Fashion Illustrations Developed

Having tried my hand at fashion sketches  I wanted to take my Ideas a little further along the route of fashion Illustrations, primarily down a digital aspect. So to start off I found a free image online and imported it into Photoshop and went to work adding in one of my prints which I photographed from my print work. From this point it was very much a lot of careful use of the lasso tool to select around the suit my male figure was wearing, after that inverting the selection and deleting away the excess from my printed images. I did this with 2 different prints which can be seen below.

                      

After completing these 2 styles, which I really liked the way they turned out. I decided I should take it one step further and instead of using 1 pattern. I decided on using 3 different patterns together. One for the jacket, one for the pants and one for the tie. So i set out to work in the same manner as the first two, lasso the sections I wanted to have the pattern then inverting and deleting the excess. Until I had a fine piece I really liked.

Unlike with the first two I feel this one looks a lot more complete for a fashion Illustration. As the different patterns for each section of clothing really helps pull the whole thing together. But as well as that I add subtle gradients to each piece of clothing the give the cut prints there own unique light source. As in the original photo I had the light source was coming from the bottom right so for the jacket i did the same thing, arching the light from the bottom right of the jacket, and then darkening on the top left to help bring back the original lighting in the photo. For the pants I did the same but I also added a 2nd layer in the top half of the pants to give a shadow effect from the jacket being over the top of them. Lastly for the tie I just added a single from top to bottom gradient, the top being the darker as when comparing it to the bottom right original light source it stood out more from jacket so I went with that.

Overall I am really happy with the way this piece turned out, as I really enjoying working in Photoshop. Even more so when I get to incorporate original techniques such as the hand made prints from a handmade print block and get to manipulate them further in a program like Photoshop. This is something I love to do and plan to take the print method I learnt here further in some of my future work.

Printed Images - Manipulation linking to Bridget Riley & Victor Vasarely

Following my Monomania foam printing work, once all the prints on fabric and paper had dried I went onto photocopying these pieces in A3 and A4 sizes and went to work with the scissors once again and taking what I learnt from the original paper manipulation and mixing that in with these new prints, I aimed to create a bunch of different unique patterns. Doing so by cutting the photocopies, mounting on card, weaving, overlaying and all round working with paper on paper.

So my main goal with these pieces was to try and recreate some of the techniques seen in Bridget Riley's and Victor Vasarely work. By using the same sort of line structure as them. Using waves and very sharp straight lines. To add my own spin on that I aimed to layer these techniques and using the original prints as back drops.
As well as doing that I added in paper and card to to help break up some of the more intense designs so not all the detail was lost. For example the first image, since I purposely used a waveform that went against the striped print it really pulls your eye in, very much like the OP art I've been researching and trying to mimic here. But by adding in the bland newspaper it helps break that down a little bit and once the viewer pulls away they can look into the less detailed part and this helps let the design pop out.
Following that the same sort of thing happened in the second image but the use of newspaper was more to pull the design off of the black back ground as the print was printed on black too. So by adding newspapers it helped further push the design to the front and lets the spaces between the cut strips go to work in drawing in the viewers eye.

Now for the last 3 they were the first 3 I worked on trying to recreate the very essence of Bridget Riley's work and how she used her lines to create movement. However I wanted to do that in revere with the first 2 prints. Having the prints as the background and working with cut paper to create a sense of movement in the work. I feel this worked best in the first piece as its a very simple overlay which creates this sense of stubble overlap that lets the design really pop off of the page. However in the second piece I feel the overlay is a little to extreme and the sense of movement is lost, but it came in handy as a learning tool to know what not to do next time. because of this when it came to having my sewing machine induction I used this piece to test out the different needle widths, lengths and zipzag spacings which can be seen below.
Lastly is a very simple but effort use of straight cuts of one of my black prints put onto white card which really helps break up the design and lets the white ink almost blend into the background. I feel this piece most represents Bridget Riley's work in my own style.

Creative Typography - Layered Photoshop Final Piece

Carrying on with my creative typography work in graphics after working in Photoshop and Illustrator, the next thing I was assigned to do, was to produce a layered image in Photoshop which reflected my chosen cliche: 'Honesty is the Best Policy'.

 

First before even looking online for photos, textures or any of that I jumped straight into my sketchbook and quickly sketched out with pins & markers a few test placements for what sort of image placement and text placement i wanted to work with. As I knew straight away I wanted to use the human form in some way with the text from my previous experimentation's in Illustrator/Photoshop.  

