Ethos system as I find my drawings work nicely with the abilities to stitch wide areas of fill or intricate satin stitch I would not be able to achieve on the Bernina. I attempted mixing some text with my illustrations which initially did not work to plan and produced something quite illegible using the running stitch, but developing my skills of the program tried it in some other text in a satin stitch to much more success.

initial attempts with Ethos; I kept the design quite simple, so used a lot of abstraction of marks

further development on Ethos; I think my confidence on the software is growing.

referse side of Ethos design on stitch and tear; I find something interesting in the white space and the dominant black bobin thread

Week 2

This week I have concentrated on developing a series of drawings to inform the next few weeks of work. Following on from my summer research I took the firecracker as inspiration to produce a series of still life sketches, focusing on the importance of ‘selection’ in what I visually record. I’ve learned through this week of drawing that abstraction of key line qualities and colour is integral to my style; both Mark and Nigel have reiterated the translation I must start to make from my drawings into material qualities. 

felt tip and fine liner; could work nicely on pintuck or Ethos

abstraction of visual information gathered from firecracker

exploring the tubular structure, using stitch and collage to add the fiesta essence

Working on a bigger scale has helped me free up my hand producing some work I’m pleased with. An A2 drawing inspired by the repetition and movement of ‘shards’ contrasting with parallel horizontal lines could be nicely translated into pintuck stitch adding the opportunity to create structure. This week has been a challenge as I’ve found the open-endedness of the project unclear; I will push through with producing work and not let an over-all direction bog me down.