Intentions Unit

I have carried on looking for different artists for inspiration.  The book Watercolour and Pencil Drawings by Cezanne, 1973.



Figure 1: Heads after various Old Masters, 1876-9.

I have started taken an interest in drawing people, after reading the book. People watching around Manchester has had an impact upon this work.

  

Figure 2: Sketchbook drawing.



 

I find it intresting watching people and drawing them, for everyone is different, but to be able to docment their mood, and personilaty onto paper. I find that intresting and challenging.  Movements of people are an interesting observation, but make it difficult to draw also finding people by chance has an impact upon this work.

Figure 3: Transferring onto fabric.

In comparison to a building it is difficult to draw movement. There is an issue with time as people may leave. I have tried to work from my drawing and transferring it on to fabric with machine stitch. With machine stitch I had to treat the drawing as a continually line drawing.  

The size of fabric has an impact on detail. I find it helpful to continually draw the same thing over and over. For I believe practice makes perfect, so I did the same with drawing and embroidery.

Figure 4: Sketchbook drawing.

 

It is the same person, in a different position showing movement. I find it useful to draw the person first and the surroundings second. As I retained focus on the figure, the drawing took a closer perspective , although I didn’t physically move closer.

 

Figure 5: Transferring onto fabric.

Once again, I have free stitched this piece with a sewing machine, but I found myself copying my own work and getting stressed for the fabric drawing does not look the same as my sketchbook drawing, I need to understand that I am not trying to copy but to create something new, an improvement, that is what I am trying to achieve.  Colour for this purpose would be distracting so in order to know my material properties I am able to recreate my sketchbook atmosphere.

 

 

 

My hand stamp.

During the process of this unit, I have found that I need to be constantly being inspired, for I am a snacker, constantly fed up with my own work, thinking it is not good enough and asking what else I can do. 

I have been asking myself where am I in this project, where and what is my hand stamp?

Well, I have come to realize that my strength is in embroidery, and with embroidery when I combine everything (different machine stitch and handstitch) that’s my handstamp.   

Figure 1, Personal image. Overlapping with embroidery and drawings.

I have introduced flowers within the theme ‘fairground’. The reason for this was that I enjoy drawing natural objects, and I was making the connection between the fairground rides and flower structures, with my way of working, my strength is using found objects, therefore I have started to use found fabrics as the ground.

 I think I have finally come to realized that I have a good eye when combining things together – collaging. Therefore, this led to layering.

Figure 2, personal image, machine stitch and drawing.

I have been to a lecture by an illustrator talking about her ways of working and not being able to draw photographic drawings.

The talk was very inspiring, because I was frustrated at myself of not being able to draw on to fabric, meaning that I did a really good drawing in my sketchbook, then I wanted to transfer this onto fabric by using a sewing machine to draw, and yet it didn’t come out as what I had in mind.

However, I came to realize that less is more, by using a few lines to suggest what it is, it turned out actually better than drawing every little detail in. I realize I can work with line drawings, which I never thought was possible before.

I enjoy using line drawing to draw, because I think it really gives my work my touch. So I have been experimenting  with the idea of collaging and overlapping with drawings and embroidery. See figure 1 and 2, of my collaging.

I like the feeling of busy within my work, because I think it gives a lively feeling, for I am a lively person, and my work should reflect my personality  - colourful and fun.

Figure 3, personal image. My working area.

I have come to love my working space, because it does really help me with my working process for I come in the studio, look at my wall, and straight away, yes, I know what I need to do next.

Embroidery

I have started to use line drawings as my template for embroidery and overlapping my drawings with tracing paper to get an interesting composition. See figure 1.

 



Figure 1: personal image, line drawing, overlapping with tracing paper.

 

 

Figure 2: personal image, using sewing machine to draw. The front and the back of the fabric.

I have started to use the sewing machine as a tool to draw, but I find it difficult to get the details, for example, the hands and toes.

 

Figure 3: Personal image, second attempt at drawing with machine stitch.

I am much preferring the result in figure 3 than in my first attempt, see figure 2. With more colours involved within my work, this gives a different mood to it, I think colours are the key to my next stage of development.   

Motif Designs

It was difficult for me to select six final motif designs to put onto acetate, because I wanted to put everything that I have ever drawn onto screen. However, I have to be selective. Therefore, I thought of continuing to use Pigeon diagrams as my theme.

I linked my research sources by using The Secret Code by Priya Hemenway (2008) to adopt golden rules to apply to my drawings and as an overlapping idea. Also, for my pigeon drawings I have used Complete British Birds by Paul Sterry (2008). 

I have used artist research to help me understand positive and negative space, particularly Mark Hearld, who is  a printer artist. His works show exactly where the positive and negative space is. 

 

For example, in the picture above there is too much positive space, after seeing Mark Hearld’s work and adopting the way he see things, I have a fuller understanding of where my drawings need to have more ‘blocks’.

 

After using line drawings as a guideline, I filled in the spaces by ‘colouring’ and that’s where the colours would be transferred to the fabric.

This is the final arrangement for screen printing.