STUDIO BAY

Photographs of my work displayed in my studio bay. A big difference from my display a couple of weeks ago! 

Within the next two months, I will aim to produce double/ triple the amount of work that I have now, of course being realistic at the same time but nothing wrong with setting goals. ;)

April and May is going to be a hectic month. 

more digital work

These are quick digital designs that I did before breaking up for the Easter holidays. It's amazing how much design you can do from a single scanned drawing. Some of these designs are photographic and were only layered on top of each other but it still resulted to designs that I would definitely consider to be a part of my final collection.

earthly/ native colours, beautiful markings, enhanced backgrounds, layering

FINAL DESIGNS

Finally started my final designs after many weeks of design development. From doing simple and basic batik on paper to doing batik samples on fabric, I have decided to do 2 metre final design on fabric. For my finals, i intend to do most fabric lengths with the technique batik. Instead of feeling anxious about the upcoming deadline and the never ending list of things to do, I feel very excited about producing many batik, digital and embroidered finals. Despite all the time I wasted procrastinating and sitting on my desk, I am finally starting to something exciting and represents my feeling about being away from home. 

Each of these took me at least 8 hours a day to finish. It has been EXHAUSTING but every time I look at the work I produced in a day, it motivates me more to keep going and produce even better work.

design development. batik on fabric

I focused on my fabric batik samples this week. I was very anxious about doing batik design on fabric because of the time and patience that it requires. However, seeing all these beautiful development samples that I produced this week, I am over the moon with the result especially with how the colours all worked together. The first sample did not turn out very good but the next few samples that I produced afterwards proved that fabric works as good as paper. This time, however, i think fabric is the best way to go for my final lengths. My developments also looked even better after being layered with organza fabrics and embellished with beads and threads.

machine and hand embroider, beading, layering of organza fabric

pigment PRINTS!

These are some samples from the printing I've done this week. I like to use pigments when printing because they are easier to mix. The only downside is that the colours are limited and pigment can sometimes become hard and thick. 

After the pigments have dried, I moved on to embroidering parts of my prints to give it detail and texture. Embroidery is not my biggest strengths but I enjoy doing it and I think I can easily get better if I continue to develop this technique.

KODA TRACE AND SCREEN PRINTING

This week, I dedicated myself to finally starting my koda trace and start printing. Considering I did not have much drawing in minor project, I am very happy with the group of images that I chose to include on my screen to be used for printing onto surfaces. 

The koda trace took the longest to do (2 days!) 

All worth it after my screen was done and ready to be used for printing! yayyy

FINALLY, A FULL BAY!!

After a loooooooonnnnnnggggg week of hard work and determination, I have finally filled my studio bay with pieces of my development work and samples. For weeks, my walls have remained bare and empty caused by my lack of perseverance and inspiration. My tutorial has definitely helped me a lot especially in changing my mindset about things and managing my anxiety about doing work regardless of the outcome.

I think my theme and concept is clearly displayed by my current development work. The colours I have used are still within my colour palette although brighter colours could have been used on some samples. My developments display not only a single technique in designing but rather a wide variety of design application techniques which I believe has improved a lot compared to the last two years of being on this course.

quick sketch and digital work

The past few days have really worn me out. I cannot remember being in the print room for that long and actually producing work. Today I have decided to take a break from using the wax and dyes and to go back to drawing. 

I started this day with a simple drawing of foliage with the use of black and white pens, pencil and ink. I do not intend to use dull dark colours in this module, however, I wanted to show a varied way of drawing with the use of the opposite colours from my colour palette. Greyscale.

I got these results after editing these sketches on Photoshop.

STUDIO BAY week 9

These are the batik samples I have been working on last week. These are also the first pieces of work that I have put up in my bay ever since the start of final major project. This week i look forward to producing more development samples and hopefully fill my bay with development work.

MORE PAPER BATIK SAMPLES

I continued making batik samples on paper today. The more I do it, the better I get with the tools and layering technique. So far, these are my favourite.

In this two developments, i tried not to completely dye the paper each time i decide to use a darker colour. I like the effect better on this because of the marks i got from the different dyes mixing together whilst wet.

The colours I have used are well on my colour palette and I feel like I have produced great samples within a days work. Despite taking a long time and requiring a lot of patience, i have enjoyed this technique and i look forward to making more development samples in the next upcoming weeks.

BATIK

Last week, I have done research on traditional ways of applying design onto paper and fabric. One technique that caught my attention was Batik. I did batik when I was in school 7 years ago. I can remember struggling to control the wax as it draws from the djanting tool but at the same time liking the effects i got from the drips of wax. 

My first samples are all done on paper. Batik on fabric is slightly harder to control and the dye tend to bleed everywhere making the process a bit slower and and trickier. Make sure the wax is very hot in order for it to penetrate the paper and properly cover the areas you want to keep.

My third sample looks more successful than the first two developments!

paper length experiments

These are paper lengths that I painted with procion and acid dyes. Unfortunately the colours look better when wet than dry. My aim for this development is to produce a number of paper lengths showing different layers of dyes, paints, prints and other techniques that can possibly add a nice texture to my work. 

I get better effects and pattern when I leave the dyes to dry overnight rather than drying it with the hair dryer. Using a good spray bottle and pipettes also give it a nice marble effect.  

After these have dried, I will work back into it by screen printing patterns and drawings to give it detail and to show the many techniques that I can apply to my development samples.

Digital design work

Having no experience in Photoshop or Illustrator before attending university and doing a design course, my digital work started as basic and lacking in detail. However, after weeks of familiarizing tools and modes, I feel I have developed skills and improved my ability in designing with the use of softwares. 

These are my designs from painted backgrounds, sketches and photo tracing. 

Photo layering and image tracing

finally starting sketchbook work after weeks of procrastinating!

This week after starting a few developments, I have decided to start putting my work together in my sketchbook. My project being about culture and nature, I ensured every page reflects my concept therefore dyeing my pages and adding texture using varied media (i.e. puff binders etc.) is a must.

Title Page

Digital work

changing my concept board AGAIN.

Today I had my tutorial with both of my tutors for this module. 5 weeks into the project, I still haven't got a clear idea about what I would like to do and what direction I would like to take in the future. 

The first thing we discussed about was my mood board lacking the important details such as my colour palette, the materials I wish to use in my sample developments and eventually in my final designs. 

This looks more like my concept now. Still many to do but is looking way better than the flat black cardboard that I've done few weeks ago.

plant nursery and winter gardens visit

Extra research. A visit to a local plant nursery and the winter gardens in Sunderland. :)

acid dyes and bleach.

WHAT TO DO?

Today I felt very unmotivated and stuck on what and how to start my developments. I visited Photoshop today to see what I could do with the photographs I took back home and discovered that I could easily create textured looking designs if I create bright dyed backgrounds to be then scanned and worked back onto editing softwares.