final major project (part 2) . . .

Just a little update on the current project.

colour collages . . .

Line drawings of windows around City College and their compositions led to these slightly optical illusion-like collages. We had to pick three colours out of the hat and mix and paint up what ever we were given: I had chalk white, satsuma orange and slate grey.

The first few days of collaging little squares of coloured paper from my window drawings were a bit of a drag but once I got the wet paint and fashion designs involved I was loving it! Abstract collage and splodges and dripping paint are just my thing!

final major project (part 1) . . .

My ideas for the final project have developed mainly around my family's Scottish heritage and the way different clans have their own unique tartans. I love the way people say that they have their family tartan when they are thoroughly Southern and have had nothing to do with Scotland for generations and part of my project is about creating a tartan or garment that actually reflects you rather than long dead ancestors.

At the moment I have been wrapped up in pleats of all kinds, and while I appreciate that spending hours researching deep knife pleats and wondering about the merrits of the box pleat as opposed to the double box pleat is not everyone's cup of tea, I am thorouhly enjoying it!

Have been looking at Thom Browne's s/s 2012 collection for pleating inspiration.

cocktail sticks and cotton buds . . .

This was a construction project where we were only allowed to use low tech materials, in my case cocktail sticks and cotton buds. I created a sort of Archimedes Twist style piece that I later developed into body adornments with the theme of restriction and restraint. The concept was all about the way fashion promotes people contorting their bodies and enduring pain to look 'beautiful'

. . . and yes, I spent an entire day drilling holes through cocktail sticks! 

life drawing . . .

I especially like doing quick continuous line drawings of people waiting for trains, they all seem to have to same stance as they look up at the arrivals board searching for their train.

deconstruct, reconstruct . . .

This was a project where we bought charity shop clothes -a grey polyester M&S skirt suit and a blue cardigan for me- and took them apart to remake them. I looked at Margaret Thatcher and the sense of rebellion and unrest that surrounded her leadership and the rise of Punk to inform my dress and cape. Originally there were going to be more obvious references to Punk but it simmered down into the use of safety pins to embellish and decorate.

a sketchbook spread -I particularly like Maggie wearing my dress in the bottom left hand corner!

a sketch a day continues . . .

Have been experimenting more and more with extreme shadow lately, I love being able to draw a face using only large patches of black and only minimal deatail or shading.