Unit X - Evaluation

I have reinterpreted a Folktale The Deer without a Heart, focusing on the character of the Brainless Deer to represent a more biologically accurate narrative.  Taking a modern day secular method to retell this fable through stitch enhances both a message of animal rights and also moves the narrative of animals from the remit of children’s stories into more of an adult and academic audience, and offers tactility, delicacy and impact.

 

My first project (Bradford Textiles Society Design Brief) was related to the cruelty of foxhunting and the urbanisation of their habitats, by developing this further I am able to create more narrative and figurative responses to story-telling and allows my strengths to ben known.

 

I use my work to communicate with my audience. I have created a range of fabric samples for different purpose, interior designs, illustration as story-telling and motifs for fashion use.

I have looked at a number of artists and designers including Karen Nicol and Brian Wildsmith for inspiration.

 

Figure 1: Karen Nicol, Fox in the Fall, 2014

Artist based research helps me understand where my work fits.  I somewhere between the busy composition of Wildsmith and the texture and detail of Nicol’s work.

 

Figure 2: Brian Wildsmith

I have studied animal movement, focused on lions, nature documentaries and Simon king photographer as a reference. I developed a number of characters and imagined their own histories and personalities to help give depth to the samples and stitch work that I create.

 

Throughout this project my major challenges were both composition and use of materials. I have successfully managed to use these to help my final pieces and I have found the appropriate materials for a final professional piece.  I am working in duck cotton as a base fabric and also a range of found materials. 

 

I challenged my scale of work in terms of embroidery and have adjusted sizing to not lose detail.  I have also successfully managed to reproduce similar results to my sketchbook work.   Using my sketchbook every day throughout the project has been a major achievement as it helps me with the quality of the output I produce. My sketchbook work shown the range of composition, scales and realism.

 

The final output is a body of sketchbook and sample to draw together both story telling in the traditional sense, but also as a frame my samples and characters. I managed to successfully complete the project within the timescale and also was able to refine several aspects by redoing them on new fabric to make them more professional. After this body of work was completed I continued working alongside International Fashion students to contextualize my employability options and work context for my target audience and how best to market to these groups.

 

 

Unit X - The Brainless Deer

After my tutorial, I have decided to expand on my characters’ background. Such as at drama class, where I was given a role to play and I have to use my imagination to shape the personality of the character.

 Figure 1: Sketchbook drawing

I have set myself a target of filling as much as I can with sketchbook drawings, then I plan to select and create them into samples later on.

In figure 1, I watched wild life of lion pride as my researching reference. Where when a male lion grow up it travels to find another pride and take over it as its own.   There is a feeling of power and isolation.   The lion is forced to leave his own pride. This is one of the reasons why in my work the lion is represented as close to death as he searches for his new pride to rule over. 

Figure 2: Sketchbook drawing

As in background I drew a group of lion pride watching the lion go.  The male lion here represents the head of the pride surrounded by lionesses.  The bushes allow the story to be placed in a number of different locations.   

Figure 3: Sketchbook drawing

I added in the fox at the corner of the page as a hint of its arrival later on in the story.

Figure 4: Sketchbook drawing

This representation of two lions fighting was a useful tool to be able to see how lions' bodies move and how they move, creep hunt. This will allow a sense of realism in the design and this will benefit the planning of the final piece. 

Figure 5: Sketchbook drawing

I plan to draw a series of different types of deer and study the muscle mass of the deer’s body in order to improve my drawing skills.

I found deer are magnificent, especially the male with large horns.  I want this to give an overwhelming feeling for the viewer.  I am designing a unique deer, based upon many different deer to make this piece more original. 

Unit X - The Brainless Deer; Artist Research

Figure 1: The Circus by Brian Wildsmith, 1930 

I am looking at Brian Wildsmith’s work for inspiration composition of use of colours.

For he is a painter and children ‘s book illustrator, which as my current project are narrative, story – telling, therefore, I think looking at his way of illustration would help me to illustrate the story.  This is the type of career I am considering, and this work is similar in style to what I create. I like the childlike drawing style- it creates a connection to the children as his main audience.  I want the audience to make connections with the animals in my work.

Brian Wildsmith

I am looking at the use of colours and the composition on overall in this painting.  The way the animals sit on the page inspire me.  This drawing style is very detailed.  The composition and scale of the image help the sense of the story.

By looking at this work, there is a potential for a great amount of reader imagination that is facilitated by the depth of visual images.  I plan to illustrate my story in a way that is similar to this, but in thread. 

Figure 3: Sketchbook Drawing

Before developing needlework, I have drawn the deer first then added the lion.

Figure 4: Sketchbook drawing

I then cut out the deer and re drew the lion.  I have developed composition and scale through the drawings. Focusing on spacing between the characters and using Wildsmith as an example.