Deadline Day

So that's it. BA3a is over, done and dusted... Well, apart from my presentation on Tuesday.

WHEN WILL IT END

No, just kidding, I actually didn't want it to end - by the last week or so I was really enjoying it, especially my idea's for the fashion project. I wish we had a little more time (and a little more money) so I could have taken it further, but I guess just because the project is over it doesn't have to be finished, I plan to go back to them afterwards and spend time on them to make something beautiful for my portfolio.

Although yesterday was a very stressful day, we all made it. We all managed to balance writing the longest text of our degree and also two practical briefs, that's something to be proud of. I'm looking forward to walking round the class after the assessment and having a good nosey at the other girls' work - it all looks amazing on Instagram and what not, it'd be rude not to have a quick browse.

I've decided that I'm going to set myself a little two week project whilst we're on break from uni, just to keep me in the swing of things and so that I don't lose my motivation. In the last week I was working at quite a fast pace, I need to keep this up. The thing that I struggled with in the fashion project was the drawing, so I'd like to spend the next fortnight going out with a sketchbook and drawing things first hand, scenes and architecture from around the city - just something small, but I'm hoping it will help me focus and learn to look a little harder. After Thailand I felt like my drawing definitely did improve a lot, especially noticeable in my ink work for the interiors brief, I was really proud of those. I'm hoping it'll keep me busy and upbeat, ready for the final term.

My new years resolution was to be more organised, with uni but also just life in general (I'm always late and I lose everything... ALL THE TIME). One of the things that I really struggle with is doing something when I say I'm going to do it, so I've set myself some goals for when we begin the next project:

1. Carry your note book everywhere, write every idea down. ALWAYS

This is probably the most important one because I think of things all the time, or I get suggestions of where I should go next and I either forget it completely or just remember every once in a while. And then when I do remember, I don't get up and do it straight away. Which leads me to number 2 on my list.

2. Be more get-up-and-go

This is something that I admire in my fellow course mates, I love watching someone get an idea and then shout "right! I'm off to the print room to test this" or "I'm gonna just stitch this now and see what happens". I envy that attitude so much, it just doesn't come naturally to me - I over think things far too much and talk myself out of something if it wasn't my original plan. It makes me nervous but this is something I need to get over, I want to be able to make things on a whim and have a project that's exciting to look through, full of spontaneous ideas and things that maybe didn't go to plan, but that's okay, because it was interesting to do. That's the goal.

3. Photograph everything

It doesn't help that throughout this unit I have had three different phones, due to breakages and one being stolen THE DAY BEFORE HAND IN, but maybe that's just a sign that I should use an actual camera instead? I really need to photograph everything and then use the images straight away in blog posts / Instagram so that nothing is lost.

4. Set yourself more targets
Just like at work with add-ons, set yourself a little target of how much you want to get done that day, or even just in a small amount of time (like a four hour shift) ie. number of drawings, collages, number of words in a blog post or even filling sketchbook in one day. Targets will keep you motivated, just like they did at work.

and finally... 

5. STAY ORGANISED

At uni and in everyday life. Create a routine, get up at the same time everyday, do some chores and then get ready for the day ahead. Make your bag up the night before so you're not rushing the next morning and forgetting everything. Be more organised in your planning for the workshop spaces and be more organised with your digital work, stop saving things under random names and keep it all in folders - seriously, it shouldn't be that hard! 

I really did enjoy this project, I just don't feel that what I came up with reflected that, especially because of how disorganised I am with documenting thoughts and research. You'd really think I'd have learnt by now, I thought this year I was a little better than previous projects, but then life got in the way. I'm just going to keep myself busy, have a good clear out and tidy up, and do lots of drawing before the next unit begins - it's the last one after all, and I want to go out with a bang!

New Year, Same Old Me

02/01/17 - 06/01/17

So what have I accomplished so far this year? I have officially finished my research report, so that's one less thing to worry about. I spent the majority of this week typing that up and I have to say I have never been so relieved, it was so much harder to write than I thought. Writing is normally something that I enjoy the most during the units, it sort of just always comes naturally to me, however I think because this one had to be written a lot more formally than I'm used to, it just threw me off a little. Thankfully, my cousin has an MA in creative writing so he was able to help me out a few times - just with order and my grammar, so that was super helpful. My Mum was also able to spare time for a few proof reads too. So that's over, one thing ticked off the list! I just need to finish my table of illustrations and appendices, but I can do that one evening next week.