So after a quick plan I went online and I found a free high resolution image from the internet. In this instance I didn't want to have just some generic photo for my cliche of people just talking or someone being honest. I wanted to dive deeper into the meaning of the phrase as I've been doing with all the work. So I searched for someone who was distressed or looking down, as if they had been lied to or something dishonest had happened to them as I feel thats the true meaning behind the phrase. Even though Honesty is the Best Policy people still tell white lies or small half truths which spiral out of control. So I went on a search through www.freeimages.com and after finding a male [http://www.freeimages.com/photo/653183] and female [http://www.freeimages.com/photo/1044602] which i think both would work, i went on the search for a good texture that would work. Since I was thinking of human nature and how my cliche is very much part of human nature, lying and telling the truth etc it made sense to me on some level to use some sort of naturist texture such as trees, leave etc. After searching on www.lostandtaken.com i came across just what I was looking for [http://lostandtaken.com/blog/2013/9/10/giveaway-three-joomla-templates-from-templatemonstercom.html]. After a LONG wait for the college internet to download the high res wood and tree texture pack I started to edit away on Photoshop. 

 The first layered image i created considered of the male photo I found looking down or lost in this own thoughts. I didn't touch the image at all, however I did add a tree texture next. I chose a neutral coloured texture so its mainly just stripped back bark and I add a colour burn effect to it to help bring out the colour of that layer and changed the opacity to let the original photo pop through. At this stage I really liked the photos but next i faced my biggest problem and that being adding my cliche. I wanted to use my original cutout Photoshop piece of the cliche 'Honesty...' However i faced the problem that the colours were to vibrate and stood out for this piece so to try and counteract this I add effects. The main one being I changed the hue and saturation of the whole piece to a more rounded orange to bring up the dull colours and down the strong vibrate colours. This helped a little but not completely so I brought down the the opacity and got to the final piece above.
The only thing that I feel brings this layered image down is the cliche but that is down to the colours I chose in the original edit of letter. If I were to use this method again I'd make sure to choose and stick to a colour scheme from the very beginning or go crazy and have each one different.  

The second image works alot better I feel. This one is of the female image being suffocated and with that image I left it as it was off the website again like I did with the first one. Once again I added a tree bark texture but this time with the bark not stripped and added the colour burn again which with an opacity change really let the image below pop out and in this case it almost looks like the suffocating girl is trying to emerge from a trapping force or lie.

Lastly I went into Illustrator and quickly wrote up the cliche and added a brush stroke to it giving it a very rough feel which in my mind works very well with this piece and gives a final feel of it popping off the page but also falling back with an opacity change.

Out of the two layered images I created, and looking back at them both now. It is clear to me the second piece is mainly better than the first. This comes down to the use of text and how its not so abrupt and in your face which may have worked if I used an extremely striking photo but I was aiming for the more thought out approach where the viewer would have to think about this piece and the reasoning behind it. Such as why is the girl being suffocated by something and trying to break through this bark like wall.

Overall I like both these pieces and have learnt a great many things and can't wait to keep experimenting in Photoshop and creating unique and thought provoking pieces. 

3D Letter Make - Needle & Thread

Carrying on with the currently theme of typography in graphics, I was tasked with making a 3D letter that I would then at a later date photograph with a single light to look at how shadows work. First however i needed to make a letter and since my cliche/phrase I'd been using for the past few objectives was 'Honesty is the Best Policy' I went with the letter 'H'.
I didn't just want to make any old clean cut letter 'H' though as my phrase has a lot of hidden meaning. So i decided to go to Hobbycraft who sell single letters made out of brown tape and pick up a letter 'U'. Which i then tripped apart to have 2 long sections and a curved section which i cut out to be straight. Then i got out the needle and thread.

First I punctured some holes in the front and back of all the pieces so I had some sort of guidance to where I should be sewing

After a lot of back and forth I created a quick basic stitch starting in the front then the back. At this point I noticed the piece would look best nothing being a perfect piece so I didn't focus to much on making perfect tight stitches or having the same number on either side. As well as that i decided to wrap some of the thread around the piece as i had drawn a little to much.

Above is the final piece, After repeating the same method on the first second i did the same for the second. Sticking with the red thread. Once i had it all connected to the point I felt it wouldn't fall apart when stood up, i added some green thread just to help break up the mass of brown paper texture. I think for a quick object made for a photo shoot to play around with lighting this turned out rather nice and not being 100% perfect should give the shadow a few nice rough edges.

MonoMania Research Clips: Victor Vasarely & Bridget Riley

Victor Vasarely:



First clip I watched is an 8 minute piece showcasing some of Victors work to music. The first thing i noticed about his work is that it is very crisp and clean. All the lines and colours a very prominent and his work feels very complete, it has a very mathematical feel to it. The pieces are very strong on your eyes because of his use of vibrant colours and visual effects. He uses scale to some other level, you tell can he has put a lot of time and effort into his work perfecting his scales of shapes to gives off these extreme illusions to the human eye making the pieces feeling and seem almost 3D.
I wasn't to fussed on the music as it felt like any other ambient transition music which at first worked with his pieces but ended up bringing down his work i feel as it drew my attention from looking at his work to zoning out because of the music. However his work is very pleasing to the eyes as long as you can stand the colours and illusions. I personally quite like it and I feel it has influenced me in such a way to try making more colour pieces out of just shapes and crisps lines/colours.



