Study Fashion

For my first project name ‘Through The Eyes Of Nature’. We had to start out by picking by picking a concept so I chose The Northern Lights, and Constellations. I chose this because it meant I could choose any colours, and look into something I was already interested in. When doing the by hand section of the project I decided to use line drawings and watercolours, because it gave me the best effect for finer details of the constellations and colour blending of The Northern Lights. The Aurora Borealis interests me, because of the endless colour possibilities and the myths and legends behind them.  For example one Greek legend is that Aurora was the sister of Helios and Seline (the sun and moon), that raced across the morning sky to alert her siblings of a new day.

As for research I looked at and museum exhibit, websites, academic  journals and more. These helped me develop my ideas, as for example when at The Natural History Museum I saw many sections on galaxies and star signs which gave me this idea. I liked the way the star signs were displayed (as simple white line drawings) all up the walls. I analysed my research in depth as written research on The Northern Lights, mind maps on Bioluminescence, and photocopied pages from stargazing books in the library. As part of our project we had to look at a minimum of three artists/designers to aid the development of our ideas. One artist I looked at was a photographer Nicholas Buer. He specialises in natural landscapes and the night sky. He has taken many pictures of The Northern Lights which is therefore a direct link to my chosen concept. His work also focuses on only natural things being in his pictures which also links to the entire project of ‘Through The Eyes of Nature’. Another artist I looked at was Jason Lucas. I found a Northern Lights Painting which gave me a lot of inspiration, because of the trees and how the lights shine through them. I feel this artist work is relevant to mine as he used my chosen concept also.

I feel I organised my time well, because I kept a clear pan of what I had to get done each week, and made to do lists to make sure I got it done. My plans changed over time as I started out focussing on wings and feathers. I changed this as I felt this theme didn’t give me a lot to work with, where as with my current theme I have more freedom to make new ideas. I didn’t change my plans based on feedback, as I didn’t get any negative feedback based on what I chose.

When making hand prints I experimented with a range of materials such as; inks, bleach, wax, pastels, pencils and paints. However the actual materials I used were pencils, water colours, pastels, and fine liners. I chose these materials, because they gave the best outcome ascetically to match my theme.

In our photoshop session we finalised out final prints, made fashion boards, and created a fashion lineup. I like my final print, because of my colour palette and the constellation drawings I put into it. I feel this print relates to my chosen concept, because the final design resembles space and the planets. This was unintentional but I think it works well. 

Upon looking into simple clothing shapes in fashion I found a range of tops, dresses, skirts e.c.t. from all different time periods. During the 50's circle skirts were hugely popular, and were very simple to make. Because it was an exact circle this meant there were elegant pleats all the way around which only added to its femininity. From the 60's I found shapes like the shift dress and miniskirts. These styles developed to 'rebel' away from the close fitting restrictive style of the 50's. Therefore these shapes were short and comfortable to wear.The 70's still contained some of the simple shapes from the 60's, but also added the maxi dresses. These are long, flowy and loose fitting dresses that were easy to wear; and nearly always had a floral print on them. I like this shape because it is the kind of dress you can dress up or down, and suits all body shapes.I like the simple clothing shapes between the 1950's and the 1970's, because it means the fabrics pattern can be the main focus; giving you a different way to express your individuality. After these eras clothing shapes became more complicated and experimental which resided well with its change of print and pattern styles. 

When looking at print in fashion you notice how much it changes throughout each decade. During the 1950's prints were bolder and brighter. This was because since world war 2 had ended it meant new and different fabrics had become available. I liked this time period for fashion, because of how it complimented a women's shape and was very feminine. At the 1960's prints became more optical. This included tie dye with bright and psychedelic colours. This was the beginning of a new era of fashion which led into the 1970's focused by the antiwar movement that contained many floral and soft looking prints. I liked the 70's prints, as it was still feminine but contradicted with the loose flowy clothing of the era. During the 1980's-1990's style became more about experimentation, which included more geometrical patterns and prints. I do not like this as much as the other style generation, because colours went from too bright in the 80's to too muted and dull in the 90's.

So far in my project my favorite element has been the photoshop session. This is because I found it easy to use, and it gives you very professional looking results for repeat pattern ideas. I have not decided on a final print, but have some good ideas to complete the brief.

The challenges I have faced have been the print making sessions with art supplies, as I found it difficult to get the exact result I wanted for my chosen concept. To overcome this I have been looking into different ways of printmaking that suit me better; such as water colours.

I am currently inspired by the photographer Nicholas Beur, because I like the way he has photographed The Northern Lights and the colours he has got as a result. This inspired my colour palette that I am aiming to use for my final print.

The direction in which I am taking my print focuses more on The Northern Lights than constellations, as I feel they make a better focal point that creates the best design ideas. I am also using a lot of circles, because it reminds me of the moon; which links to the stary concept I started out on.

Ultraviolet light is a form of electromagnetic radiation trillions of wavelengths from human view. However birds, bees, and some humans retinal genetic mutations, can see nature's other shades. The uses of this in animals such as birds is generally suggested to attract a mate. This is because it highlights plumage. Plants such as flowers are known to absorb this radiation, but the use of this is unknown as it does not seem to contribute to its pollination or anything that may improve their population. 

Another thing I looked at was Bioluminescence. This is seen in fireflies/lightning bugs as they glow from the lower abdomen. This can be in the colours yellow, green and pale red. Bioluminescence is also seen in the fashion industry. For example Intel at the NYFW show in 2015. They used glow in the dark pigments to make the fabrics light up. 

