Journal - Week Commencing 14/10/2013

Fashion Film/Pattern Cutting

Journal - Week Commencing 07/10/2013

Styling

Within, the styling week I wanted to explore different aspects of my personality. We started off by taking a Polaroid photograph of ourselves dressed in props and garments that represented ourselves. We then had to bring in 10 different props and garments and style each other. I was very happy with the outcome of my images as they represented me very well. We then had to create several mood boards based on location/props/hair/make-up/mood/clothing etc.

I found creating the storyboards the most challenging part of this week as could not draw the scenery behind my person. 

For my end photo shoot, I decided to put my model in my accessory I made as it was a perfect example and way to express myself and my personality.

Journal - Week Commencing 30/09/2013

Accessories

For accessories week, we were asked to bring in something that had a special meaning to us. I brought in an old photograph of my mother when she was little. This photograph is very appropriate to our brief, 'Identity and Self', as I see both myself and my sister when I look at my mother in this photograph. Our first task was to record our special object with as many methods as possible. I began by using the photocopier to experiment with the scale and the colour of the photograph. I produced many different repeats and made the photograph negative in colour which was interesting. I then used acetate to layer rapid drawings I made on top of the photograph. Additionally, I experimented with ripping my photocopies and layering different parts of the face together that also differed in scale. I had never done this before and was very pleased with the result as it was very abstract and did produced a complex but quick approach of recording my image. I then produced rapid sketches onto some collages which also allowed for an interesting outcome. I was also pleased with the colour scheme that was being produced, so although I had photocopied with experiments of different colours, I decided to base this assignment on black, brown and white.

       

 

  At this point I had difficulty considering how I would use this photograph within my final accessory. My tutor suggested that I focus on a specific aspect of the image. I decided to focus on the plait my mother had in her hair in the back of the photograph. Therefore I made another collage and this time concentrated on the plait so I raised the plait in many of the images to narrow my thoughts into its shape and form. I then decided to develop the plait itself. I reproduced its shape and form by plaiting some other materials. I also plaited my friends hair and photographed that. After studying the form of the plait, I then went back to the original image and dissected its shape. I drew over the photograph and developed them in my sketchbook. I traced over the images using tracing paper to produced one part of the plait. I took that shape and exhausted it creating different forms of the same shape.

At this point, I had my shape and I knew I was going to create some shoulder pads. I always try and think outside the box so I also knew I wanted my shoulder pads to be oversized and dynamic. I wanted to get a real feel of how my accessory would look on an actual body so I took some photo's of my friends bare body and designed over these images. I think I will use this technique again as it allowed me to imagine what my designs would look like on an actual body.

Our next task was to design some accessories onto figures from magazines. For this we used acetate an tracing paper and overlaid them on to the images. The next step was to then cut our shapes out and position them onto figures in magazines. I concentrated on the shoulders of the figures as that was where the plait was resting on my mother's shoulder and also I felt it was the place on the body where I could experiment the most with the shape in terms of scale and form. On reflection, I should have even turned these experiments with the tracing paper into 3D by leaving some raised up a bit. This may have contributed to ideas in regards to the positioning on the body of my accessory. I then decided to produce some quick designs in pencil on a figure in my sketchbook. By this point, I had realised I was focusing on the shoulders and that a shoulder pad accessory would be the most appropriate.

The fabric I used was from Shepherd's Bush Market. I don't know its name but I intend to find out as it was perfect in making something with a large structure. It was brown which was relevant to the colour scheme of my development. I considered using other brown, black and white materials but I felt this one would produce the most dramatic final outcome. This project was a perfect example of inspiration for me in the fact that I really observed myself being inspired by something and developing and exhausting it into something completely abstract. I have enjoyed working from direct observation of an object. However, again I feel I need to manage my time more efficiently as I had not completed my accessory by the end of the week. Not only does this mean I am behind but it also means I do not get the valued feedback of my tutors.

Journal - Week Commencing 23/09/2013

Knitting

Journal - Week Commencing 16/09/2013

Digital Print

I was quite anxious about this week as I have only ever used Photoshop to digitally manipulate my photographic images. The week was most certainly challenging as I found it difficult to keep up with the instructions and remember them too in order to recreate or adjust other final outcomes. However, I thoroughly enjoyed learning such an empirical technique for the fashion industry. This week also excited and inspire me immensely as it showed me just some of the creative processes one can carry out in order to design fashion. Dan also allowed us to consider the important aspect of business within Photoshop as he taught us to display our final designs in a way that would appeal to a customer. For example, creating a swatch palette down the side of the page can inform the customer of every colour used in the garment. I found this extremely useful and interesting.

