Monday weekly lecture 1

The part of this lecture that grabbed me most was Florian Krautli's magnetic curtain. Innovative and versatile, it can form many different shapes, meaning you wouldn't need or want to replace it as quickly as you might with a conventional curtain. Looking on his website, there are many intriguing ideas, some of which work better than others though all are conceptually fascinating. One of my favourites is 'For the birds', a series of lampshades which are made from natural ingredients including tapioca; as a result when the owner wishes to dispose of it they can simply hang it from the nearest tree and the birds will feast on it until it has been demolished. It's always good to see intelligent design which is forward facing and eco friendly.

              

      

Illustrator motifs

Although I was hesitant about the idea of drawing using illustrator, I quite enjoy it and realise how useful and quick it can be when trying out combinations of basic shapes and colours. I wouldn't use it all the time, as hand drawn images have a lovely texture and feel to them, but illustrator can deliver the happy accidents that often happen with manual drawing, adding an unexpected twist.

After the initial session I went through my images to imagine how different shapes could be formed, and tried to find fairly simple, bold ones to begin with. Modified from my original hand drawn designs, I think they have quite a good energy about them, with movement and interesting details. It should be interesting to see results from printing with these motifs.

 

Motif formation

When discussing my drawings with Sally, she explained that for a motif to be successful for screen printing, it must have a good black and white balance, interesting edges and not be overly linear. I began to draw in a different style, mainly with fine liners that would create clear, strong edges and a dark black. 

Based on the bubbles I used a stencil to form circles with reflection marks in the pattern of the orange data marks on most envelopes.

Reflective bubbles

Drawing based on hole punched paper arrangement 

I also revisited the rectangle stencil and combined it with stamp edges to create bridge - like images.

Tackling the bubbles in a new way, I formed a 'splash' motif that is eye-catching and has a detailed edge. The narrow strip of light in the centre would be too narrow to print with on a screen, so I re-drew it with a wider gap to make better prints with later on.

Post Christmas Data

Before Christmas, I started receiving Christmas cards, and the first had an interesting stamp on it; sent from New Zealand, it depicted a character from the upcoming film 'The Hobbit' which had been filmed there. This made me examine the envelope more closely, and I decided to keep it. Soon, other interesting mail came in, with reindeer, and different postmarks and coloured envelopes. I collected them and started to form marks based on them, plotted where they came from on a map to form a pattern, and drew round envelopes. This gave me a good range of images from which to develop motifs.

Stamp edges and postmarks, pencil

Recreating postmarks by drawing round a pritt stick

 

Data exploration

I knew that by collecting my own data I would have a wide scope for the project, and could make interesting, unique and varied images. The simple graph I formed from people sitting at tables in the business school seemed to offer more than the leaflets in terms of potential, because it doesn't rely on other people's graphics and colour choices. For inspiration and visual research we were given a selection of old books to browse so that we could find images that related to our initial data; I focussed on architectural plans, grid-like arrangements and graph like images. For this project I wanted to subvert the grid, in contrast to my embroidery project, and needed to find a way to form grids that weren't too traditional.

I began to mark-make in black and white as instructed; this imposed limitation helped me to concentrate on shape and texture, and I really enjoyed just experimenting and playing with materials. A Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair caught my eye, and by paper cutting I formed a stencil that I then used to flick ink through, and also to paint stripes through.

                                 

                             

Although I was pleased by the results, I preferred the look of the stencil itself once it had been accidentally covered in ink. Its bold and graphic style is eye catching, and the ink saturated the paper, tearing away pieces randomly, forming interesting shapes.

Focussing on the circle shapes, I tried different ways to make marks, using ink and charcoal.

Spattered ink 

 

Rolled charcoal creates pretty negative shapes

While pipetting ink onto paper these amazing bubbles formed. I liked the reflections.

Moving on from wet media, I started trying our paper solutions, looking at layers and paper cutting, using the rectangle stencil as inspiration.

Introducing text

Sampling Drawing Days and Initial Data

At the start of this unit, we had a series of drawing days designed to widen our approach to mark making and drawing. This was a good reminder to try out new methods and experiment; below is the 2B pencil drawing done with my left (non-dominant) hand where we were instructed to form a continuous circle with rings no more than 3mm apart.

 

2B Pencil Drawing

We also participated in a 'chinese whispers' exercise, where an instruction was delivered from one person to the next. I received 'collect graphs, numbers and grids', and headed to the Hub to observe my surroundings. The most noticeable thing was the constant movement of people in the space, so i decided to create my own graph by plotting people's positions at the tables. I also collected together vouchers, tickets and leaflets I had in my bag.