Summer Feedback

Today we had a group feedback session on our summer work.

I felt that this has helped me a lot as the girls I was put with were really helpful yet critical and we all gave each other plenty of ideas to work from.

My main points from the crit were that I need to experiment with more media and take more risks. I knew this already but I am glad that it was pointed out because hopefully it will make me push my boundaries that little bit more. I also need to become more loose with my drawings, I tend to be too neat and detailed in everything I do because otherwise I feel like I haven't tried hard enough. However when I look at other people's work which I find amazing they sometimes say it took two minutes and was really easy. For me that's the biggest point I need to improve on.

Other than that I was complimented on my use of colour and my use of mirroring. They said that my theme throughout was strong and although I experimented with different things they were all connected somehow, through watercolour etc. 

I am going to continue with the work I have been doing already but head in the direction of Urban Influences. I really need to do some primary research to work from as this was also something I neglected over summer. 

Summer Inspirations | Part 2

The brief for this summer was to document things such as what you did and where you went, however my summer was rather normal and uninspiring. If I wasn’t at work I was out with my friends, I wish I could have done more activities revolved around Textiles but I just never had the time. I would have loved to go on an inspiring trip abroad however I went to Sunny Beach Bulgaria, and to be brutally honest culture and design was the last thing on my mind. Because of this I chose to focus on my weak points, such as knowledge of various artists and designers. I also wanted to look into pattern and colour because this is a huge part of print design which is the area I intend to specialise in. I feel I have used this summer to successfully broaden my knowledge and pathways and focus in on where I may want to go with my work.

Mary Katrantzou

I found Mary Katrantzou on Pinterest by happy accident and I’m really glad I did. She is a Greek fashion designer and her prints couldn’t be more suited to my interests and the direction I want to go in. They automatically caught my eye and not just the one, after researching her further there isn’t a design of hers I don’t love and wouldn’t wear myself – her SS11 collection is my favourite to date. She even collaborated with Topshop which is really wearable for the general public. Her use of colour fascinates me and I am infatuated with the way she creates prints using different components. She makes use of landscapes and buildings in some of her designs which I have never really been fond of myself but I have begun to see in a changed way. I am much more open and interested in looking at architecture and landscapes now I have seen how it can be changed. I will definitely be using Mary Katrantzou as inspiration many times in the future as I have fallen in love with her work.

I took inspiration from Mary Katrantzou and her SS11 collection by trying the mirror images trend. Over the summer I fell in love with ‘futuristic fashion’ prints, mirrored patterns and repeated images. I have seen this trend all through summer this year, and have purchased clothing myself that follows it. I didn’t have access to Photoshop at home and couldn’t do as much digital work as I would have liked to, however I found an app called ‘Mirrorgram’ which I played on a lot! I managed to come up with some pretty interesting designs using it. My favourites came from edited screenshots of my ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ for ALS. Although I feel I didn’t document my summer properly I’ve realised I have included some aspects of it, even just through trends I have followed and copied.

Summer Inspirations | Part 1

Agnes Cecile & Cate Parr

Over the summer I really got into watercolour painting. I built up a collection of images I liked over summer and many seemed to include a water colour element. I really like the way colours can be blended together using watercolours, and that they can give the effect of water movement on the page. My two favourite artists that I came across are Agnes Cecile and Cate Parr.

Cate Parr is an amazing artist, she creates portraits of people using watercolours but completely changes the colour palette. Instead of the conventional colours in reality she uses colourful pastels that compliment eachother perfectly. She uses a lot of pinks and purples which I am surprised I love so much as I usually am put off by overuse of these colours, however the shades she uses are really appealing. The way she puts the colour on the page is really natural and hand drawn, there is a lack of detail in some of her work but that is what makes the piece so effective, like her painting of Kate Moss. Her messy technique is what appeals to me as sometimes I feel too neat and want to branch out a little more.

Agnes Cecile also uses watercolour in an inspiring way. She is similar to Cate Parr in the sense that she doesn’t use conventional colours, however she is more detailed particularly when she paints facial features. I love her use of dripping paint in conjunction with her images and I think her style of painting is fascinating. During my summer work I tried to take inspiration from both of these watercolour artists in my painting of Beyonce. I chose Beyonce because at the time she was in the news over her marriage with Jay-Z and also because of her involvement in the VMAs. She also has amazing facial structure which I thought would be interesting to paint.

My watercolour painting inspired by Agnes Cecile and Cate Parr

Burberry AW14 collection

Continuing on the topic of watercolours, I researched into designers that use watercolour prints in their collection as fashion is the direction I think I want to go in, so I am trying to build up knowledge of different fashion designers. This is when I came across Burberry’s AW14 collection. I absolutely love the watercolour effect of the print used on their scarves and coats. There is a clear hand-painted feel that is very rough but planned and the colour use is remarkable because it contains so many colours yet looks so chosen and put together. I really love the layered structure of the collection, which lead me to look into collaging and composition in my project.