I had planned to go into uni the four days that it was open, but the report was just begging to be finished and I needed to get that out the way before I could begin to focus on my practical work again. I did manage to make it in on the Thursday - had a good tidy of my desk, went over to the graphics people and changed the paper that I wanted my wallpaper patterns printed on to and made a plan for the final week ahead.

It was pretty simple and list-like in all fairness, just a all the finishing off bits: moodboards, headering my fabrics for fashion and mounting a few things. All the time consuming bitting things, that make big difference to someone looking through my work. 

It's on, let's do this!

'Twas Week Before Christmas

and while ignoring her spouse, Kat was busy beading and binge watching House.

19/12/16 - 23/12/16

I have to admit that I took a pretty relaxed approach to this week, I felt like I worked quite hard last week getting my fashion samples foiled and finished and things, so this week I thought like I'd take things a little slower than normal. At first I was just beading my foiled paper samples, just sticking them with double sided tape rather than stitching, just to get an idea of what it would look like if I'd done it on a larger scale piece of fabric. I used my drawings and digital work as a guide, it was just some work that was easy to do at a relaxed pace, but it was actually quite helpful. I knew I'd wanted to embellish my fabrics, but I wasn't very confident at actually stitching onto the fabrics, so this definitely helped with that. Plus, it was easy to do whilst watching all the tv series that I'd wanted to watch during the term! 

I also then thought about what Nick had said in my extra tutorial, and tried to take elements from my interior drawings and developing them a little further than I had originally. I was quite happy with the gradient designs that I had come up with; but it can't hurt to take it a little further can it? After all, I'd just taken a drawing a repeated it, so this week I was trying to take small elements and make new drawings from that, then to make into a repeat. I first took the triangular design from the roof tops of some drawings, but decided a zig-zag was probably a little too simple, so I created small scenes inside that to then create into a repeat. 

Above are the three scenes that I came up with originally, but I felt like three wasn't enough, so I began to put together a 5 scene repeat, that then repeated 3 down, like this:

A   C   Y

B   X   A

C   Y   B

X   A   C

Y   B   X

I made it out like this, and then filled in the gaps. Here it is in context: 

I wanted it to be quite complex, and I think I've managed that. It has the same busy, piled up feel that I felt like I had in my previous designs, but this time the repeat was less obvious. I'm a little worried about time though, as when term starts again we obviously only have 5 days before the deadline, and I still have my report to finish, but I'd like to do a few more... at least 1 anyway! I think taking elements from my drawings definitely makes it a little more interesting, it's just I think this one looks a little flat? My others had a bit more depth because of the gradient and I just don't think that the two-tone thing works for me.. I don't do it well enough. Hopefully I can mix the two and create something a little more interesting than this one. It's a good starting point though, not bad for a days work - it took me a while to work out how the repeat would work, but once I'd figure it out, building it came quite quickly. Here is an image of the whole repeat:

Week 12: The Last Few Days of Term

12/12/16 - 16/12/16

This week was all about trying desperately to get my fashion project as close as it could be to being completed. I did manage to foil all of my samples this week - I even tried a piece of flocking, which I have to say I do really love, it's just the colours that I'm not to keen on. Can you dye flocking? Find out. This week I had quite a bit of trouble with my foils, especially because of the fabric that I had digitally printed, I feel like maybe it was to do with how fine the fabric was? The silk mouseline really did stick to that foil glue when I was trying to peel it off. However, I finally discovered that the holographic foil works best at 15s in the heat press and then not a hot peel and not a cold peel just... somewhere in between; when it's just cooled enough so you can touch it, peel it off slowly. That was my little break through this week!

I was thinking though, maybe my A3 samples aren't enough? In my tutorial on Tuesday, Jill told me to go a bit bigger - people take more notice of bigger samples (thinking about future exhibitions and the very small possibilities of ND17). So I was thinking possibly getting my digital designs printed at A1 size on a fabric that can be devored, that could also be embellished and foiled. At the moment I'm thinking Velvet, but I don't know if you can digitally print on velvet? Ask Neil. I much prefer my velvet samples to those that are on the satin, I just prefer the look of the different textures. Sometimes I think I like velvet a little too much...

