Digital Portfolio

This piece of work is a mood board for a project focusing on a ‘Visual CV’. I have taken the concept of a CV or interview and chose to centre my project on an unusual interview question; ‘what animal best describes you?’ My answer is a ‘bird’ for the reasons of freedom, travel, peace, serenity and weightlessness. I particularly enjoy working with feathers, and feel that they carry positive connotations as well as connecting with fashion for links and outcomes. To construct the sheet, a selection of media is used such as magazines, acetate prints and photocopies.

Here is an illustration using machine stitch to draw linear lines into fabric. As a piece of development work, the sample allowed me to practice the free machine technique using a free machine foot. I have reversed the material and placed it so that the stitching can be noticed as I find the back more interesting than the front due to the business of the cotton threads. The more detailed areas appear heavier and black as a result of the scale of the illustration being quite small.

This is a personal study in to the theme of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ in which I explored techniques and processes in preparation for the Foundation course. After visiting Disney land Paris and having tea with the mad hatter, I gained inspiration from researching into the original illustrator ‘John Tenniel’ and was influenced by the techniques he used. This development sheet contains techniques cotton and tea stain, ink, fusing, melting, hand stitch, wire and marvin medium experimental work.

This development sheet displays the exploration of stitch and print. I have taken the illustrations and investigated the effect of line drawing with machine and hand stitch as well as the linear mark making method of monoprinting and the effects of ink with water. I found that the hand stitch was most successful as I was able to produce an intricate design through control and precision using running stitch. I also printed onto acetate with the aim to melt the plastic using a heat gun to distort or manipulate the original illustration.

Here is a design outcome to conclude the paper section of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme. During the project I was strongly influenced by the artist Sue Blackwell and her delicate paper creations which lead me to try similar techniques. As an outcome to finalise the samples of paper techniques, I chose to carefully construct the scene; ‘The Mad Hatters Tea Party’ and set it on the pages of a book.

This image displays development work from a fine art perspective. Monoprint techniques were used to texture the background which conveyed a painted atmosphere to the artwork. After being colour converted, the same design was used to print onto acetate and layered over the original print. As machine stitch is accurate and links to fashion, I used this method to secure the acetate into place as well as to add a textile approach.

After much development work and exploration of monoprinting, observational drawings from flowers and stitching techniques, I designed this piece as a final idea to conclude the fine art project which used a combination of fine art and textile practices. I used techniques from the previous image, for example monoprint, acetate and stitching, however I used my desired technique of hand stitch rather than machine as it was on an A1 scale. My aim was to create a print that was versatile which could be used as part of a fashion garment or an interior design such as a wallpaper piece.

This textiles sketchbook page expresses the connection and influence between my interpretation and the work created by Jennifer Collier. It shows the links made from her miniature dress techniques to my re-creation in a similar style. I considered using a dress, top and skirt template to generate my paper dress inspired by Jennifer Collier.

This photograph displays a fashion garment from a unit based on paper. I enjoy working with paper as a material due to the versatile nature and using my flower designs, I used paper to print onto and shape into a fashion piece. The dress is constructed by a range of paper techniques from wax entrapment and handmade paper to printing original illustrations on to. The bodice was sculptured using sheets of my handmade paper and the flowers produced from wax photocopies combined with hand stitch.

This image was taken from my most successful shoot during a project surrounding ‘nature’. Through confinement, the project became more focused on flowers and texture revealed in petals, conveyed through photography. Prior to this image, my experimental work was achieved using a light box, composition and different objects containing a range of textures. The light box enabled me to achieve quite bleached photographs and stronger textures by placing a light source beneath the subject matter. During the studies I found that this particular technique of capturing pictures produced effective and intriguing images. 

This piece of work is also taken from the photo shoot as the previous image; however it is captured in a different way. My aim was to fill the frame with texture using an extreme close-up to capture the detail of the subject. I like my images to appear touchable, and the texture adds delicacy and emotion for the viewer. Again, the light box was used to allow me to expose the surface quality of the petals. 

This was the most successful photograph from the ‘nature’ project. For the setting, I used light box to lay the scene and composition. The arrangement of nature shapes and organic objects creates an artificial setting, suggesting a landscape and sky effect. I took interest in two photographers which inspired this image and uses techniques from both. The image uses ‘Imogen Cunningham’s’ soft lighting to create a soft atmosphere and mood, as well as using ‘Karl Blossfeldt’s’ silhouette technique which creates mystery and intrigue.

Fashion photography finals taken from a project titled ‘The Human Figure’. After researching influential photographers ‘Andre Kertsz’ and ‘Bill Brandt’, I decided to focus a shoot upon the human form with elements of fashion as I observed the way sheets of material fell around the body. Some of these images have allowed me to gain figure drawings from successful photo-shoots. The studio lighting enabled me to capture certain aspects of the figure as well as to conclude with fashion images.  A variety of working methods are used for this image; Adobe Photoshop, a studio with lighting, and a DSLR camera.

‘’She appears almost as if she is emerging from the shadows…’’ This is a fashion photography final which conveys a sculptural perspective to the human figure using negative space and lighting to highlight aspects of the body. When capturing this image, I aimed to contain negative space within the frame to create dramatic mood and atmosphere. My working method was to use a single spotlight which was directed on to the left side of the model, enabling me to shadow the right of the frame.  The outcome distorts the human figure from a body to a sculpture.

Here is a photograph which was displayed at an exhibition launched by Newcastle under Lyme College. This is a successful image taken during the ‘The Human Figure’ project as it was highly influenced by photographer ‘Andre Kertesz’ and his technique for soft lighting and tones. The eye is guided by the high key areas vertically through the frame. My working method for this photograph is the studio lighting, modelling lamps and spot lighting. I controlled the harshness of the lights by moving them further away from the model to soften the light and atmosphere.

The content of this image is representational of the human body. The central composition supports expression and the image overall is concerned with emotion. The soft and calm dimensions of this photograph are created through the careful use of flash lighting, modelling lamps and spot lights. I decided to use a monochrome filter to add a sculptural feel and stillness to image, as well as to allow the eye to focus on detail rather than the colour palette.

During life drawing, I decided to take a different approach by using the continuous line technique and a fine liner rather than the original pencil technique or line drawing. It adds creativity and energy as opposed to the standard media being a pencil which is simplistic. The technique also distorts the drawings as they overlap and connect with each other as the line bridges over blank spaces in-between. The line style enables me to add weight where needed as I have used multiple lines and single lines to suggest this.

This is life drawing using a selection of media such as ink and a stick, willow charcoal and postage envelopes. I used envelopes to texture and shade the background as well as to break up the basic colour. The collage is placed to add weight to where is most heavy on the sheet. The ink defines the heavy outlines; however the application method, which was a stick, gave me less control over the thickness of the lines made. To complement the ink, I opted for a lighter line by using willow charcoal to gently suggest the seating in the drawing.

This illustration developed using pen, ink and water. The life model was positioned with a sheet enclosing the body, and the aim was to capture the dimensions of the sheet through movement, line, structure and shadows. The sheet distorts the body, and creates a slight twist on the regular idea of life drawing.

For a media study, I investigated into fashion magazines and websites to produce my own fashion webzine. The magazines ‘Vogue’ and ‘Elle’ particularly influenced my final front webpage design as followed the codes and conventions of these popular fashion magazines. To construct the webpage design, I used tools within the digital programme ‘Adobe Photoshop’ to bring my illustrations to life. The making of this final piece enabled me to explore the digital elements towards fashion, fashion photography and fashion based magazines.