I felt like 3 days of tutorials was not sufficient time wise to learn such a complex and dynamic new skill. I enjoyed the tutorials very much, even though the content was challenging. On reflection, this may have been because I am a Theorist and my methodological characteristics were stopping me progressing further when the pace quickened. Although I had used Photoshop briefly beforehand, it was more difficult than I had originally perceived as I had no idea one could combine such intricate details of their own art work with digital media.

Our brief was 'family history', therefore I begun my research with a small mind-map of my family history. I found myself concentrating on the professions of my ancestors as I questioned my Grandma about the history of our family. My Great Grandfather was a hat designer and manufacturer so I went to the library and took out a book about the history in fashion of headwear. I made a sketch of a hat with an interesting composition and considered creating a repeat pattern print of an old fashioned hat. However, I decided to do some more research as I felt my skill-base was not sound enough to make my idea look professional. Therefore, I begun to photograph a wooden box my Great Grandfather from the other side of the family carved himself. It too was detailed and intricate so I thought it would be interesting to sketch and layer on itself using acetate. I liked the idea of incorporating relevant physical objects into my digital print designs so I also begun to photograph my silk outfit that I was Christened in. I then had the idea to layer the two objects onto each other, and to experiment with both the photographs and the drawings. Although it did occur to me that to work with such complex compositions in Photoshop may pose a problem.

Although I managed to create repeat pattern prints and three final designs, they were only my practice pieces and not my intended outcomes. The reason for this is that I did not note down the tutorials and so therefore could not recreate the instructions to reproduce my skills outside of the lessons. I found trying to produce my personal garments alongside learning the computer programming skills has affected my work. Nevertheless, I did not help myself as I should have been more concise when researching which meant that I would have been more prepared for the tutorials.

I feel that this skill is absolutely crucial for a career in fashion design especially when digital designs are  evermore present and only will become more of an essential aspect of the industry in the future. This is why I intend to learn Photoshop and produce many digital print designs for other elements of this course.

Journal - Week Commencing 09/09/2013

Design Development

The first of today’s given tasks was to design a symbol that was unique and distinctive to our identity and self. We then had to draw and cut out 20 of our symbols. I decided to use the first letter of my name as time was limited. At the time, I felt like I should have drawn a symbol much more individual and specific to me, however, the ‘M” gave me many shapes to experiment with on my mannequin so I am pleased I chose it. I also experimented with a few fonts and shapes to present the ‘M’ but decided on a simple and thick design. Once we had cut our symbols out and placed them underneath our mannequin we then had to move three to the right to somebody else’s symbols. We then had to physically manipulate the symbols onto the mannequin to produce a garment inspired by different words. We did this four times, the first being anger, the second being romance, the third being sexy and the fourth being organisation. Each time we photographed our own work and the work of the person on our own mannequin.

When creating the garment influenced by ‘anger’, words like wild, violence and danger came to mind. This helped me to create something that was uneven and very 3D. With this  mannequin, I worked on the front and the sides as I wanted the garment to attain almost an ‘attacking’ characteristic. The person that designed my mannequin using my symbols also allowed their garment to look dangerous as they placed the larger symbols on the shoulders with the tips of the letter ‘M’ at the highest points. I was really fond of the way they placed them symmetrically as the eye was drawn to the height of the ‘spikes’ which really gave a feeling of anger.

The next mannequin we had to design had to resemble the word ‘romance’. I immediately wanted to create something that was feminine and sexy. Therefore I highlighted the mannequin’s waist by placing the symbols flat on the body. These symbols were long so I also let them hang from the mannequin’s hips. Again I worked on the front, but after my tutor commented on not always working in the same place I realised I was limiting myself. I also noticed that the person using my symbols highlighted the waist as well as letting the symbols hang from the hips. They had skillfully incorporated my letter ‘M’ to create an asymmetrical garment with pleats at the bottom. This garment undoubtedly resembled  romance.

