Commissioned Card Design

This year I was approached and asked to design a birthday card commissioned by a local who knew of my background in design. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this and now want to potentially pursue a career in card design but through this process it also opened up my eyes to wallpaper design. 

Sampling

Illustration

UNIT X - Evaluation

Unit X has always been an enjoyable yet challenging experience in my first and second year and this has continued through to my third year. Starting embroidery this year was a risk but I am certain that I made the right decision and I feel I have finally discovered who I am as a graduate designer and I am ready to go into a textile career and develop my knowledge and skills further.

Having started this unit with my focuses on the homeless situation as I did in the practice unit, my aim was to introduce a lot more colour. This was always an insecurity of mine, as I like working in monochrome so when I started I was determined to introduce any colour, in any media and as quickly as I could. Starting with coloured pencils, I found doing quick drawings really helped me so I then moved onto felt tips and then wet media. I almost instantly found out Brusho made the images I was creating come to life and have more character than other medias.

Throughout this unit I have done primary and secondary research, I have emailed charities to volunteer at food banks events. I have looked into how the big issue helps the homeless and what people are doing around Manchester and the UK to make sure we are on our way to eliminating this problem in our society. Another eye opener for me was when I went round with a group of friends handing out sandwiches and water to people sleeping on the streets, it made me realise the horrendous position they are in every day and night.

My aim for my work was to bring to people’s attention the severity of the issue, generally subconsciously people tend to forget that it’s happening and is still extremely relevant. By taking this route I hope people view my work and do their bit to help even if it is buying someone some food or some water or just talking to them.

I am extremely proud of how far I have come in this unit, I have tried new machines and gained new skills the whole way through. I like how my work has developed throughout and even though it is a deep subject I feel I have made samples and work that I can go to interviews with and show my skills and knowledge. Having said this, I have found this unit a challenge and I do feel organisation is imperative to excel and at times I have but there is still some room for improvement. My favourite aspect over all was bringing character and depth to my samples using the ethos, tufter and various other machines.

Week Two

This week I want to engage and develop my work into wet media for instance watercolours, inks and brusho. A strength in my work is the fluidity of the lines and the marks that I make so I want to focus on this and I feel that wed media will enhance this even more.

Below are the images of this process which I feel are really successful and want to carry on working in this way. The grid paper I have used in the second image gives the piece more character and more depth, which is something that I feel is missing from my work.

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Brusho

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Brusho

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Ink

 

Unit X - Week One

This week after a brief chat with my tutor we decided the best option for me in unit x was to carry on with my last project based on homelessness in the city. This week I am going to focus on drawing with colour and using coloured pencils, paints, felt tips etc. 

The images below are three of the drawings I have done this week, as discussed I have used felt tips and coloured pencils to introduce colour. 

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Fine Line Felt Tip

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Coloured Pencils

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Thick Felt Tip

Evaluation

I feel I have continued to challenge myself throughout this unit although I have been ill, I feel starting embroidery this year was a massive risk. I have not fulfilled my skills in this unit however I do see development in my work considering it was a new area for me. My Photoshop skills have improved, improving my digital prints, which I would like to focus more on in the next unit.

The first unit went relatively smoothly, I kept drawing and got inducted on new machines therefore starting sampling and experimenting with the skills I had gained. As drawing is definitely one of my strengths I thoroughly enjoyed focusing most of my time on that, from my initial rough drawings to final paintings have really improved even in the weeks of the practice unit where I have managed to go to workshops and take advice off advance painters and drawers to again improve my skills in this area. Using colour is certainly not something that comes naturally to me, but having such a monochrome portfolio me and my tutor felt I should experiment, although it failed it did give me the chance to realise I want to engage with colour a lot more in unit x.

Deciding on a live brief was hard for me as I wanted to relate it to the subject I was passionate about but also create something for a company or individual. The denim jacket brief was perfect for what I want to achieve and I am happy with the outcome. However, it has flagged up some issues with my practice, if I was going to start this brief again I would definitely take advice off technicians in the art school if they had the time and I would make more samples for the embroidered image on the back. I do like the idea of taking out pieces and replacing them but I would also in future like to print my own fabrics or make my own lace and replace them with that rather than bought lace.

For the last four weeks I really wanted and tried to bring out my skills and talent in painting and drawing which meant a lot of the things I did were extremely time consuming therefore not producing as much work as previous weeks. Even though this is a negative on this project I also believe the paintings I produced, two of which I have chosen to be my final ones, were very strong and were worth that time taken on them. This aside I have certainly grown with my painting and really let go with it proving to be successful.

This unit has been a roller-coaster for me I have had many ups and some downs, I am extremely proud of how far I have come and that I have managed to not only finish this unit, but finish it with work I am proud of and mistakes that I will most certainly learn from. As my health has deteriorated this year I have been in and out of university but really trying to make the most out of a bad situation and not letting it come between getting my degree. Even though it is extremely hard, I feel I have been able to achieve a good level and standard of work to the best of my ability at this time. As I am starting to get better I am ready to start unit x and get myself completely stuck into it, take myself out of my comfort zone and produce original work for the degree show.