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.

Motifs Designs - Drawings

I have always been interested in animals, but I have started to look at them from another perspective. For example, I started looking at the dead pigeons, because this subject was overlooked and I thought of how I can transfer the image into print design.

Sketchbook Drawing - Dead Pigeon

I like to work with fine-liner pens; because it creates a sketching effect, I do not enjoy drawing with pencils, because I hate the idea that it can be corrected by rubbing it off the paper. With a pen, once the mark is made, it cannot be undone. I start off by using continuous line drawing to roughly mark down the proportion with a pencil or a graphite stick, but I never use a rubber.

One issue that I have found with the 0.5mm fine-liner pen is that the line it creates is too fine, which makes it hard or even impossible for the print to be produced. I discovered that the safest way is to use 2.0mm or a bigger number.

I then started to look into pigeons’ skeletons and be experimental with my drawings.

 

Sketchbook Drawing - Pigeon Skeletons

Also, being experimental I have used straight lines only to draw a skeleton of a pigeon.

 

I have used the feathers that I have collected to create mark making on the paper and tea stains and Indian ink to draw them. I thought of developing this kind of work by looking into mark making and combining it with found objects.

Things I might explore: I have liked Jackson Pollock’s work, because it is full of energy.  I have also started to develop an interest in working with hair. Therefore, I plan to experiment with this direction. 

Data

I had an idea to document the life of a pigeon, from an egg, to a chick, to a fully grown pigeon and to a dead pigeon, but I couldn't make a connection between this idea and data until I thought of the population of pigeons in the UK.

I managed to find a chart showing the population of pigeons from 1994-2003 . I drew a dead pigeon and then I used tracing paper and drew the population chart so that it overlapped the drawing of the pigeon.

I think the line worked well with the angle of the body, and the tracing paper gave an effect to soften the tone of the drawing.

The idea of pigeons, was from taking a walk in Withwroth park. I always seem to see a dead body of a pigeon in the park. I thought this data is something that not many people have thought about, because pigeons are all over the city and they are common. I guess no one would bother if a few of them died. I feel like I want to look at the things that other people overlooked. 

I found this quote from The World According to Karl: The Wit and Wisdom of Karl Lagerfeld, 

"I hate the idea of lumbering people with whatever's left. When it's over, it's over. I'm against memory. There comes a time when you have to pack it in. I admire the animals in the wild. When they die you don't see them again. "( Mauriès, P and Napias, J-C (2013) 158)

I also like to move forward and think memory can become baggage, but I don't want to overlook things that are meaningful in life. 

It fascinates me to think about who might be interested enough to collect data about pigeon populations. 

 

Mauriès, P and Napias, J-C (2013) (The world According to Karl) London :Thames and Hudson.