‘Sexy’ was the following word we had to use to design our garment. The outcome of this adjective may have been my favourite as I used the left side of the back of my mannequin. The symbols I had to use were hands which definitely helped the ‘sexy’ feel of my garment. I used layering to place the hands all the way down the back. Once I had finished the fingers looked like frills which I thought was very appropriate to the ‘sexy’ theme. The final garment we had to design had to resemble the word ‘organisation’. The symbols I had to work with were puzzle pieces which again I felt was a relevant symbol of the theme.  There were small, medium and large symbols so I grouped them together starting with the smallest and gradually getting bigger as I worked my way down the figure.

I particularly admired the work of the person using my symbols as they had symmetrically placed the ‘M’s’ all the way down the mannequin whilst also folding them which was interesting. Our next given task was to go back to our own mannequins and design three pieces with our own symbols. My initial design concentrated on the shoulder detail and I thought this was the most successful of the three as I curved my symbols high above the left shoulder which created a dramatic and tactile attribute to the garment.

I found designing my second piece difficult as I could not decide how to layer and work with my symbols. I must have pinned down and removed about six designs before I found my final one. As my first design was 3D I wanted to create a more calm and sensual piece, however, I felt these lacked excitement and creativity so instead I curved my symbols again but this time on the back of my mannequin. My initial work did not include the larger symbols so I included these at the bottom and found it actually worked quite well as it gave an irregular feature to the garment. My symbols covered the whole of the back and this prompted me to imagine a garment with simple detail in certain areas of the figure with 3D-like elements on other areas. For my final design I decided to use my biggest symbol, cut out of the brown paper. This also took my a while as it was the most challenging as the symbol was huge and difficult to maneuver. The end result reminded me of Phoebe Philo’s work for Celine as it was rather bold but very simple. I folded and curved the strands around the figure which again created quite an eccentric quality.

I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop as it gave me a chance to really push my boundaries and experiment with heights and scale. My tutor taught me to think about the appropriate areas of the figure to concentrate on when working with a particular theme in mind. On reflection, it actually really inspired me to produce garments that are eccentric and helped me be one to step further in finding my personal style. Wednesday’s workshop was initially quite a challenging workshop for me as we concentrated on parts of a garment that I have never considered before. We were given a few minutes to design as many collars, sleeves, coats and jackets as possible. The designs had to reflect our symbols. I found my symbol ‘M’ to allow for many designs to play with. I did find it difficult to draw the sleeves and collars at first so I asked my tutor for some examples which helped a lot. I also found it difficult when we had to draw as many designs as we could do in a given amount of time. This is because I am a theorist which means I am a bit of a perfectionist so I think carefully and logically. Therefore I could only design 7 garments when others were designing about 27 in the allotted time. Through completing this workshop, I now realise how empirical it is to consider these areas of a garment when designing. I have also realised that I need to work quicker and with more spontaneity as I need to get my ideas flowing.

On the Friday we had to produce flats on an A1 piece of paper. We had to incorporate both  workshops - our garments from Monday and the designs we made from Wednesday. The five outfits had to be coordinated separates that could be worn dependently and together. They had to include coats, jackets, knitwear, trousers, t-shirts, skirts, shirts and only one dress. The A1 piece of paper had to be a concept board that covered our progression and included our symbols and colours. I found this both exciting and daunting as I wanted to make sure that I produced my best ideas. During the day I found it very difficult to get my ideas flowing as I wanted them to be perfect however this held be back massively. Again, I can relate this to the fact that I am a theorist and so need to carefully evaluate the soundness of my ideas before producing them. I produced rough sketches but did not manage to complete the task set for the deadline. This made me feel very disappointed and also made me realise I need to concentrate much more and be much more organised.

We also at one point had to display all our work on the tables and then had to comment on others work. This was very helpful as it prompted many ideas for the layout of my sketch book and also motivated me more as much of the work was very inspiring. The comments I received were mainly on my mannequin work on Monday. They were very positive which encouraged me. I felt my sketches lacked colour and the precision of the figures could be improved. I was not using a template as I really don’t like the final look it gives. I prefer my sketches to look effortless and not too neat. However, I was not able to get the proportions of the body correct so in retrospect maybe it would have been quicker to use a template. Hopefully, in time and with practice I can draw a figure accurately without a template.

In terms of designs, I had many ideas and I had trouble choosing the best ones which also slowed me down. I should have pre-chosen these for homework. In the future, I will aim to complete my homework thoroughly in order to be prepared for the next lesson.

