PE TASK 2.

This year has been fun and I have enjoyed it very much. It has been hard work but that is one of the reasons I have enjoyed it so much. My fellow students and tutors have been great and very friendly. It is so good to be a part of a course with many creative and talented students and also very inspiring tutors. 

The  first option I chose was Textile design for Fashion, I was drawn to this because of the variety of things you could do with it. It also includes all of the disciplines such as print, knit and weave, but combining them with fashion. I enjoy drawing, illustration and garment making so this was a great option for me. I learnt a lot in this unit, especially key skills in photoshop and illustrator both of which I hadn’t used before. My illustrative drawing skills really improved and I was able to enhance this with the digital skills I also learnt.

I was a bit disappointed with the grade I got for this Unit but I completely understood why I got it. I didn’t do enough research and drawing to begin with , so when it came to designing my collection I was limited. I also didn’t concentrate on my colour palette and this was evident in the final prints which let my collection down as it didn’t work as well together as it should have.

TD4F Illustrations

Colour Palette

The second option I chose was print, I chose this because I have always loved print and I usually stick to what I know. I have done screen printing before so I wanted to work and build on the skills I already had. I found the workshops we had to be very interesting and helpful, the handouts were also a good idea as I could constantly refer back to them. I enjoyed being in the print room often and I feel like I threw myself into this unit fully and I think my work represented this. After my feedback from the first unit I decided to concentrate on the basis of the project which was drawing. I drew a lot of motifs so when it came to designing I had a lot of option and I could experiment with different ideas. To achieve a great collection of prints I knew I had to concentrate on my colour palette, I chose quite a busy, vibrant palette and I tried to include all of the colours in most of my prints so they looked like a collection. I chose a large colour palette so I didn’t get bored and this made my prints look very busy and interesting. After working on this Unit I know realise how important a successful colour palette is and I have kept this in mind when working on Unit X.

Print Motifs

Final Prints

Original Drawing

Unit X was a very different experience for me, but it was very interesting to work with students from different courses. It was very challenging as it was completely different to how I’ve worked before. I liked the freedom we were given and it was good to get feedback and support from my group rather than tutors. I felt like our exhibition was a great success and there was a vast amount of varied work. Overall this year has been great and I have developed many skills, drawing and digital print have been key to my work. I think I am going to use and enhance these further next year in Textile Design for fashion as fashion has always been something I have been interested in.

Unit X Exhibition

My work at Kraak Gallery

Unit X Evaluation.

Unit X has been a very different experience for me. I have never worked collaboratively with a group of people before. It was very tough to begin with as it was difficult trying to combine all of our different ideas and coming up with a final
theme we could agree on. Working with students from Film & Media also proved challenging as they aren't an art based course so the collaboration could only go so far and final outcomes were limited. I also found it challenging to create a lot of work as our group weren't meeting up due to people in the group not turning up. It took us a while to fully understand what the tutors wanted from us in unit X, I felt the direction was very vague and there were a lot of constant mixed messages going on. But after talking to Hannah and Mary I realised you could either work individually or as a group. My group decided as we were all very different we would come up with a common theme and starting point but from then we would work individually on our own projects. I very much enjoyed being in a different creative space but I did miss the feel of working in the art school studio. I enjoyed the freedom of the unit and not having to create work to fit in with course criteria. I have also enjoyed the blogging aspect of the course, it is very different from developing and using a sketchbook as a diary and I feel I have improved massively at blogging.

Exhibition Day!

So today was the day! After setting up yesterday I was really excited for everyone to see the work we had all created. I had to go into the Kraak Gallery early this morning as I'd been told my original way of hanging wasn't working within the space, so it had to be changed. A lot of others work had also been moved so the room worked better as a whole. We decided to remove my frames from the wall and arrange them on the floor collaboratively with two other students. The colours of all our prints worked better and they also complimented each other. The exhibition had a good buzz all day and people were very positive about the work on show. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of exhibiting my work in a gallery. It has been very exciting to work collaboratively and display my work amongst other design students in such a creative space!

My work

Mex's £1.75 items

Mex work

Exhibition Set up.

