Photo Shop - Digital Print Design, Week Three - Fashion & Textiles.

This week consisted of working with photoshop. In a way I was dreading this as I have never used photoshop before, so did struggle quite a bit. However the outcome and things I learned with pattern layering and using cloning tools to manipulate a pattern onto a garment I found extremely interesting and had a huge range of different ways of changing the pattern we all created. For example changing the opacity and the highlights of colours ect. I based my pattern around my Image I picked from my mood board, which was a pastel coloured egg shells. Many steps i learnt and should hopefully be using them in some of my work through out this year or possibly next year when it comes to digital design. 

Second week of Fashion & Textiles.

My fashion Shoot.

Part of a set project following the theme of styling. We were told to produce and create our own photo shoot based around our own identities, coming up with a mood board for each section of - Location, Style, Hair & Theme. This was brilliant, as we could decide on colour and how we wanted to portray ourselves through creating a collection of images based on out selfs. My shoot embodied the theme sports wear, basing around Adidas as that is a key element to myself, I always seem to have an attraction to vintage sportswear always incorporating it with my everyday wear. I also find myself drawn towards pastel coloured garments especially baby pinks, and candy floss shades. I also tried to manipulate this as representing even though i am quite sporty, sheerness and sophistication I find most appealing to. I thought i would use myself to model as it was representing me as a person, not that I have modelled before I did actually find it enjoyable and the pictures came out successfully. Luckily I had a happy mistake of the pictures coming out quite distressed looking as the ink had run out slightly on black, even so I thought it worked well. Here are the images of my photo shoot below.

Knitting

This was a great experience, as it is something i have never done before and was keen to try it out. At first it looked extremely technical as the actual machine had loads of different components and parts that had to be put in place before you could begin. Once i got the hang of it I found it very relaxing and easy to do, however i did from time to time make a couple of errors, and had to re fix my machine learning and remembering If I had threaded my yarn correctly ect. We made a couple of samples using some techniques like Lace, Honey comb which you can see with the video I have put up by our teacher. I really enjoyed this task, as it was a relaxing and handy technique which could make a garment or design more interesting by adding knit. Unfortunately I didn't get to make as many samples as i wanted to, as we had such a big group, so i shared my machine. It was interesting however working with a partner as we both helped each other If we made mistakes. The samples I produced where quite textured and not symmetrical or followed a carry on pattern, In a way this was good as my teacher said It showed uniqueness and a range of texture. 

Fashion&Textiles - Styling and Photography.

Our first day of Styling and Photography, I was keen to get started on this as I  have always been very ambitious when it comes to mixing and matching clothes. Im always considering what i think looks good and what people suit ect, i can't seem to help it. Doing this was a treat, we were asked to bring in some old clothes of ares that we didn't mind styling students in for a photoshoot.  We were also asked to bring in a collection of Photo Booth photos of ourselves emitting our personalities in different ways. This was a fun challenge as i tried to capture the humorous side of me and the charismatic side of me. I also did a eccentric posed side as everyday life seems to be about what looks good, and how people present themselves to looking good, i.e over Facebook, Instagram, twitter this was asked to be done as part of our projects outside of Ravensbourne is to produce our own photo shoot evoking ourselves for example clothes that represent us and the location and colour we choose has characterise us in some way. 

Firstly we were sent out to discover locations we thought fit for our photo shoot, being surrounded by the o2 arena and building sites we had a very good opportunity in finding some good places to use as a location photo shoot. This was a great task engaging with other students and taking in other peoples opinions on what they thought would be good, or what they didn't think would be good i.e just shooting it on some grass with an old lamp post on the side, would be boring. Most of us found some interesting places and took some snaps, below our some of my pictures i had taken and edited as if i was going to use them for a location fit for my shoot, depending on the concept.

After doing this, we were told to get into pairs and style one another having only five minutes each using the clothes we had brought in. This was quite a challenge as we had such little time to come up with an outfit. However saying this, it worked really successfully once we all started everybody got into the flow of things and went extreme with the way we used the clothes to fit each of us. This was a very exciting task and i let loose, not caring about what look hot, or pretty, but what look the most extravagant and adventurous I thoroughly enjoyed this task. After this we put ourselves into groups of four and went round the building finding spaces to shoot each other in, we mixed and matched clothes and styled our colleagues, yet again i really enjoyed this task, especially the editing of the photos and styling.

This was a new experience and exciting project overall. 

Our next task was to produce five mood boards for our own photo shoot styling project on our identities. This had to include Location, Hair, Makeup, Stlye & poses to show mood/ attitude swell as props.

Design & Media - Summary Review.

Overall the art foundation exploratory stage has been brilliant. At first knowing I was going to take the Fashion and Textiles foundation pathway, my courage to change that pathway and take Design & Media was in fact a great choice made. My skills have branched further by being able to experiment with a wide range of creative pathways, for example like 3d design which I have never done before. Aswell as Graphics, graphics opened up my illustrative skills as well as thinking about applying colour in different ways for suited clients and their particular needs. 