Journal - Week Commencing 02/09/2013

Research Development

I found this week challenging as I felt it was the first week I was working without any boundaries. Entering this course from A-levels, where you are always told whether you are doing something right or wrong, I have found difficult as I have found myself trying to discover my identity and personal style.

We were required to bring in 10 objects that meant something to us. Photographing and sketching them individually helped me to observe and identify their specific visual traits which allowed me to think of future print designs and features for my work. I intend to use and develop this process again when I am carrying out research. I deliberately took flat and close-up images so that I could view all of their details equally. However, on reflection, photographing them from different angles and in different scales and quantities may have allowed for more interesting products.

I really enjoyed working on a larger scale with the A1 paper and physically incorporating my objects with my research process. Creating my mind-maps made me analyse myself and my personality which I felt was empirical to my research. At first, I was quite uncomfortable with this but consciously assessing myself lead to my abstract words becoming unique and personal. I felt my mind-maps were successful as they were extensive which allowed me to discover the relevant abstract words which I needed for my concept board. I tried to find words that were diverse, in terms of some being textures, temperature, locations, colours, feelings, verbs etc. 

My 10 abstract words were:

1. Protect

2. Tight

3. Monochrome

4. Safe

5. Calm

6. Heat

7. New York

8. Structured

9. Rushing

10. Sharp

We were then required to find images that resembled our 10 abstract words. The mistake I made was printing my images representing my abstract words from Google. I now realise that I should not have done this as there are limited images on Google and little information behind the images. However, I did print them on acetate and photographic paper which got positive feedback from my colleagues and tutors. Additionally, I was also late for the next workshop whilst printing my images. I was very angry at myself for being late and felt a wave of panic as I had failed the first task. The people that were late had to create a collage of their face using relevant images. I gave 110% to this task as I felt I had to make up for failing the last one.

I was very pleased with the collage of my face as I decided to try and think outside the box so I produced the magnified image on a wall. I worked from an A3 image photo of my own face and referred to it when working on my facial features. This took me a very long time as I had to be accurate with the shading and the shape of the face. For this I used black and white photocopied images from books and magazines from the library. I have learnt from my earlier mistake when I found the images on Google. Although this took longer, I was able to really research and look through lots of images to find the ones that really did represent my ten abstract words. This enabled my finished collage to be much more distinctive and unique.

From these tasks, I have learnt how important research is. I have also learnt many useful ways there are to attain such research. For example, we started off with the mind map of our ten special objects and then branched off again into the reasons behind these objects and the feelings we felt which enabled us to attain the abstract words. I really enjoyed how we then used these words to create a concept board and a collage composition which resemble our inner selves so personally. I will definitely use the concept of the mind-maps again in my future research.I should improve my current methods of planning by beginning my work straight away and not leaving it until later. This will improve my future work as I will be able to think more about the detail.

Tate Modern - Tuesday 3rd September 2013

Transformed Visions - New Images of Man

The Transformed Visions Collection Display at the Tate Modern examines how artists expressed the human figure after the catastrophes of world war. The exhibition also conveys diverse interpretations of violence and grief. It successfully shows how artists such as Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon and Henry Moore created advanced works using expressive abstraction.

I was particularly interested in Room 2: New Images of Man, curated by Matthew Gale. I was immediately intrigued as to the reasoning behind such abstract compositions.

Gothic Landscape, 1961 by Lee Krasner (1908-1884) is a dramatic oil painting and a perfect example of expressed abstraction. It was created in response to the death of Krasner's husband Jackson Pollock. The aggressive and blunt brushstrokes resemble Krasner's feelings of grief. Whilst at the exhibition I made a sketch of this composition. I observed the dark, heavy lines that dominated the painting. These wide brushstrokes can be seen as 'trees, with thick knotted roots at their base'. I feel that they symbolise Krasner's feelings of pain and desperation at that time.

Additionally, I was also fascinated by the linear approach of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva's, The Corridor, 1950. Vieira da Silva was a key figure within the field of expressive abstraction in post-war Paris. However her work always retained a strong basis of reference to the visible world. Many of her paintings depict labyrinthine interior spaces, with complex or multiple lines of perspective. The elaborate mosaic and tiled surfaces recall the domestic architecture of her native Portugal.

Observing these conceptual compositions has inspired my work as I intend to experiment with deliberate abstraction in response to my environment.

Bibliography

Books

Plaque, July 2012, Courtesy of Tate Modern Gallery

Websites

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/vieira-da-silva-the-corridor-n06189