MMU Degree Show Review, 2015

Figure 1: White Tiger by Roxy Appleton

I enjoy looking into illustration as I am interested in the visualization made from drawings through a graphical representation.

The student I was interesting in was Roxy Appleton, Illustration with Animation
BA (Hons).

‘I’m always on the lookout for interesting patterns or scraps of material from fabric stores to photograph or scan in; I then use these samples to create collaged landscapes and animals in Photoshop.

After picking up a couple of basic AfterEffects processes, I taught myself how to use the program and, bit by bit, created an animation with what I learnt. I generated all the sound effects and music myself.

Following on from this project, I wanted to go back to making things rather than working on a laptop, and so I started to turn my designs into a collection of homewares - it now includes handmade, hand-printed cushions, purses and doorstops, as well as hand-printed mugs, tote bags and coasters’ Roxy Appleton.

As my summer year project, I have been basing the idea around animals, which I find Roxy Appleton’s work appealing, how she used found patterns and collaged with animals. Also I noticed her work audience are aimed at homewares and textiles.

Figure 2: Giraffe Cushion by Roxy Appleton

During my second year at MMU, I have been trying to create products for homeware, such as designing my own fabric and using my drawing, print and embroidery skills.   

The found fabric provided the inspiration for the image.  It is well blended.

I will focus upon a quality product, working towards a perfect bespoke piece that mirrors a manufactured piece.

Figure 3: My design inspired by Whitworth

In the final year, I have been trying out a new drawing style.

Digital printing into houseware is a manufacturing method that gives a clear image and is able to be mass-produced.

Using software you are able to remove elements of the artists ‘touch’ errors and uniqueness found in a drawn image.  The digitised copy resembles a print.

Figure 4: Sketchbook Drawing

I feel my way of working are similar to Roxy Appleton, such as combining two subjects together.

Urban animal contract

Metal and glass- juxtaposition inspiration: ink and watercolour :  ink for a wolf? Certain materials are easy to manipulate and brush strokes and hair marks are visually similar.  Even the tools used show urban animal contract.

Originality and creativity through making new combinations: 

Looking for new was to bring existing art forms together to create a new hybrid style that is original.

MMU Degree Show Review 2015

Figure 1: Lucy Smith – BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice

‘I am a digital print designer who works with various illustrative, photographic and digital techniques to create decorative prints, I mainly design for fashion, but I also create work for more general surface pattern outcomes. In my work I am often inspired by the past; I try to seamlessly combine traditional techniques, historic elements and modern technology to create richly illustrative prints that tell a story.

In my current work, I have been looking at the concept of collecting.

Whether it is collectors obsessed with one type of object, rare antiques or simply collections of the worthless detritus we pick up in our daily lives, I’m interested in what draws people to items and how people curate their personal collections. In a series of scarves, I have focused on curiosities and collectibles and used luxurious colours and textures to create vivid scenes which each have their own narrative.

In the future I plan to continue my practice with studio or freelance based work whist also developing my own brand of products.’ Lucy Smith.

My eyes were drawn by the way of displaying the products, as the display were cut out cardboards the scarfs brings in the 3D element.  This is an eye-catching way of presenting work that interests the audience.

I find my ways of working and sharing the same inspiration with Lucy Smith, the idea of narrative and using luxurious colours and illustrative.

Figure 2 : Lucy Smith – BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice

Even though, I never suggest my work to go into the fashion side, but after seeing the Lucy Smith’s works, it led me to think of the potential of what my works could be. 

My work in my second year of study was a lot more narrative based than my previous years of study, with a focus on storytelling and inspired by the study of traditional embroidery techniques and experimentation with specialising hand stitch, irish, cornelly and muitihead and found fabrics.

In my final year of study I want to continue to research and experiment with traditional embroidery techniques, exploring how they might be updated or used in a different way. I want to use the idea of narrative and developing a story of how I observed things through my point of view and the idea of using urban landscapes and city lifestyles as a main subject matter and fits in with my thoughts, emotional, memory of mine, I would deliver it in an illustration, drawn by threads.

I place a vast amount of emotion into my work which in turn improves the quality, durability, expressiveness, poetry, diversity and character of my work.

Figure 5: Sketchbook Drawing, Kelly Chun

Figure 3 : Lucy Smith – BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice

I can see similarities within my own work. The use of drawing skills to replace the objects enhances the illustrative skill needed within the work.  There are no brush strokes within the work, which is something I will be experimenting with in the future.

These drawings remind me of find the object games, both in composition and colours.

Figure 5: Sketchbook Drawing, Kelly Chun

During this summer holiday, I have started researching the holistic animal sacrifices.

My idea of this project is to not make beautiful art, but to paint the truth. For I am passionate about the death of animals for today’s industrial, and the questioning of who shall say human are on the top of the food chain and not just part of the circle of life.

Instead of writing an essay, I want to use my skills in textiles to express my point of view on fabrics.

In relation to exhibiting in a degree show capacity I would like to use prints, and in a similar to the way Lucy represented her work in her scarves and window dis[play, I would be able to develop an embroidery texture onto fabric to give a new sense of work to the work and display it in an eye catching way.

I will concentrate on the subject matter of the drawings that underpin my work and then make changes to the final finished fabric so that it can be used in a variety of ways.