I've also put some of the fashion designs into context, at first quite abstractly, as if they were projected or un ultra fine fabrics, and then some more realistically on A-listers, showing them as very expensive fabrics, on couture garments.

Today is a good day as well, Friday is always my blogging today, but today I'm all written out. I managed to write 1430 words exactly in my research report. I'd been so worried about it, normally writing comes quite naturally to me but this year it has been a real struggle! I think it's because its so much more formal than anything I've written before and I don't know if I can use my usually sarcastic, slightly hilarious, style. It panicked me, but so far, after a big block completed today, it was nice to finally get somewhere! 

Now to go an celebrate the end of term, I feel like we all deserve a drink or two! 

Week 11: Going Back to Interiors

05/12/16 - 09/12/16

I had a sudden panic this week about my interiors project, no body has seen it since my tutorial with Nick on 18/10 and I suddenly just got really worried. So I booked an extra tutorial with Nick for today and spent most of the week trying to draw it to a close, making mood boards and putting my designs into context.  I tried to keep the stripes in the boards, so that my original idea wasn't completely dead, even though I didn't get to create this cool, rotating structure that I had planned. However, I do still think that I've managed to create something quite cool. The gradient thing was something that I felt was... Different? I don't know, but I thought it looked pretty awesome, I'd been over to the graphics building and had it printed on a wallpaper, there was a choice of two - adhesive and non-adhesive, but the main difference for me was that one was very smooth and the other had a deep ridged texture to it; I went with the latter. 

So I thought I'd brought it to a good conclusion, until I showed it to my tutor... 

"It's not enough to just take a drawing put it into a repeat" 

Now, I don't normally take what the tutors say to heart, but this one really got to me. How could I take it further, I thought I was done? Not to mention the clock is ticking and deadline is getting ever closer! Of course, there was some idea's given at my tutorials - taking elements from the drawings and creating something more fitting for the context. All of the context rooms are quite modern, so I need something a little more sleek; and the key to that is? Using a ruler. Except I don't like using a ruler, I like the slightly skew-wif look of my original drawings, Thai houses aren't perfectly built, they're all wobbly and at weird angles, definitely no perfectly parallel lines! So forget about that, however, taking elements of my drawings I can roll with, maybe making new drawings from those? A new shanty town -  a mixture of all the best parts: the windows, the stairs and the funny little random doors. I'm not sure how to keep the busy/crowded aesthetic that I thought I'd achieved with the gradient, but I'll fight that out. Busy is what I want for sure... It's just how that confuses me.

Ideas board

Development Board

Context Board

Week 10: Fashion Digital Prints

28/11/16 - 02/12/16

Here I began taking some of my drawing and my photographs, and trying to blend them together a little. After having some designs put on screens and using devore, puff and foil on top of my dyed fabrics, it was then said to me in a group tutorial that I needed to start thinking of how to make these fabrics beautiful - rather than just a lot of texture. Beautiful is what I was really going for. It took me a while, and I decided after a few attempts that I wasn't happy with how my hand drawn elements were fitting in with the photographs, I just couldn't get it right... So I resorted to piling up a number of photographs at a time, using layer effects, transparency and changing the hues really worked in the end. I wanted to keep an element of the branches and trees that I'd used on my larger devore samples and screens, so I enlarged them a little and had them right at the top of each placement print. I was thinking about making these into a repeat, but I just wasn't sure on how, without mirroring the photographs, and so I've decided that they will probably work best and large scale pieces of fabric, therefore with no need to repeat. 

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I've had these 6 digitally printed onto silk mousline, with the intention of foiling, flocking and embellishing them further, giving them that layered look I was after, even more so than they already are.

Week 7: Fashion Brief

07/11/16 - 11/11/16

I'm really nervous about starting a new project, I don't feel like I've really achieved anything within the interiors project yet, and now we have a new project already! All I have for the last one are a number of drawings and a few digital designs that haven't worked out as planned. I felt like I was finally getting somewhere with my ink paintings, really figurative and now I just don't know, not with this to balance. One thing that I feel is progress though, is that I worked my last shift at Disney Store this week - this time last year I put work first and just took on so many hours because of the how busy it gets at Christmas time, I just can't say no when it's offered to me, because I know they need as many people in as possible. After asking my manager back in September to only have 12 hours maximum, and still getting put down for more than that, I decided that it had to end there. I had a great year working for Walt, but my degree just had to come first... I'm a little worried about the money side of things, #LowestLoanProblems, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Just with everything that's been going on, I'm not sure I could handle the stress of that as well!

