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.

Textiles Week

I have really really enjoyed the textiles week. At the start of the week I was a bit wary as we were spent quite a while doing drawing techniques that we had already done in illustration so was surprised to be being taught these again. However after a while I discovered that we were just using these techniques as a basis for the rest of the work and only did a few sketches in our sketch books that we had done previously. After this we then created several backgrounds to work on for later in the week. These were made out of envelopes and pieces of scrap coloured paper, then we applied emulsion paint in some areas of the backgrounds to break up the piece. After this we produced the same drawing techniques but in different medias such as pastels and inks, this created good colour composition. When we had created several pieces of artwork this way, we then focused on mono printing. I found this very enjoyable and created a really nice effect. First you had to roll out ink onto a metal slab with a roller, then place a piece of paper over the top of it and finally draw and make marks onto the paper, this then transfers onto the other side of the paper to create the print. Our influence of drawing came from the images, shapes, forms and colours from the previous artwork we had created earlier in the week. Finally on the last day of textiles we were assigned to create two panels of artwork influenced from our work from the beginning of the week and our mono printing work. This could have been certain shapes or colours. I decided to base my final pieces on the grey and silver mono prints I created as a base for the colours of the piece and I took the shapes and patterns from pieces within the other artworks I had done such as the pentagon shape. As I have a textiles background I wanted to use fabrics and stitching on my pieces and so included these quite a lot. My work is very subdued and does not stand out as much as everyone elses in my class however I think that is just the way that I work. I like the work a create to be neat and presented well with everything in its place. However doing this assignment I feel that it has helped me to combine both my ability to make organised work but as well create something that looks free and loose. I have really really enjoyed the textiles week and it was a shame that we did not have longer to do some of the activities due to other talks in college.

Life Drawing 18/10/2012

This week in life drawing we were experimenting with the use of colours as opposed to pencil or charcoal. Out of all the life drawing sessions I have found this one to be the hardest. This is because I found trying to find the colours within the figure hard to see as we were not using skin tones, it was mostly the use of yellow, orange, red, green and blue. Also getting the colours to correspond to the tonal effects was hard too. For the first few drawings I was very wary of using too much colour and only used two colours, a dark brown and a brownish orange. However on reflection with everyone elses work, most people had just gone full steam ahead with it which appeared really good however I found really hard to do even by the end of the day.

 

I found it extremely hard to loosen up at all in this session, however after lunch we began using ink with the colour medias we used previously in the day, these being coloured chalks and oil pastels. I found that the use of ink really helped me to be a bit more free with the materials and loosen up a bit more, although I did not let go as much as I would have liked. Therefore in my opinion I think that the drawing created with the use of inks incorporated into the artwork worked a lot better. This is because it helped me to see the really dark areas of the figure as well has having a loose feeling media to use to create the outlines of the figure.

Work Influenced by Thorsten Brinkmann

This is the work that we created Friday afternoon and is influenced from the work of Thorsten Brinkmann. Some of his photographs include people and himself however they are completely covered, no part of their skin is showing. We were split up into pairs and then had to dress each other up, however this could not just be a silly mess around dress up session. We had to look at all the props and material available to us and come up with a theme for our costume. The top three photographs are of me, my partner Shannon decided that I should appear to be a religious figure. Therefore we picked some gold material as we agreed that this looked spiritual and holy. She also made me hold a book so as to appear like the Bible, as well as being in a kneeling pose that gives the impression of prayer. The bottom four photographs are of my partner Shannon. I decided that she should appear as someone who has great power and knowledge. Therefore I wrapped her in a toga with a shash drapped over her, while holding a book and a globe to give the impression of power and knowledge. The bottom two images are a few examples of Thorsten Brinkmann's photography work.

Drawing With Light and Review of the Week

 

 

 

 

On Friday morning we were taught how to draw with light. To start off we split into two teams, the first team (my team) stood in a line in the positions we were told to stand in by Andy. The second team used their torches to draw around us, while Andy held the shutter on the camera open to let all the light into it. When this had been done there was a continuous line around where we were stood. After we had done all these photos we then uploaded them to the computer and began to enhance some of them. I only had time to do the first photo and I increased the vibrancy and saturation on Photoshop. This was very effective as it made the colours more intense. These two photos can be seen at the top of this post.

After this we were then told to scribble in the air with our torches behind the figure we were drawing. However I misheard this and was scribbling in the air around the figure I was drawing so I did mine wrong. However the ones that did it right came out very effectively. This images can be seen in the fourth and fifth picture down on this post.

Then we were split into pairs and one person was stood under a red stoplight while the other was stood in front of the camera. The person in front of the camera had to draw the person under the spotlight while they posed. The results were clear that it was a human but did not look very realistic as can be seen in the sixth and seventh photo down in this post. Next we did the same thing but then split up into our teams again and stood in a line while they stood in a line under the spotlight. We decided to draw around the person we were in line with as this would be the least complicated way of doing it, these photos are the eighth and ninth pictures in this post.

For our final photos we repeated the same process. However after one pose we got the other team to pose differently and then we were able to draw over the top of that. This created some very interesting images to say the least. Overall this week has been very enjoyable and I have had a lot of fun, however have still been accomplishing a lot of good work in the process which makes it even better.

 

Taking Photos in Chesterfield