Today I was setting up my exhibition in the Kraak Gallery. Mex had a corner space. There wasn't much wall space so I couldn't display my work as I originally planned but I worked around the problem. It was the first time I had seen the space and everyone else's work. Every groups work was unique and creative and there was a wide variety of work, but it looked really good!
I visited one of unit x's festival exhibitions which was downstairs in incognito. Two groups from perform were displaying their work in the two rooms. The work was very good and worked well in the space! I have enjoyed seeing everyone's work and I think it is good that we have had the opportunity to display our work to the public.

My Work

Mex Work

Incognito Perform Exhibition

Exhibition Preperation.

Today I printed out all my final illustrations out in a range of A3, A4 and A5 sizes. It took longer than expected so I didn't manage to create my little booklets. I am happy with what I've produced though, it was hard work and time consuming but I think that shows and it has all payed off.
I also went into town today to get white frames. I firstly went to Class Olson in the Arndale, I managed to get 4 A4 frames and 4 A5 frames. There weren't any A3 frames so I decided to have a look in Wilkinsons. They also didn't have any normal A3 frames apart from a decorative one which I instantly liked. I decided to buy one of those as I thought it would be a good centrepiece for my outcome and the rest of the frames could be arranged around it!
I put the prints into the frames and then I decided to play around with the order and composition of the frames before I hung them up tomorrow. After changing around the frames and getting advice from my flatmate I decided to go with the last composition. Hopefully tomorrow will go to plan and I get the right walls space that I need!

Brian Barrat and Maija Louekari

I found these two textile designers when looking at artist research for my final prints. Brian Barrat has digitally designed these prints starting from his own detailed drawings. He has drawn and gathered images and layered and compiled them using digital and hand techniques to create something beautiful. He has a simple colour palette that works extremely well. His inspiration was British wildlife and taxidermy so his work is very similar to mine but on a more minimalistic level.

The second designer I looked at was Maija Louekari. Maija is a finnish designer who became successful very early on. She uses a lot of drawing and colour in her work. She also combines this with linear lines and geometric shapes. She uses a vibrant colour combination and expressive motifs. Maija also draws from natural and organic form using observational drawing as a basis to all of her work.

Final prints.

So after deciding on using the second palette I had created, my layered illustrations came together a lot quicker as a collection. I have been working tirelessly on photoshop, playing around with compositions, layers and colours. Some prints are a lot simpler than others using repetition and typography, working with different scales and sizes. I am extremely happy with the final prints I have created, I think this is mainly because I worked hard on drawing to begin with and I think that has payed off with creating better prints.

Kraak Gallery. Exhibition venue.

So we found out that our exhibition was going to be held in the Kraak gallery in the Northern Quarter. It is going to be on thursday the 16th May between 5-9pm. The Kraak Gallery is a great space and we are teaming up with the rest of Record and Play groups to display our work. I am super excited to exhibit my work to the public here! I created a Facebook event and have promoted it on our Mex Facebook page and my own twitter account.

Final tutorial.

So today was our final group tutorial with Artemis and Hannah , we had to tell them our final idea andwhat we were making and presenting in the exhibition! They liked my prints and suggested I create little books of my original black and white drawings  with my contact details on so people could take something away to remember my work by. I really like this idea and if I get all my prints finished in time I'm going to try and do it. We also talked about how we were going to hang our work and what we needed for the exhibition. I have decided to put my prints in a range of A3, A4 and A5 white frames. I am going to arrange them randomly on the wall, I think the white frames will look good against the colourful prints. I am going to try and finish my prints this weekend so I can print them and buy frames before wednesday when we set up.

Photoshop .

So I decided to scan my drawings into photoshop. I then started layering the animal drawings with the mechanical drawings also combining the typography. I had a large colour palette as I was experimenting with both palettes I had created. The illustration prints weren't working (see below)  as well as I originally planned and I think this was due to the wide range of colour I was using. The prints were not acting as a collection, I wanted for each one to be different but still allowing the audience to see a definite and obvious colour palette. I have now decided to go with the second palette I created as the colours work better together!

Final colour palete

Antwerp Mansion Exhibition.

My friend Sophie had her Unit X exhibition in Antwerp Mansion yesterday. I along with a few friends went, the work being displayed was done by students from interactive arts. There was a range of work on show such as painting, drawing and photography. I had never been to Antwerp before and I was pleasantly surprised, the space where the exhibition was held was great and spacious, it was different from anything else I had been to. The space complimented the work. Bands had also been put on and there was alcohol served! What more could you want? A great night and I was inspired to create better work to show for my public exhibition.