Bradford Textiles Society Design Brief

Figure 1: Hand-stitch: I observed the movement of the fur and used the appropriate techniques to reflect my brush strokes from my sketch work. By using the Irish Embroidery Machine, I built up textures and by additional hand stitches I was able to use different shade of oranges.

Having different background fabric really changed the view of my sample. Ivory colour is different from the white in my sketchbook and produced a warmer tone. The fabric itself has a floral texture that mimics plant life and gives a sense of wilderness to the fox.

Figure 2: Sketchbook Drawing

Figure 3: Sketchbook Drawing

In order to incorporate an environmentalist view, I used found flyers, but, the result was not as expected. I had to paint it over with white acrylic. Which made oily texture brush strokes slide. A benefit of this was that it added movement into the work and the colour the was bolder than I had expected. In the future, I would improve upon these drawings by using different materials, instead of acrylic paint I would use gouache paint as it is thicker. I would develop the many different shades of orange in more details and I would also experiment with the scale of the drawing. To work larger than this A5 piece, the larger scale would allow me to draw more details more easily and work more freely with life drawing scales.

Bradford Textiles Society Design Brief

Figure 1: Influenced by the film Mr. Fantastic Fox and looking at the illustrated work by Donald Chaffin

Figure 2: Influenced by the film Mr. Fantastic Fox and looking at the illustrated work by Donald Chaffin

Photoshop allowed me to experiment and select the pictures different elements out of the design as a whole. I also wished to highlight that hounds are also treated cruelly I developed a circular and cyclical design that suits both my composition and issue. To demonstrate the bonds between the traditional pairing of a fox and the hound, I used examples from Roald Dahl’s work, to add narrative to this bond. Experimenting with composition, It gives me the opportunity to recreate this narrative in a more modern context in light of environmental knowledge and technological advancements . There is deliberately no distinctive location for the fox, which makes the issue more globalized and repeatable. This location-less narrative facilitated the idea of putting an urban background within my design. The destabilization of habitats is forcing the fox to become an urban animal.

I much prefer figure one. It is more colourful the drawings of the trees reflect well onto the urban buildings. However, I will reuse the drawings from figure two by approaching different methods than digital print. The strengths are my drawings and space. The critique from peers about this work was its commerciality and its obvious nature. The design has too much of a busy background for embroidery development and therefore I would need to develop the fox’s features more.

Bradford Textiles Society Design Brief

This project is based upon on WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Who use artist work to create a sense of dark humor to emphasise the need for protecting animals and their habitats. .

Figure 1 Sketchbook Drawing inspired by James Jean’s imaginative drawing style

Figure 2: Sketchbook Drawing Experimenting with different drawing materials, such as pastels

Figure 3.Sketchbook drawing: location changes

I specialised on the issue of fox hunting Fox Hunt and played with perspective to represent the fox’s point of view. The development from chaotic landscape to a more minimal style reflects the cruelty of a hunting and the impact upon habitat and wildlife balance. The empty background entices in the audience and the faces of the foxes are the main feature of the drawing adding a dimension of narrative and empathy for the animals. The vibrant orange and the colour in the center enhances focus of the picture. My fingerprints are visible at the top of the sketch, which personalised both the drawing, but also represents my personal relationship towards the issue of foxhunting.

Portfolio Development Day – Careers in the Arts

On the 2/11/2015, I delivered a talk discussing my textiles portfolio to a group of FE Students at The Whitworth. Within these talks I was the only textiles artist, the majority of speakers were in graphic design. And so I bought along with sketchbook, samples and my online portfolio which were distinctive.

I firstly talked about I came from Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College completed double award in Art & Design, yet still unsure of which art department I belong to.

So I have took a Foundation Year at Stockport College and how I was introduce to Textiles.

I shared my thought of completed a year in foundation has helped me to be independent on my own development and independent on my own textiles journey.

Figure 1: Discussing my textiles portfolio to a group of Students at Whitworth

Secondly, I covered the Course Content on Textiles in Practice in 3 years; Year one would be thinking outside of the box and learn about transforming different contents into Textiles.

For example, I did a project on Drawings and Films. Based on the title, I would never imagine film making could link onto to Textiles.

In Year two: specialising different pathways. In Textiles there are embroidery, print, knit, weave and mixed media.

Also collaboration project on working with different course students. Learning their ways of working.

Onto Final year, would be understanding where I put myself as an artist.

Towards the end, I had questions from the FE students asking me about careers.

Questions such as: Have I thought about finding textiles related jobs.

My answer to that was: I have applied and done placement in textiles related industry, I worked in a family company called QPrint, however, the expectation and the actual experience was different. The experience had made me rethink about which market of textiles I want to go into.

Also, I was in no rush of looking into textiles related jobs, for in the past I have always had unrelated textiles jobs, most recently, I was working with Home Fundraising as a door to door fundraiser.

After the talk, there were individual discussions with students who were interested in textiles and fashion. I advised that they should look at the information about learning and course content to understand the differences.  Also I advised they speak to their tutors for advice about the natural link within their work.

I was asked; which artist inspires me. ‘Tilleke Schwarz’ uses textiles as a hobby rather than her career and experiments with scale and timing. This offered me fresh insight into what can be achieved away from the demands of a client.

The experience has helped me to develop myself as a character.