Large Blind Drawings

I wanted to have a go at some larger scale blind drawings so that I could explore the scale of the images and repeating them to make patterns. As I wanted to work on a bigger scale I thought it would be better to try using a different materials that would leave me with a thicker line. It took me a while to decide on what to use, when I came across a set of face paint crayons that I have and then had a go with them!

At first I was a bit scared of the size of paper that I was working on so started off doing a couple in materials that I felt comfortable with; pencil and coloured pencils. I liked the quality of line that the colour pencil gave but thought that the lines were too fine. I then had a go at using watercolour and biro but the watercolour was hard to use with the type of drawing as the paintbrush would run out of ink so you'd then look at the image to rejoin the brush. This is when I had a go with the face paint. I think out of all of them this is the one that gave the best results.

Large Blind Drawing on Lining Paper

(Sorry for the poor quality of image!)

I now aim to try and turn these designs into a suitable print. To start with I am just using the disperse dye printer so that I can get a better idea as to how the pieces will look if I printed them properly. With these sample prints I do I would like to start embroidering into them and see what they will look like.

Here Come The Birds!

As I said I would, I thought that it would quite good to show you a bit of my art work. My art is mainly based around birds; an obsession I now can't get away from. I briefly mentioned in my previous post that it was after seeing the work of Treacle Jack Designs that I first got interested in stamps. 

I didn't look any further into the subject but then stamps just seemed to be appearing everywhere, especially after going to this exhibition, Velvet Moths. I visited the exhibition with my Nan and she remember that she had a collection of old stamps that she was willing to give me some of. I was over the moon at the number of stamps she gave me; all from different countries and years.

A Collection of Stamps

It was a while before I thought of what to do with the stamps but I knew that I would somehow have to tie them in with my original idea of the birds. Whilst researching birds and stamps, it came to me that I can use the stamps almost as the postage for birds that migrate. I wanted to get working straight away as I had finally found something that I really wanted to do within art and here's the piece I created:

Swallow on American Map - Acrylics

I am really please with this piece but not so happy that I did it in my sketchbook rather than on paper as it would have been a nice piece to exhibit. Never mind though, there is plenty of time to be creative and make some more! Since this piece I have just been exploring combining the stamps with the bird theme and drawing lots of birds.

Hand Embroidered Swallow on Stamps

This piece is made up by stitching the bird onto paper with the stamps printed on. I think the idea of stitching the bird as I feel it resembles the lines that are used to map bird flight paths but feel that the stamps themselves are too bold in colour and over power the bird. What I plan to do now is it just carry on with the drawing and sampling of work in the aim that eventually everything will fall into place. Fingers crossed.

My Current Influences

I've talked a lot about my work and what I want to do but I think it's time to give you a little bit of background on where my influences are coming from..

I keep a reflective journal where I take notes on the places I go, exhibitions I visit and notes from tutorials that are useful. Writing everything down in one place really helps me to gather my thoughts and see the ideas taking shape. So far this year I have been a little slow at keeping on top of this but I will eventually get it up to date. Here's a couple of pages so far...

Pages From Reflective Journal

At the fair mentioned above I came across Treacle Jack Designs. I instantly fell in love with her work, maybe that was something to do with the birds and the flowers though but could resist buying this...

Bag Tag by Treacle Jack Designs

And I suppose that this is really where I became interested in stamps, however, I've decided to use the stamps in my art work which I'll post about later!

So other than being attracted to all things pretty, I have also been working on a lot of research into different artists and ideas. This I keep in a folder, ready to flick through when I need some inspiration. Whilst having a quick look through, deciding who has influenced my work the most at the moment, two artists stood out the most.

The first of which being Rachel Waldock. I came across her work a while ago and liked it a lot but it wasn't until I began to think about what I wanted to do this year that she popped up again in my research. Looking at her work now has a strong correlation to what I would like to do. She has printed her own paintings onto fabric. What I like about them is the subtly; not all of it is painted but through the lines that she makes it suggests what should be there and makes them pleasant to look at.

