ACA assignment2

Assignment 2 - Review

My learning log for Assignment 2 is at http://www.explorationsintextiles.com/assignment2 — there are links to the exercises on this page. You can also access the pages via the menus — see Textiles1 - Assignment 2.
Assignment 2 — Review
I enjoyed this assignment and most of the exercises, though I though there was some repetition in the exercises and some of the instructions were a bit ambiguous and unclear. I liked exploring colour and seeing how the colours were created and combined, and being able to reproduce and match colours to other images and objects. I also enjoyed learning more about watercolour painting and how to use watercolour to layer colours to blend them and create new colours. It was good to try many other techniques also and to be encouraged to use different media in some of the exercises to see how they can change the way the image looks, and the feel of the image.

A2: Proj5 - stage 3 - printing and painting on fabric

see also previous exercise, printing and painting experiments for other printing and painting work that I did.

painting and printing onto silk:

painting and printing onto calico:

I concentrated mostly on mono printing using the gelli plate for the printing tests on other fabrics. not all of them worked out, which was to be expected, since not all the fabrics were suitable for printing. the cotton based fabrics worked best. the shiny, slippery fabrics didn't work very well - they didn't hold the paint. I left some of the original fabric showing, so I could see what the original fabric was.

a variety of different types of fabric:

A2: Proj4 Stage 3 "Selecting from drawings" and Stage 4 "Developing design ideas"

I combined these two exercises and found new images and drew my versions of them for design ideas.

 
review
did you manage to make space move?
I'm not sure. in some of the drawings I think it did, but in others, it didn't really — some of them are too "flat"

what are your thoughts about the drawings you did in stage 1?
I can see how the eye's attention and focus is drawn around the page by the placement of the black squares on the page. and the use of single versus multiple squares. it highlights the idea of using whitespace, and how to draw focus for the objects.

A2: Proj5 - stage 4 - a larger sample

I created a "single unit" piece based on a motif. the background is mono printed by hand, and there's an image of a stylized face hand drawn using fabric sharpie pens over the top of the background. the image is based on an image by Jim Avignon.

I combined a tribal motif border around the image of the face. I was influenced by a photo of a tribal patterned top that I found on the internet when searching for "tribal patterns". also I was influenced by Hundertvasser with the colours chosen, and brightness of the colours. I'd seen "Hundertwasser's toilets" in Kawa Kawa not far from Auckland, earlier this year, and enjoyed seeing his use of bright colours, and wonky, stylized lines. I'd tried some of his style of work in my sketchbook, and had been using some of the patterns in the final piece in exercises throughout this assignment, so it was a matter of combining them altogether.

A2: Proj4 - stage 2 - experimenting with techniques

Note: this section is not numbered as a separate Project, but it had Stages 1-2, so I've called it Proj4z on my blog to keep the posts ordering in order.

in this exercise, I experimented with lots of printing techniques.

blotted line printing
I like this sort of printing as it is a style that Andy Warhol used during his early commercial art career. he used to print multiple versions of his drawings for clients and colour them in different colours to show them. this helped him to get more work, as he had multiple options for his clients.

it's fairly slow work. you draw an image, then draw it onto tracing paper. then tape the tracing paper adjacent to where you want the print to appear. fold it over so you're working on the underside of the tracing paper. then apply ink to the drawing on the tracing paper. and then fold it back onto the page, and it prints the lines. it also leaves "blotted lines" ie lines made up of small dots and ink blobs. you should only ink a small section at a time as the ink dries quickly so you can only "print" a small section at a time.

A2: Proj4 Stage 2 - exercise 4

for this exercise, I drew my ink bottle in various materials

A2: Proj4 Stage 2 - exercise 3

I selected the circular image for this exercise and painted it using watercolours, drew it with watercolour pencils, and use pastels, and made a collage of it.

a drawing showing all aspects of the marked off area used together

once again I liked the 'ghost print' on the page underneath

A2: Proj4 Stage 2 - exercise 1

Drawings showing different aspects of the marked off area of some images — surface textures, colours, the main shapes. Using a variety of marks and materials and techniques.

original images:

my work on the exercises. I used different materials to try capture the textures, colours and shapes of the original images.

A2: Proj4 Stage 2 - Looking for shapes and drawing

drawing shapes from different shaped masked images.

original images:

I found some images of cells and drew sections of these.
I also liked the "ghost imprint" on the page underneath so I've included these here.

A2: Project4 Stage 1 - Introduction and preparation

"making space move" in order to develop your eye for design — arrange black squares on a framed page
peaceful vs creating tension

When I was in my early 20s I used to read many books about Andy Warhol. One is "Warhol" by David Bourdon. I picked it up again today and started reading / flipping through it again. I love Warhol's early commercial work — he developed a technique called "blottled line" printing. so, wanting to know more about it, I searched the net and found the following links:

Blotted Line — Learn Warhol's Commercial Illustration Technique from The Andy Warhol Museum website. they had a video too — I won't embed it as it's a private video, but it's useful to see how the technique is done. I also found a class instruction sheet for blotted line drawing.

Assignment 2: Stage 6 Combining textures and colour effects - exercise 1

from the class notes:

"Choose a background fabric – white, black or a primary colour. Choose threads – perhaps primary colours of equal intensity. If possible find the same colour in different yarns or ribbons – matt, shiny and textured. Try working them together, mixing them and separating them. Make the knots very dense so that the background is not visible. Then work further apart so the background has its own effect on the colours. Add a third colour (different from the background or yarn), maybe a secondary colour."

Assignment 2: Stage 6 Combining textures and colour effects - exercise 2

This time we had to use pastel colours and "[m]ix the colours so that a gradual colour movement occurs across the sample".

I don't really like pastel colours much, but I was happy with the final piece / sample.

the photo shows both exercises:

 
review
were you able to mix and match colours accurately?
yes, I think I was able to colour match the original colours after mixing the paints. I enjoyed the colour mixing and colour exploration exercises. it was great to see how the combinations of colours created other colours, and the variations you can create by changing the quantities of the source colours.

A2: Stage 5 Coloured stitches

create stitch samples similar to using some of these suggestions for this exercise:

• build up solid masses of one colour against the second colour
• change the proportions of colour
• isolate one colour against a mass of the second colour
• alternate the colours in varying proportions
• vary the distance between lines so that the background plays a part in making the colours appear to change.

Assignment 2: Stage 4 Colour moods and themes - exercise 2

make a colour bag of fabric and paper based on colours and tones that I like.

Look for:

• close tones within any one colour
• complementary and contrasting colours
• saturated and un- or desaturated ranges of colour.