Changing to Textiles/Fashion

I have now changed to textiles/fashion as I was unhappy in 3D Design. Our brief for this specialism is "tubes." As I started after everyone else I have been playing catch up and as a result I havent done some of the work others have such as the collages. However in my sketchbook I have caught up on the experimental observational drawings and have developed my ideas and thoughts about where I want to take the brief. My ideas at the moment are to do with telescope and magnify glasses and this makes me think of old sea explorers of the 15th and 16th century and the fashions they wore and the lifestyles they had. I have purchased an old looking pocket watch and a small wooden chest that I can imagine on the captain's desk on a ship where he keeps his mapping instruments.

This is just some of the work created in my first full week in my new specialism. The top and bottom photographs are work from the beginning of last week, in which we had to create three panels influenced from observational drawing. I created these before I had chance to purchased some objects of my own so my resources were quite limited. Other objects that I have drawn from were some microscope lenses I have borrowed from a teacher.I had to give these back so they are not on the photograph.

The other three photographs are of a structural day project we did. We were given some washing up scrubbers and had to experiment with developing different ways of creating structures. I dont like working this way unless it is with proper fabrics and I have to creatre a garment instead of just a structure shape.

Specialising in 3D Design

I have specialised in 3D Design however I am very unsure as to whether I belong here. I am interested in costume and theatre design and the project we were given this week has not inspired me at all. To design a seating area for an outside space in college. I didn't enjoy it and didn't find it very creative. The seating area had to be inspired by natural forms, here are a few photographs of work that I created in the 3D week inspired by natural forms.

3D Design Week

In our final week of the exploratory stage we have been doing 3D Design, I have decided to choose this topic as my specialist area as I think it will be beneficial to my career path in theatre design. At the beginning of the week we were given a introduction into design and the processes that design involve. We were also given a list of designers and assigned home study to research one designer from the sheet, two that were from the Bauhaus school of arta nd design and two not on the sheet from our own preferance. We also did some one point and two point perspective drawing in the afternoon which was enjoyable as I could do it quite well as I had already had experience in this from my theatre design A level.

The second day of 3D Design we were given a mechanical object to draw from. Firstly in graphite stick and secondly in black ink. I found the graphite hard to work with as I was being too careful and precious with the work, trying to creatre a realistic drawing of the object. I found using the ink very effective and enjoyable and think that my work was a lot better using this media. In the afternoon we then had to create interesting shapes, inspired by our sketches and the objects we were sketching, out of paper. I found this very difficult and therefore did not create much work as I found paper hard to handle and manipulate. I hope this is because I do not have any experience within 3D Design.

On the final day of 3D Design we were put into groups and asked to create an object that was inspired by the sketches and models we had made previously in the week. It also had to represent something that could be functional in some way. Our team found this quite difficult, I think this because we were focusing too heavily on the fact that it had to be a functional object. We were thinking of function before form which was not really the idea. However we saw what we were doing wrong and tried to mend it by starting from another shape and expanding on this. As we had spent a lot of time experimenting with one idea, this meant that we did not have enough time left to create the final outcome. However I think that the processes we tried have been an interesting experience and I have learnt from them. We put in a lot of effort to the project as a team and thought of and tried some ambitious ideas.

3D Designers Research Assignment

 

This furniture design is by Fred Baier. I really like his work and these pieces especially because of the twist in the tradition. I find the fact that in this case he designs in a futuristic way but still has aspects of tradition which can be seen in the photo. The newer looking shelves are combined and attached to what we associate with a "normal" bookcase. I also find his use of shape really interesting, he uses a mixture of original shapes and more creative shapes and these are put together to create a very interesting combination of shapes that he has made into a table. I also like the fact that he uses a mixture of 3D shapes and thinner, flatter 3D shapes within the table, this shows his mathematical influences. In some ways I thought that this would not work but surprisingly they compliment each other very well. I think the reason they work so well together is because of his effective use of colour. Even though he uses bold colours, they are not too bright, which means that it is easier for the colours to compliment each other. This application of colour I also find interesting as he creates many of his works out of stained wood in many colours.

 

 Marianne Brandt was a German designer who studied at the Bauhaus art and design school. I particularly like her work as it appears very futuristic even though it was designed in the 1920s. However it does reflect the styles at this time as there was a lot of simplistic design around, for example within clothes, as the style was a very straight forward up and down simple figure. The decoration is also simple as there is very little. The decoration is within the design of the object as opposed to applied to the actual surface of the object which I find interesting.