One artist I researched is the photographer Ben Coffman. His photos generally go from the concept of the collision between the natural and man-made worlds. I like this photographer, because he includes man made objects in his pictures that give you a better understanding of the location. I also like his use of colours, and the fact he does not usually alter his photographs in photoshop. I think the shots he took of stars are particulary good as they seem to have more of a constellation type pattern to them, instead of a fully starred sky like in Aaron Priests photographs.

During this session we used materials such as bleach and wax to create new effects of drawings from our chosen theme/concept. I really liked the technique where I 'drew' with masking tape then painted ink over the top, then once it dried peeled it away. This create a nice effect of a constellations with a black 'night sky' background. This has given me some inspiration to try this again but making the tape drawing thinner.

However I did not like any of the other techniques as they just looked messy and had a weird yellow undertone. This was because of the colour of the bleach I used. I tried many techniques such as bleach with tissue paper, brusho dye, ink e.c.t., and wax with inks but none of which seemed to get a good end result. Therefore this has effected my future work, as it has shown me not to use this techniques for my print designs.

During this session we had to take pictures of the outdoors through a hole in a piece of paper. We then had to draw each one using different art based materials. I feel this went well as I managed to get some good effects using mixtures of materials; such as crayon and pastels. This one was my favorite, because the crayons kept the pastels from smudging everywhere. This technique also meant I could blend different colours together to match my photographs better. I did not like the wax and ink technique as it completely did not work. The ink just mixed in with the wax; meaning I was left with just a black circle. I really liked the colouring pencil one, as I could vary the shades and shadows of the drawing to make it look more realistic.

During one session we were set the task of doing primary research by drawing from things we see in front of us. Above I have done this in different drawing techniques such as; two pens at once, blind, dip pen, and continuously drawing something. I focused mainly on feathers as I thought this would create the best outcome from the way I drew each one.

In this session I also did line drawings with fine liner, and then added some colour from my chosen palette to see what effects I could get. I felt this went really well, as I have recently been putting them on my photoshop repeat pattern designs.

I like the dip pen drawing, because this one looked the most realistic and gave me the freedom to make it as neat as I wanted to. I also liked the drawing using two pens at the same time, as the colours I used blended well and still ended up looking like a feather; but only a bit messier.

I didn’t like the blind drawing, because it didn’t look any different to when I drew the same feather with my eyes open. Also the little tufts of feather going down looked far too messy. I also did not like the continuous line drawing, as it looks very scruffy, and did not have very good proportions.

One artist I looked at is Aaron Priest. He specializes in landscape, astro-photography, panoramas and time-lapse photography. He has been featured on T.V and in a few galleries, magazines, and newspapers. I like this photographer, because of his knowledge of constellations, how he has used photoshop to make rounded skies (as above), and how he has took pictures of a range of different night sky locations. I like the selection of colours on his photos also, and how he has also photographed The Northern Lights. His pictures have given me a range of ideas for my final print, and I plan on using his photographs to draw new ideas from or even in the print itself. However I did not see any obvious attempts to show specific constellations; as he has photographed practically fully starred skies.

One research method I have done is Primary research. This is drawing from objects for inspiration. I felt that this was not effective as because my theme is stars and The Northern Lights I cannot draw from real life with ease. Therefore I have not developed any ideas from this method.

Another research method is using Books. I used ones from the library, and this was very effective as I found out a lot of things about different constellations and their meanings. Also I found out how The Northern lights are formed. I then was able to get some good ideas for my final design. However not all the information was relevant.

The third research method I did was using Academic Journals. I found this effective as it gave me accurate information on different artists, and on my chosen concept. This helped me mainly with the research aspect of my project. Although this was useful, again not all of the information I found was relevant to what I needed.

The forth research method I looked at was looking at different Artists. This was effective as it meant I had a range of resources to pick from; e.g. exhibitions, pictures, sculptures e.c.t. I recently looked at a photographer called Nicholas Buer that takes night time and Northern Lights pictures. This gave me some good imagery to use on photoshop and to put towards my final print design.

The fifth research method I did tried was generally searching the internet. This was effective, because it meant I had access to a lot of information such as; pictures, articles, artists websites e.c.t. However you couldn't tell if all of the information was reliable enough to reference in my work.

The sixth research method I looked at was going to Museums. As a class we recently went to The Natural History Museum to get initial information for our project. This was an effective research method as I took lots of pictures, and read bits and pieces of reliable information to use as the research aspect of my project. However since doing research there I changed my theme/concept, so the information I got from there I cannot use now.

The seventh research method I did was watching a documentary. This was a David Attenborough one on ultra violet animals. I found this effective as it was reliable information that contained good visual references to go with it. Although not all of the information was relevant, as I did not need to know general facts about the animals themselves.

The eighth research method I looked at was magazines. This was effective when making my initial colour palettes, as it gave me a lot of good colour options to pick from that gave me lots of inspiration for my final designs. However because I only used colours from the magazines, the words were not very useful to my research.

The ninth research method I used was Pinterest. This was effective as it gave me lots of colour, garment style, and pattern inspiration for my final designs. I also have included pictures from Pinterest on my moodboard. Even though this was very useful there was no written information to use in my research.

Recently on our project we have being doing repeat printing. We did this on photoshop and by hand. I enjoyed this as it created some really good effects that I wouldn't have thought of myself. I preferred the photoshop patterns as they looked more professional and repeated neater than the hand prints. I feel these have made good options for my final design.

Also in our project we have been using different materials to make a variety of patterns by hand. One example was 'drawing' with masking tape, painting over the top, then once dried to peel it off. I feel this particular technique resulted quite well. However because of the theme I chose it was difficult to get something I was completely happy with, therefore I don't feel they are the best options to pursue. Overall I feel that more conventional techniques produce better results that could contribute to my textile pattern designs.