Next I watched a 4 minute interview with Victor Vasarely as he explains his mathematical concepts. This video very much speaks for itself and i can't really put it into better words. Victor Vasarely basically explains how he came up with his idea for his pieces by relating it back to the most common of human knowledge, maths, the alphabet, music and basic shapes the circle and square and with that in mind he added numbers to his colours creating his own colour alphabet and by studying basic geometry he came up with his idea. Honestly I'm not sure if its the way the translator spoke or just his metaphors but I can't take much away from this interview as it feels very lackluster to me and i can't put my finger on way. He used basic geometry to create shapes, maybe he was the first but in modern art and graphics of today you can create pieces like this is an instant. Maybe I'm over looking the fact but I enjoy his work but maybe i just don't like him.

Bridget Riley:



A short minute clip of Bridget Riley speaking on her work and how important the concept of movement and shape are. I really enjoyed this video the way it has been edited works really well as its showing everything she is saying in a visual way. For example how the camera pans out on a bunch of wavy lines to show the effect they have as lines groups of lines to being amassed together and the effect it gives. She very much has a way with words. The use of making the lines larger or smaller give the final piece a life of its own and the way its put across is very visual in this video and i think it work really well. It really make you think about your own work and how changing a lines thickness or thinness can give your piece and completely different look.



Finally I watched this video, a clip of the art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon enthusing about the work of Bridget Riley. What is really the most interesting out of the 4 videos I've watched and that is mainly down to the fact of the link to traditional art. How the traditional art show casted and Andrew clearly points out how it is extremely related such as the flowing 'musical' feel of the first piece shown and how that is represented in her own work with the flowing of her own wavy piece. The thing i most definitely take away most from Bridgets work is knowing when and how you can change lines to add more depth and feeling into my own work. Having seen how she was inspired by traditional art and adding her own ideas and style to create something related to the original but completely her own I feel nothing but motivation to dive straight into doing even more research.

Monomania - Foam Printing

Foam print block making :|
Making a mess with paint and printing :D

Possibly the best way I could describe this session. I can't help but love anything where I get to be messy and make unique mess into something fun and creative. Following my work on the shape shape I picked one of my final shapes to make out of a piece of foam which funnily enough is from the bottom of a pizza box but enough of that. To cut the foam I used a soldering iron which utterly stunk up the room I was working in so we had to open all the windows. I'm just glad I went first so I didn't have to stand around for ages waiting to cut my shape and having to smell what I can only describe as a melting rubbish, kind of smell.

I think my shape turned out rather well considering I hadn't held a soldering iron since i was about 13 in DT class back in school. I didn't just want to use my shape for the printing block as it would make the print very bland and boring so i added a few drops and squiggles here and there. Which as you'll see below really helped when it came to adding the acrylic paints and printing.

I produced patterns with my tear drop styled foam print block on 4 different types of material, black paper, white bin liner, white fabric and stripped fabric. Using 3 different colours of acrylic paint, white, black and grey and it go messy fast. I wish i took a photo of my hands at the end of it. I still have paint dried on my nails at the time of writing this.
I really enjoyed making these prints as it was a very unique process for me and the way all the work has been linked together. Having to move the block in different directions and overlapping of different colours made some really interesting patterned appear. For example I really love the way the prints look on the stripped fabric as where I cut away at the foam print you can see the fabric coming through the prints as well as where there was less ink on block giving the print a very unique look which will give even more depth once the excess material is cut away. Using a foam block is a very quick and easy way to make a printing block and is something I would like to incorporate into some of my work later down the line as it would come in handy when working on mixed media piece as a little something extra.

First Time - Shape Sheet

I don't know how in all my years of messing around in art classes from school to my own adventures, I've never done a shape sheet. I've done progression sheets or idea developments but never something as simple as taking a single shape or shapes from an images and then letting my mind and hand wandering creating new patterned and ideas.

Not the best photo I've ever taken and I'm not overly happy with my shape sheet but for a first time I think it turned out pretty well. I would still like to go back and work into it, penning my final work and just some simple colour behind the shapes to make them pop.
However i do like the process of taking my double circle in the top left and branching off, of it into a crazy mess of spirals, Triangles all the way back to teardrop shapes in the bottom right or even the mass of circles in the top right which is a very abstract sort of piece. It's really crazy how much a simple double circle can slowly but surly be changed into something else through this method. Its definitely something I'll be using again when trying to come up with unique patterns and shape fast.