The second artist is Claire Coles who I came across whilst watching Kirstie's Handmade Britain. Its a programme that I watch every week as I love what she does but when I saw the work of Claire Coles it really stood out from the rest. The elements of her work that I like the most are that she combines different materials with embroidery. With the ideas that I have, putting my designs onto wallpaper is something that could be possible, although at the moment I would rather work with fabric. Her work uses simple cut out flowers, leaves and birds and are then machine stitched onto a background to make the image come alive. For such a simple way of working it has a large impact.

Take a look at the links that I've put as their work are definitely worth a look..

Where I See This Going

At the end of this year I aim to have a collection of work that combines my own drawings and images with embroidery. To get started with this idea, I thought that it would be a good idea to start doing some embroidery. The first thing I did was to embroider a simple rose onto a piece of fabric...

Chain and Straight Stitch Rose

I then realised, my work isn't going to be solely about the embroidery as it was last year so then thought that I should just start embroidering over existing printed patterns to give me a better idea of the sorts of stitches and techniques that work best. Here is an example of this:

Hand Embellished Fabric

It is hard to see in the image what exactly it is that I have done but I quite like the subtly of it. I'm not using the embroidery to alter the work but just to embellish it. In this photo I have added lace to one of the flowers to add a finer detail, stitched detail onto a couple of the leaves and created a woven rose from embroidery thread. Maybe further down the line this will change but at the moment it is just there to add another dimension to the work.

Blind Drawing

So as I said I thought that I would explore some more blind drawings. I started off with a few smaller scale ones but have now ventured into my A3 sketchbook to work a little bigger. Here's what happened...

Carnations - Selection Fine Liners

Carnation - Biro and Fine Liners

Carnations - Fine Liners

I really like the pattern that these create just by simply layering the same shape drawn over and over again. When I was drawing the flowers, I tried to break them down so that I was looking at them as a shape rather than a flower. This helped me a lot to be able to feel more confident in what I was doing.

Since doing these I have bought some lining paper and done a few larger scale pieces that I hope to try printing onto fabric. I will try to get some decent pictures of these and upload them shortly!

Where It All Began

This year for my final year of uni (far too scary to come to terms with!), I have decided that I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and be more experimental. For my second year I worked mainly with hand embroidery as this is something that I really love to work in and was happy with what I created at the end of the year but felt that I could have taken it a step further.

It has always been said to me that I need to be more confident, this is pretty much the story of my life! This time I have decided that it's about time that I listened to what people are saying, especially as I am so near to completing my degree. My sketches have always been commented on before for the marks that I make. I have decided that I will use my painting more within my work so that I can use the delicate, fluid element that I really like. I saw the last year's Degree Show and was really inspired by the number of printed textiles from hand drawn or painted images.

The first thing that I thought was important to do over the summer holidays in preparation for my final year was to get drawing. First I started with some life drawings...

Watercolour and Pencil Carnation



This is the very first sketch that I did in my sketchbook. After this I got a little distracted and uninterested in drawing flowers so thought I would give blind drawing a go as it is a technique that I have enjoyed before. I didn't really think too much of the blind drawings so returned back to life drawing. After having a couple of tutorials it became obvious that my blind drawings were a lot my intriguing than my life ones. I thought that I would have a go with experimenting some more with this technique... 

Fine Liner Carnations

And this is what I got from experimenting! This I hope to expand on further, experimenting with colour and different ways of adding texture.

What Is My Work About?

I have two passions in life, flowers and birds; both of which I’m sure you’ll soon come to notice. The majority of my work is based around these subjects in one way or another. I tend to work on a fairly small scale focusing on details. My course title is, Creative Arts: Art and Textiles. For both of these subjects I have different themes going on.

Art:

In my artwork I am using birds. My idea this year is to study the flight paths of British birds and to combine this with a collection of old stamps that I was given earlier this year. I intend to combine these two elements with maps so that the birds are almost using the stamps as their transport between different locations. The materials that I am going to be using are paint and mixed media.

Textiles:

I aim to turn my hand drawn flower designs into patterns that can be digitally printed and then embroidered over. I have yet to decide whether these are going to be purely designs or whether I will turn them into soft furnishings for interiors, I guess time will tell!

This blog is going to be mainly for my Textiles work but from time to time I will add in the occasional post about my art to keep you up to date on how my bird obsession is developing!