The course also enabled me to express my creative skills in different ways, like building Bridges with only two points on the floor and only thirty bamboo sticks.Or designing a garment using tissue paper, string and tin foil, however basic my materials were it made me interact and connect with others in my group forming tight friendships.

 My sketch book really reflects all of my practical work and how every page is unique embracing all different textures and techniques presented through out. I put my all into each subjects( even if i didn't find it the most exciting activity)I knew by working hard it would broaden my skills further had i of just put my all in to one particular pathway. With 3d design I built a paper pop up bridge in my sketch book on top of that i did a few continuous line drawings of my own created bridges, which turned out successfully. In addition to this, I can fully agree that taking the art foundation challenged me and made me tackle creative situations I have never done,but also made me more determined to do well and challenge myself even further.

I am extremely excited to take the Fashion and Textiles pathway, coming in with other skills brought in from doing Design & Media. I am ready to work hard and gain a fantastic outcome at the end of the art foundation at the end of it.

Graphics - My Final Exploratory stage.

Graphics being my last exploratory stage opened up my creative skills when referencing to illustration. It challenged my drawing skills, aswell as my perception of colour, layout, format and presentation. Our first experiment was to do a selection of pen or pencil drawings of the person sitting opposite,next to or diagonal from us using a different medieum for each sketch when capturing their face. One way was to use the opposite hand I usually write with, so I used my right hand to draw with this was a challange as i am not use to using my right hand in creating art peices or for example my friends face. Another way was doing continuous line drawings, using our mouths, and also keeping our eyes off the page and fully on them, which was quite an intense challenge. I did enjoy this as it was entertaining and intresting looking back at my pieces of work I had produced using these different mediums. I had some abstract, quirky pieces which I admired, however some of my pieces where not in proportion to the face. On the other hand it could also be looked at as a  succesful experiment as I let myself loose. 

Some of the other tasks Andy gave us was to create a poster of ourselves in the future ( I made it 2027) as if we were holding our own art exhibition. I quite enjoyed this as i choose to do a fashion art exhibition, saying " what is being GAWJUS" i designed my own model that dominates most of the poster and have a colour code. i learnt that i could do things better, for example the colour coding not leaving a white postered back ground and making my typo more visible for the audience to see.

I brought in ten celebrity pictures and cut them up into setions of eyes head, noses, hair, lips, ect and create another face out of all the celebrities i had printed off. This task again was quite an odd task, but i did like it as everyones work was so different and quite strange with all these unique faces. I decided to use pen on top of mine to make the faces merge more into each other giving it an illustrated effect.

Creating Numbers and Words.

This involved me producing numerous numbers and letters all having a different font, and stlye. I used loads of different stlyes for examply flowers, zig zags, cross hatching, Thin coloured felt tips, and Fat felt tips. This was another successful experiment as yet again everyone in my groups work was completly different some people used 3dimensional shapes, while others used more simplistec shapes. Here are some of my letters and numbers I created below. It taught us how companys searched for people who could create words and letters for their advertisment for logos and presenting their products.

Overall graphics was great fun, and really helped me broaden my experimental skills when creating my own styles of fonts, and presenting my own Posters. I especially enjoyed the poster making as it got us involved using colours, and illustration which is one of my strongest artistic skills when being able to sketch figures quickly from scratch.

3D Design.

Our new topic was 3d design, an insight to something i have never experienced, and found quite a challenge. One of the first tasks we did challenged our imagination aswell as our design skills in constructing somthing from a completely different object of thing. For example ,choosing our favourite fruit and drawing it, but then changing that fruit into a hamsters cage. I found this exciting and quite an adventurous task, as it widened my creative thought process. Our next task was to construct a piece which would be able to hold up three plastic balls as hight as we could, using only a glue gun and spaghetti. This was another task i enjoyed, as it presented some beautiful minimalistic pieces, which were quite abstract. They could be looked at as new designs for lamp shades, or sculptures which could be put in a modernised home as decoration. Everyones work turned out to be quite different either being extremely flamboyant, or very simplistic have only a few spaghetti sticks holding the three balls. One thing i could have improved with was the structure designing it in a different way which would improve the look, As well as hold the balls up higher in a different way.

Our other project, proved to show how impatient i was with trying to make it work, This task was one of the least favourite tasks i enjoyed. I could not grasp how to make something which would hold my body weight up with three pieces of card board and masking tape. In the end me and my friend Masie, decided to combine our two pieces together to make a solid shape which I could sit on having my  legs in the air  with no part of my body touching the ground. This proved to work, for about five seconds most, catching a quick snap, the picture below show the structure of the shape and the size in contrast to my body, One thing i think i could have done to improve this piece was to plan it more out and think deeper into how i could construct it to maintain my body weight with only few resources.

Designing Paper Fold Out Bridges In our Sketch Books.

This was quite a fun task as we were getting involved in sticking a cutting up strips, or curves, or random shapes which we then had to manipulate into a design for a bridge. I decided to cut strips into my sketch book on a double spread out A4 pages, which then overlapped each other conjoining them together. This task branched my skills as it made me think of Design and how it should look wether it appealing to public or simple making it up as i went along. Also i had to think about how it would work as a structure all sought of things i would have to think about if i actually brought my design out to produce a proper bridge from it.

