05
Mar

I wanted to show a few more pieces I did yesterday in Creative Textiles.  I had my first assessment for this course yesterday, and thankfully I passed! We had to produce our moodboard, a design plan, and a minimum of 3 paper pieces (using painting and sewing techniques) and 3 textile pieces (dying, batik, devore, etc).

This one I knocked up whilst sitting have a cup of tea in the canteen.  It’s photographic paper which I drew on, then I added coloured ink and ran it under the tap, to let the ink drip off the paper.  I added more ink and repeated the process several times.  I am thinking that some of the patterns can be knitted into a textile piece, such at the chain pattern running through the centre.  That’s very easy to do.  Thankfully, I’ve been knitting since I was a child so it should take me too long to do.  I can add in stitching using the sewing machine to get the branch pattern.  Not sure how that will turn out but I’ll give it a go.

Ink drawing on photographic paper

I showed this piece the day before yesterday, but I added some stitching into it and covered in PVA glue and liquid latex, which will protect the fabric dye.

All seeing eye painted on calico with fabric dye and liquid latex

This piece was created using devore material which I soaked in liquid latex.  I blowed dried it then covered it in layers of fabric dye.  Now it feels like a stretchy latex material, but the patterns on it are quite interesting close up.

Devore fabric soaked in liquid latex and painted with dye

This final piece was made using wallpaper.  Again I used the latex but I thickened it and poured over the underside of the wallpaper, then poured inks over and brushed with some dye. The inks and dyes tend to stick really well to latex and creates interesting patterns. I really like the effect so I have managed to nab some more paper from college to practise on.

Anaglypta wallpaper brushed with liquid latex and painted with inks and fabric dye

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03
Mar

I know I’ve been rather absent these past few weeks, and have been drip feeding my posts.  I’m still recovering from this virus I have, and I’m trying to shake this cough. I’ve also been trying to play catch-up after being off college for a week. I’ve had little enthusiasm for my work and finding motivation rather hard to come by.  I read somewhere that you should never try to paint when you’re ill as it is so emotionally and mentally draining.  I think I can agree with that sentiment.  However, I am trying to spur myself on and I bought a bunch of flowers today, which I hope to paint tomorrow.

So I thought I’d show some of things I’ve been working on this past week or so.  First up is a painting I did in life drawing, which I quite like even if it is a bit hot (colour-wise). I am quite enjoying Expressionism painting and the freedom that it brings.

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I did this with a palette knife and it is the first time I’ve worked on such a huge piece with one.  Theres a few bits that could do with some definition, and other elements such as the outline that could do with a bit less line. Otherwise, I’m fairly happy with it.

The next items are all taken from my Creative Textiles class.  I based these pieces on the theme Rendezvous, which seems to have gone in the direction of secrecy and covert operations.  This has led me to focus on the all-seeing eye and the building up of layers.

The first piece is a piece of silk that I have dipped in hot wax and crumpled into a ball. I then flattened it by hand and painted on fabric dye.  This is supposed to be like a weave pattern (although unsuccessful) but it has a great texture to it which you just can’t see here at all.

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The next piece was a piece of devore fabric that I had batiked onto giving the shape of facial features.  I dyed with red and black again, as I felt this was quite murky and bloody.  I then used devore paste on the material to burn out some of the fabric, making it transparent in places to reveal the layer underneath.  For some reason though, I think of the top layer as being very Banksy – completely unintentional!

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The next two pieces are on the same material – some kind of cotton I think.  I dipped these into the wax pot, crumpled them, then dyed.  What I love about these pieces are that they remind me of papyrus and ancient Egyptian texts.  Particularly the second piece.  As you can see, the all-seeing eye is present in both of these images, and are repeated several times in the second.  As you may or may not be aware, the all-seeing eye dates back to ancient Egypt and the Eye of Horus. Funnily enough, I didn’t intend for this effect on my first piece, but when I saw how it turned out, I definitely want to push it further in the Egyptian direction.

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This part was more considered, and I used the batik spoony/poury thing (that’s my technical definition for it as I don’t know what it’s called).  I help up the cloth after it had been dipped in wax, crumpled and dyed, and then used the spoony/poury thing to drip wax down the fabric.  I then turned it sideways and repeated the dripping effect, to get a nice kind of hatching pattern, but a few of the drips ran askew, which was absolutely ok.  I wish you could see how rich these colours look, as I’m particularly pleased with these two.

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So I cobbled some of my pieces together on a large sheet of paper and painted around them with fabric dye, dragging a fairly dry brush vertically in the direction of the fabric.  I love how murky this looks.

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The next piece was done by etching into a piece of polystyrene, then painted over with fabric dye.  I then pressed it onto a piece of calico giving a nice screenprint.

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The final piece was done using the same method except this time I used oil paint and pressed it onto 300lb watercolour paper.  I etched a smaller piece of polystyrene with a weave pattern and printed onto the paper in blocks, then I overlaid with my main print image.  I think this has turned out not too badly!

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So that’s where I am just now, and as you can see, my time hasn’t been completely wasted!

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26
Feb

We hung our paintings up today, ready for Monday’s exhibition, and I thought I’d show the photos here. A couple of the photos came out a bit blurry, so you can’t see my stuff properly.

The first image is of a few of my class mates and my tutor, Angela.

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Below you can see a couple of my paintings. The first is on the top row on the right hand side, and two others are on the second row.

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And here you can see a couple more.  The very bottom right hand painting and the one above it are both mine.

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Now I only have to come up with some prices for my work, which to be honest I don’t have a clue about.  I was approached today and asked if the painting were for sale, and how much they were going for, but I had no clue.  I really need to sit and think about this.  How do you value your own work, especially when you don’t think it’s that great?

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25
Feb

I went back to college today, and although I’m not 100% fit and healthy, I’m in a much better condition than I was.  I haven’t managed to get any work done whatsoever.  I even got a 2 boxes of paint delivered last week that I haven’t been able to try out yet!  Speaking of which, I was managed to get Daler-Rowney’s Cryla paints for £0.99 ($1.50) per 75ml tube!  These are normally £5.65-£10.65 per tube (US$8.60-$16.20).  That’s a heck of a saving.  I got about £400 ($600) worth of paints for £50 ($76)!  I was able to get them so cheaply because Daler-Rowney have repackaged their range and added new colours as well, so the tubes with the old packaging are being sold off cheaply.  Complete bargain!

As I mentioned, I haven’t got any work done, but I have my exhibition on Monday and I had to make business cards for it.  So this is what I came up with this afternoon:

Artist Business Card

The top part is the back of the card and the bottom is the front. It turned out quite well I think! Anyway, that’s all I’ve done so far.  Oh, and I’ve seen the poster for the exhibition, and it looks really great.  One of classmates’ posters was chosen, and has images of several students’ work on it, including my own. I’ll post it when I get a copy of it!

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20
Feb

I haven’t been around for the past few days, and I’m going to be taking a further few days out, as I’m feeling really poorly.  I have a virus, which has knocked me for six, so I need lots of rest. I was supposed to be going home to see my family this weekend and took Friday off college to go down, but by Thursday morning it was apparent I wasn’t going anywhere. Typical!  Anyway, I hope to be back shortly.  See you all soon.

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