Monomania - Mood Board

Following my work with paper manipulation i was tasked with collecting and researching images for a Mono mania styled mood board [Black and white images] that would be all well an easy but i linked it which my paper garment and stuck with a theme of circles and spirals. I sourced most of my images from pinterest [Click to see my pinterest] Then went to work cutting out all the images and started to form my mood board in class.

After A LOT of overlapping, reshuffling and all round frustration i finally got my images into a way i liked. This involved cutting images out in spirals, cutting out perfectly and tearing the images out as you can see above. After taking a photo so I could remember how i wanted to layer them I started to stick them and in the process changing one or two things around. At this point I knew i didn't want a typical square mood board so i decided to start cutting again.

This is what I ended up with after a lot of trimming and trimming and trimming. I like how the shapes aren't perfect circles which gives them a very organic feeling however a problem arouse. I didn't have a clue how I wanted to mount my now 3 littler mood boards. After thinking of mounting them on their own or together I decided on mounting them together but over lapped so the original overlapping of images was skewed. Which I really liked how it turned out.

As seen above i overlapped to two small mood boards over the larger one and roasted them slightly to give an extra offset of images while also trying to have the colours of the shape bounce off the mood board below it. I first stuck them onto a white sheet of paper cut out and then did the same on a black piece to make the mood board pop ever so more.
I really enjoy making mood boards as you have alot to play around with and depending on the topic and/or theme you can really express the type of mood you want. In this monomania mood board I wasn't aiming to express a mood per say but more let it show the expressive side of circles and spirals though a different array of images from photos to paintings with ink to computer generated graphics and I think it worked out really well.

Creative Typography - Letter Cliches from Photoshop

Carrying on with my creative typography [Part 1, Part 2] the next step was to take my new alphabet created in photoshop from my oriental photos and to create a word/phrase out of it. For this I worked with using cliches. I used the cliche 'Honesty is the best policy' As i have always felt this saying held a lot of weight behind it and would work well with my different letter forms as they no longer hold there original form. I feel with this phrase it add an extra element to it as the phrase itself is very much centred around not lying and always behind honest with ones self and others around you. By hiding it behind a new layer of language it creates that wall around the phrase showing what effect it has on the reader/person trying to break down the lies to get to the honest truth.

Honesty.

Honesty is the Best Policy.

I really liked the way the final letter forms looked together in an A-Z style but now I've formed a word i don't really like how some of the letters work next to each other. I feel this is because of my choice of harsh vibrant colours but what i really love about it is the way some of the letter forms have been lost making it harder to read the words giving this saying a lot more weight behind it! I'd decently want to go back and revisit this and add a consistent colour scheme throughout the whole piece to see what sort of change it would have on the piece.
Looking at the single word of honest as above with the 'HITBP' i feel the lose of letter forms works really well with the message of hiding honesty as so many of people do. However unlike the colour scheme in the 'HITBP phrase' above, i really like the way the colour worked in the 'Honesty' piece. I didn't plan on this and just got lucky as i used the 2 letter forms going 1 cutout filter, 1 threshold and repeating. I fill this styled worked a lot better then the use of the same style for the whole word.

Paper Manipulation - Part Two Mannequin time!

Following the previously days experiment with paper manipulation i moved onto taking these forms and techniques further by creating a garment on a mannequin. Since i didn't feel all that confident with my build skills i decided to try and create something simplistic with a lot of eye catching details.
Using my example from the day prior i stuck with my main theme of twists, circles and spirals and used them to create a shoulder garment on the mannequin.



















































Having 0 background in fashion, textiles and to be honest anything of a 3D nature I'm very pleased with how this piece came out. I went into it pretty much blind other then knowing i would be sticking to a theme of Circles and Twisted forms for my texture. Using this i was about to create a very structurally sound centre piece which wrapped around the front and back and worked off that. Next i made a shoulder piece out of triangles stapled together and twisted paper woven through [Close up photos below.] Then finally added twisted circles linked to form a chain shape around the back part of the piece and a few around the front just for added little touch of detail to help pull the eye away from the very sharp shapes made around the front and back.

Looking back on this i definitely enjoyed making this body piece which i didn't expect to. See the final piece come together over a matter of a very short 2 hours had given me a real confidence boost and will definitely help me to branch out into fields such as 3D and take ever new thing one step at a time. I really enjoyed the intricate detail you can get from apply different strengths of twists to the paper, giving the effect of more free flowing design or a ridged solid look which can be seen in the main looped twists around the garment and in the different sized circles on the back.
Overall i think this piece was a great success and a lot of that come down to having tested the different forms of twists the day before with my smaller experimentation's. However if i was to do this again I'd try to aim to do a whole upper body piece and not just one shoulder by adding a large to small spiral coming from the other shoulder and link off that which another twisted band around the waist.