Project 6 Stage 2

Developing ideas

I've chosen a selection including photographs to work with this time.  I've spent a long time playing with the images and looking at my fabrics and there are often clear links between the images and the collages.

1.

The first image is of the roof of the Corn Exchange in Leeds.  I loved the roof because of the multitude of shapes it made and the intricacy of the apparently simple structure.  I've played with it on the computer using Paint.net and found some interesting effects and combinations.

The top picture shows the roof as seen.

The other images are manipulations on the computer.  The lower image shows the top of the roof placed back to back.   

Here there is another computer manipulation called Twist.  On the near picture I've flipped the image to create a shape that has a central focus.

All the variations offer a different perspective but there's nothing that sets my pulse racing.  Knowing that I need to simplify things a bit I selected just a part of the roof and came up with this - nothing much to recommend it I thought.

Then I moved things round and found this more pleasing.  Although the lines are still the main focus the diagonal movement lends much more interest.  It's quite out of focus (which I like). It seems a real contradiction to the sharp original picture.  As the image has been enlarged and enlarged colours have emerged.  Something to do with pixels I'm told.

  

I like the way the shapes are dependent on each other (just like the elements of the roof) and offer a certain harmony as triangle feeds into triangle.  It reminds me of the puzzle where you have to count the triangles.  Essentially the roof is painted all the same colour but the shadows created make the shapes really stand out. I am thinking of railway tracks and drain covers.  I can see this has possibilities.

One of the things I liked about my first photo was that it was light and airy  There were no windows in the roof, in fact it was very solid, but there seemed a lightness of touch.  I wanted to capture that in fabric and explore the colours that emerged on the enlargement.

To do this I played for ages with layers and got some surprising results.  Eventually I settled on some bits of gold organza and pink net scattered on grey card........

.........covered with an unknown bonded fabric in silver......

It amazed me how much colour came through the bonded fabric; it gave me just what I wanted - hints of colour.

I tried to evoke the diamond roof pattern with the silver motifs and the beams in silver ribbon.  I think they have given the lightness I was aiming for.

2.

I often take photos in my garden and this one is of the bark of a cherry tree (prunus serrula).  The tree has something to offer that is beautiful throughout the year and last August the bark started to peel uncovering this wonderful gold underneath.  Before I pursue this I'll go and look at what's happening to it right now.

When I look at this I see something very flashy; it glitters and gleams whichever surface you look at.
I isolated the top part of the image and stacked two together.

Then I turned them round to make a horizontal image.  I'm left with lustrous, tactile stripes that shriek ribbons and shiny bits.  It reminds me of a Picasso painting I used in the colour section of the course.

Sketchbook no 66, p21
Picasso 

The colour bag I made

This doesn't figure in my collage work but I might use it in the next exercise


3.
I took pictures at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park last year and had the notion that I'd like to put the folds in the clothing on Henry Moore's Draped Seated Figure back into textile form.

Draped seated figure
Henry Moore

Torso detail

I admire the way the stone really does look like fabric; the folds carved in relief create sometimes deep shadows that define the movement of the material.  Because in has been in situ for some time it is weathered and there are lichens growing on the stone; it is very tactile.  This photo shows a variety of colours that on a casual glance wouldn't be so evident.  The shapes of the folds almost follow the same line but not quite and I think this creates interest.

Without being able to stitch it would be hard to recreate the folds so I'm going to take another idea and weave using the fold lines as my cutting lines.  I'm using hessian because it seems fitting and I've painted it in some bright lichen colours.

Painted like lichen

A try with paper first I think.  I printed the photo twice, cut them identically then wove them together.  I was delighted with the result.

A dummy run with paper

I used my painted hessian and an unpainted one.  My reasoning was that when the sculpture was new it would have been without lichen and when I saw it it wasn't.  It was hard to prevent the hessian fraying.

My weaving

This is completely underwhelming; not at all what I'd hoped for.  I like the paper trial much better there's more contrast, life and texture.


4.
This is another garden photo; this time it's epimedium grandiflora which I grow for it's leaves.  They are especially colourful in winter. The leaves are heart shaped and from the base there is a lovely network of lime green veins.  In this photo the shadows give a good impression of the depth of the plant;  I once found a hedgehog hiding in the shadows.  On some of the leaves the pink predominates and on others it is the green.

I selected a part in the top right hand corner because the pink and green are quite equally balanced.

 I played about on the computer first and got this lovely image....

and  I enlarged it considerably until it was quite blurred.  I then drew around the pink shapes.  What I've ended up with looks a bit like a street map of a badly planned town with the spaces between the blocks being roads and vital to the smooth running of the whole.

I thought this drawing looked nothing like a leaf until I glimpsed it from an angle; what a surprise -

The central area is clearly visible and the "ribs" show as well.

I have isolated just a small part to develop a leaf shaped collage.  I have tried to keep the "rib" central

There is a system to the shapes and I think of continental drift as they float apart.  I transferred the shapes to some loosely woven linen and cut them out.  I realised too late that I should have applied Bondaweb, it would have been much easier to cut.

I eventually put on Bondaweb and put some painted silk at the back.  I tried plain materials but it didn't work.  The various colours in the silk give just the effect I wanted.  The colours were determined by the silk I had already painted. Because the materials I have used are thin it looks lovely backlit so I mounted it on lime green translucent plastic and gave it a stalk of sari silk.

The end result bears some resemblance to the epimedium in my picture but the colours and texture are changed and it has become more abstract.

5.

This is a print on paper that I made in an earlier exercise and I find it very satisfying.  The colours are exciting and there's a busyness to it because it has a lot of dynamic shapes.  It is a picture developed from autumn leaves so there is a feel of ending about it as well.  The dark shapes around the edge have a black hole quality; who knows what lurks there.  I'm interested in whether the mood changes if I present something in fabrics.

I used some batik as a background (the colours have not photographed well) and I isolated the smudgy shapes and cut them out of various fabrics.  I punched holes and put different fabric behind the holes.  What was smudgy in the original  took centre stage and I hadn't intended that.

This hasn't worked as I had hoped and I think it's because I chose the wrong focus.  I shouldn't have selected what was a subdued background and made it more prominent than in the original design.

No black holes here.

6.

Although I can't say I'm a great fan of crimplene I liked the texture of this example. The motif is loosely a floral, a repetitive pattern and in just two shades of sea green.  It makes me think of looking over the edge of a cliff down into a rippling sea - at Sennen Cove in Cornwall to be exact about it.  I think the darker shapes are deeper water, the day is warm and there's little breeze to disturb the waters surface.  I don't want to do anything else with the image; just try to capture the feeling of the remembered day.

I'm so pleased with this.  I particularly wanted to keep the colours sea like.  I introduced blue at one point and it was so wrong.  I've used large cell bubble wrap and filled some of the bubbles with various fibres; angelina, wool, organza strips etc.  The colours are harmonious as are the little beads.  I introduced some novelty wool wrapped into round shapes and that gives some additional froth. I mounted the bubble wrap on layered organza and that in turn went onto silver card.

It has been a real treat to have all my fabrics out and have time to experiment with what works with what.  It has surprised me that I'm  getting to know what to look for and what will work.  Although I
Still make mistakes I'm starting to recognise what's wrong.




I still often make mistakes they are getting less.