Constructing The Bridge. - Bamboo and Cardboard.

This and the spaghetti piece I enjoyed the most, this task engaged in working together in groups giving opinions and encouraging each other on how we could build this bridge. We had to plan and think about how we could  hold i together for a plastic electrical car to be drove over it. We all, as a group found this to be challenging but looked at it as a positive way in working together, I especially enjoyed constructing the bamboo and making a very unusual shape from it. The most disappointing aspect of the design we did was layering the cardboard on top, it completely wiped out the designed structure of the bamboo, and left it looking quite dull and boring.

ICT -  Photo Shop Experiment. Using me and a Different Background.

Practised merging ourselves into a background of where we want to be in 10 years time, I decided to choose a train track, being quite abstract in thinking where ever my life goes it'll keep moving forward towards new destinations.

Tate Modern Review - Tracy Emin 'Hate and power Can be a terrible thing 2004.'

When I walked into this room I was automatically drawn towards this particular piece. Presenting a warm attraction to it, possibly this being  to do with the colour pallet consisting of warm pastel pinks, and egg shell blues, and flowers trickled across the england flag, enhancing a sense of security and home. Tracey Emins work emits gender division and political themes throughout the piece. Emin used an old pink wool blanket cut in two and intersected with a cotton extension in the same shade of pink, as the basis for a landscape of text.

 The work holds a lot of pattern and confusion of jumbled text which is very different to the appearance as I described earlier, as to how the text portrays an aggression of some sought to maybe the subconsciousness of how the artist Tracey was feeling about a particular subject - " It also seems to be about women that Tracey Emin feels are guilty of aggressive acts you'd normally associate with men." (Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

12:01AM BST 08 Sep 2004).

 When I saw and read the piece It almost reminded me of a 1950s domestic wife's kitchen cloth, suggesting their oppression during the war, giving off a Imposed Impression of themselves in the way she or feels others (women) live their lives, but deep down there Is an aggression and anxiety inside of them. The art piece is almost an OxyMoron - 'Pretty Ugly'. This is one of the reasons why I found the art work Interesting as the concept behind It had a double meaning, the piece itself was a contradiction as It was using a very feminine textile but at the same time was conveying a political view.

Exhibition Review: Tate Modern. 23/09/13

Bibliography: By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

12:01AM BST 08 Sep 2004, The Telegraph.

Fashion & Textiles - Third Week.

This week students focussed on a new topic which was Fashion and Textiles. We first explorded the techniques behind sample making where we were told to  create five miniture sculpture samples which could represent structure, texture, design, ect. The samples could be different and unique from each other, or a development of the first sample which may been based on structure by expanding and exploring it, aswell making it more striking.A slideshow was presented to us of a fashion student who is now studing at Westiminster, for some of his samples he based it on G-Ametric shapes which where quite symetrical and were also continuous multiples. We were given glue, scissors, brown,white and a few coloured sheets of paper to come up with five different samples. My samples turned out to be quite detailed and delicate, as I have always been intrested in accurate detail, more than simplistic objects or simplistic patterns.I also added some colour and created a variety of unusual shapes.These are my four sample pictures below.Overall  i enjoyed this sample experimentation as it let me be much more expressive with my imagination and my idea devlopment putting togther pieces I had created. Physical partaking made it fun, sticking and cutting up bits, litrally going crazy by using our imagination to make a creative piece.

A task which got all of the students hands on, and working togther in groups firstly broaderned our communication skills aswell getting to know different people and studying their work they had produced. We all picked one of the four objects we had created and expanded it by ten times the shape it originally was. After picking the second shape in to the left, everyone was put into groups and brought along their xtra large object plus multiples of the object, we all had the task of creating a garment out of our objects on the maninkins, of a particular word shouted out. For example, Sexy, Romantic, Gothic, Sad, Expressive ect. Using other peoples made parts continuously rotating. I thurerly enjoyed this task because it got my working hands on, aswell as really using my imagination to create a piece fitted to the word expressed. Heres a few pictures of the garments created by me and my group partner.

Experimentaion with design

Our second day consisted of designing, this involved us picking fashion silhouette out of magazines and using their figures to create a 3dimensional design on top. This was great fun, as i went quite abstract with my designs, making it quirky for instance using gold tissue paper and cutting aload of triangles to stick up from the garment. It did however look quite flat and had no shadow to it giving it more depth which would of improved it. Here are a few of my deisgns i did.

 
Designing a piece.

Our second task was also another fun experiment which made us get creatively involved. We photocopied ten images of a particular section of the body from a model ( I picked the head) and had to design on top of it. I went for cutting and sticking, giving it a three dimensional aspect, this was succesful as it gave it more texture. We then had to choose one of the designs and illistrate it, and make it on our last day of Tashion and Textiles. I decided to do th one which was edgy and which challenged me, but could also be acheived with little resources. I used Tin foil, Brown Baking paper, Green tring, and gold tissue paper for creating my Flamboyant Hat. It was so extravagant it looked like it be in a carnival festival.

 

This is the Deisgn I used for when I made the head piece.