I've decided to base my project on something that will be a little less figurative this time, a bit more natural too. Looking at lichen, fungus and other things that grow deep in the woods. Hopefully creating fashion fabrics that are really layered up, bits added on and bits taken away, just like the bark and lichen on tree branches. I started a new pinterest board for this one, here.

I also went to Thetford Forest over the weekend with my family, to gain a little inspiration for the coming project. I wanted to take as many photos as possible and I think I may have started to annoy everyone after a while - they wanted a huge family day out, but they were always having to stop and wait for me, dawdling behind them!

Week 6: Moving Forward

31/10/16 - 04/11/16

So uni work has pretty much come to halt in recent weeks, hence why there hasn't been any blog posts. Sadly my Granddad passed away a few weeks ago and I just haven't had motivation to work since. I've been back at my parents house, which makes uni work difficult normally, never mind when everyone is grieving. It was literally half an hour after my first tutorial of the year that my Mum phoned to let me know. He'd been in hospital for about 5 weeks, but it was still a surprise, I'd only saw him 4 days beforehand and he was talking about how he just couldn't wait to get down the pub when he got out. I tried to sit and do work a few times, but I'd just end up sat there empty and thoughtless or crying, which isn't very useful when I'm using quick, it'd effect the colour too much! After a week or so though, I did manage to pull myself away from family and just have some time on my own to paint - again, I did these quite slowly. Just to relax myself and used it as a distraction from everything that had been going on. The middle two drawings only taking an hour or two but the top and bottom took me about 5 hours each - a little bit due to the fact that I was doing lots of tiny fineliner marks; but mainly because I would just stop, sit there and just think about nothing. Literally nothing. I've never been so empty. I've got everyone telling me not to worry about uni, focus on myself and allow myself to grieve, "you can apply for extension", my brother's now on his 4th year of extension for goodness sake, I don't want that. I know I can get it in on time, and I'm going to. Everyone in my class has things going on that get in the way of uni, sometimes you've just got to get on with it! And actually, painting and continuing with my work really did help once  I got into it, it just took a while, but it's extremely therapeutic and times like this. 

I'm hoping to be back at uni properly next week - the funeral is on Monday, but after that. I really need to get back on track. It's almost 3 weeks now that I've been off and I just can't afford to waste anymore time. 

Week 3: NEVER STOP DRAWING

10/10/16 - 14/10/16

This week was a bit of a rollercoaster, unfortunately I had to miss both days with taught sessions because my Granddad came into hospital late last week and once I'd gone back to visit him, I just couldn't bring myself to leave. I stayed at home until late Wednesday night and made it in for the Lecture on Thursday. I don't like that I had to miss these sessions, but being in the hospital with him was just so much more important to me and even when we weren't in the hospital, I just didn't want to leave my Mum - because Granddad is in hospital, we've had to move my Grandma into a care home and there's just so much going on my brain can't take it - being at home just seemed better. I did however, manage to get some drawing done. Giving myself an opportunity to spend longer on each drawing and really stripping it back, so that I'm just using ink. Getting used to one media and just becoming great when using it. I've always loved working with Quink ink, so this seemed like good place to start. I've been struggling with colour, so why not just strip it back completely - black and white, with some tonal variation, created by the magical powers of Quink.

I wasn't in  the mood to work quickly, so I just took things slow. Trying to concentrate but using drawing more as a relaxation technique - trying to take myself back to Thailand, before any of the trouble started. I soon realised that I was going to need more that just Quink so I brought my fineliners into it as well for the more detailed sections. 

^ 2 hours ^

^ 3-4 hours ^

^ 1 hour ^

Then, I soon got bored of just Quink and spent all day on this piece: 

Trying to capture as much from the image as I could, I used collage, gouache and metallic paints to try and recreate this busy, layered look that Thai lifestyle seems to have. I just don't know if it's too much? I think I prefer just the ink, but this one was so fun to work on (even if it did take me a good 5/6 hours to complete) it's so unlike anything I'd normally do and considering my circumstances this week, I'd say that was a good step forward with the project!