 

This is a piece of artwork by the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo who was also a teacher at the Bauhaus school of art and design. I like his work as it appears as though no matter what era his work was created in, it would have fit into any time period. I particularly find his sculptors of figure very effective as it is create from flat pieces and put together in a way that suggest and implies the figure rather than making it appear very realistic. This means that the viewer of the piece has to look closer and think more about what they are looking at as opposed to it being on face value.

 

This is piece of artwork by my favourite sculptor Anish Kapoor. I have been influenced by this work in the past and continue to be captivated by his work. Recently I have found his Olympic orbit tower interesting and stunning, however I have not met one person yet who said they like it apart from me. I have not been fortunate enough to see his work in person however from photos and videos his artwork appears to be very vast. I love this sense it creates and makes the feeling for me, of uncertainty about where his sculptures could take you, I find this very captivating.

 

This is set model by one of my favourite theatre designers, Philip Witcomb. He designs both set and costume and I am highly influenced and inspired by him. This photo is of a set model for a production of The Tempest. I have been lucky enough to see some of his work with my own eyes as I went to see a production of Wind in the Willows that he designed for that came to Derby Live. I was instantly captivated by his work as it is was unlike any other sets I had previously seen. This Tempest set in the photo above is very interesting to me as it appears as though it could be packed up into a truck and become a sort of pop up theatre. This means packing up the set and costumes onto a truck and travelling round the country. It appears as though it could fold out and be done outside to reflect the story more as The Tempest is set on an island. Here is a photo of the final creation:

Life Drawing 05/11/12

In our first half of this weeks life drawing I experimented with using the i pad to draw on. I found this very daunting and was not really sure how it would work and if it would be a bit uncontrollable. However after a tutorial and a few mess ups, I began to create some okay work on the i pad. The end products were a lot better than I was expecting. Firstly I was trying to draw a solid black outline of the figure and then fill in however I think my other pieces of artwork are a lot more effective as these are done with different colours using a scribbly and free looking technique to blend and mix the skin tones together and then work back into the figure with more detail which I would have done more of if I'd had more time. I found it quite hard to work quickly using this technique as it was very different to anything I had done before with regards to drawing.

The second part of the life drawing day I worked in graphite stick to create my images of the figure. I thought that this technique would be quite difficult as it is a chunky media to work with. However I found that as the media was thick, one had to draw in a different style. This meant it was less about fine detail and more about getting the tones and markings in the correct place. I was a bit worried about the surface on which I was drawing on, because it was very uneven in places, however I discovered that from a distance the marks created appear very effective and add character to the pieces of artwork.

Fashion Week

I have really enjoyed the fashion week last week, as well as really enjoying the textiles week previously. However the fashion week was very mixed up as the college had other priorities for us to attend such as university talks and lectures from people in the art and design field as well as past students. This was good but very unfortunate as this cut a lot of time out of our fashion week, in fact we did not get a full day on fashion. Even though we had less time than other groups we still managed to get most of the work done apart from we had less time to draw what we created at the end, as other groups had a full day to draw whereas we had a couple of hours.

At the start of the week we picked a paper pattern piece and cut into it so that it would bend and twist into different shapes. We then were asked to draw around them and create interesting shapes and then enlarged them on the photocopier. We then cut these out and placed them on the dummy and created shapes that worked together to create wearable art type creations.

Contemporary Fashion Designers

These photos are two designs by the fashion brand Miu Miu. I really like the use of shape within these pieces of clothing as it creates a full skirt however does not look angular ans awkward, the edges are still rounded which makes the garment appear more feminine. I really like the colours used too as I think these are very effective as they had a large impact on me when decided which garments to write about, I really like the use of black and red. The black dress I also find very captivating and intriguing as it is made up of two layers, a tight fitting skirt that is just visible overlapped with a volumous lace skirt over the top. I imagine these items to link in well with the work we are doing this week as we are creating our garment shapes out of paper so that they hold their shape well which is what is happening in these two designs.

These are two outfit designs from the Osman Spring/Summer 2013 Collection, and I am focusing on talking about the tops in these outfits. Firstly the use of block, bold colour is instantly captivating in these designs and makes a high impact as if to say "Look at me. I am here." Secondly I really like the angular shapes used to create the garments, somehow they are folding and shaped in a way that is flattering to the body without hugging the figure, I find this very effective and useful when looking at my own work this week. The fullness that they create in the upper body also gives me the impression of power, so I imagine that women will feel good wearing them to feel empowered in a mans world, especially within the workplace as many job environments are still associated with men being in charge.