Fashion: Charcoal Drawing & Development

 In one of my last lessons in Fashion, I was tasked with producing 2 quick 15 minute sketches of paper manipulated dresses with charcoal. After producing two then I was to work into one of them with paints, inks, newspaper etc but keeping in the theme of Mono Mania. So black and white.

Above is the first of my charcoal drawings and the one I didn't work into later on. This was my first quick sketch and as such isn't complete as I missed judged the time I had to get down all the details I needed to make it fully complete in my eyes. It did help me though as it let me experiment with different stroke types and smudging techniques before moving onto my 2nd piece.

Above in my final piece I produced from the morning. It started off as a charcoal sketch very much the same as the one above but as I finished this one and had put more effort into it in the charcoal stage I wanted to take it even further. So I worked into this one more. First off I added newspapers to the scraps in the middle to give the piece more depth. As well as that I added wax [Which i had experimented with in my Batik work] to the bottom section of the skirt to give it some extra interesting detail I couldn't get with the charcoal. Next I added white paint around the edges of the main stem straps to help make it pop off the page as the original piece I worked from had almost highlights in those places from the natural lighting in the room. Lastly I added ink over the wax and white paint to bring back the original charcoal shading I had added on, finally going back over the piece with charcoal adding in details here and there.
I really like work with mixed media and it's something I consider to be one of my strongest strengths. I like the idea of mixing multiple techniques together to see what new and interesting effects can be made. Which I think worked really well with this pieces skirts. The mixture of Ink, Wax and Charcoal really bring the skirt to life.

Let the messy times begin! - Day 1 Animals from Nothing

Can't but to create a mess and end up with something interesting at the end!
But to start off before my first day i was given a brief in my final college interview to do a couple insect studies in collaboration with the Liverpool Museum in celebrating British insects, which at first i was a little hesitant about as well i don't like insects. But once i got some basically research done online just looking at photos of moths and beetles etc i noticed they have ALOT of detail close up. Especially the way beetles shells overlap and the different ridges shine in natural light.

So i set out to do a couple fast1-5 minute sketches to get a quick feels for the shapes and forms of the insects and then do a 30-60 minute final drawing of the insects i planned to take further.

After finding the insects i wanted to draw over at [http://www.uksafari.com] i produced the drawings as seen above and took them with me for my first day of college. I Really enjoyed tried to get the shells of the Devil Coach Horse Beetle, it was a bit of a challenge as all i had to work with was pencil and light effects but i feel like the final piece came out rather well. Comparing that to my Stag Beetle drawing i wanted to try something a little different and went with just a pen approach after completing a fast 1 minute sketch to get the proportions down i went for a more of an illustration feel for this once mainly focusing on the outer lines and bold details over shading and forming the true shape of the insect. This left it feeling flat but i really like the way it came out for a 2d version.
My favourite sketch was the moth as i knew i wanted to just go very creative with this one so i chose a moth with very plain tones, the Dark Bordered Beauty Moth worked perfect for this as its just a 2 tone colour moth and it let me experiment with different types of design on the wings and i like what i ended up with. Very simplest line work and a little shading which i feel sticks true to the original insect but adding my own twist onto it.

Now back to my first day after filling out all the usual forms and such we got down to business. We were told to look at our drawings and pick one which we would then turn into a 3d model made of of scrap/recycled materials left over from other projects in the college. At first i wasn't sure which drawing to pick as they're all rather flat but i though the stag beetle would make a nice wire piece but wouldn't other much in the ways of expression so i decided on the moth as if i needed i could change the design if needed as it was very much my own creation from the Dark Bordered Beauty Moth design. After pondering over the materials i dove straight in head first and I'm very happy with that i ended up with.

Having decided on a 3D Model of a moth i instantly wanted a solid centre and found two different colour sticks i bound together with wire and then also created 4 wings branching off from this. At first i wasn't sure how i was going to do the wings, either i wanted wire work using sticks and twigs until i found these little steel wool balls which when stretched out and wrapped around the original wire wing work gave me a decent base to work from. Moving on from there it was very much just experimenting which different materials threading them through the steel wool to add depth. I used the likes of string, different colour plastic and coloured lollipop sticks. Finally i added tinfoil to the bottom set of wings and the top of the stick middle piece to help break up the overpowering colour of the grey wool, which i feel worked out well and overall the final piece has a nice texture throughout. 

I'm not normally one to enjoy constructing things with my hands i prefer to have my ideas come through the median of drawing or painting but i really enjoyed experimenting with different materials here trying to add onto a drawing of my own creation.