Colour, Motifs, and Clarissa Hulse

Colour Palette

I created a colour palette using photoshop, based on my research photographs and drawings. I looked at the colours Digetex provided for the camouflage board when choosing them, and tried to get a range of warm and cool colours so I can create designs that differ from each other in terms of mood. I gave the colours relevant unique names so they will be easily identifiable in future, as I would if my designs were being put into production by a client.

Brush Motifs

I made a large range of brushes to use so that my designs will not be too repetitive. Before starting to form images on photoshop I tested each one to see how it lays down colour and to see exactly what I had to work with. This really helped when it came to composition, because the motifs were fresh in my mind so I knew which one would, for example add a grainy texture or sharp edge. These are some of the brushes I made; for some I tested them with one click, and then with several to see the contrast. Again this helped to save time later on.

Photoshop Designs

I began to experiment with colour and composition, and produced designs of varying complexity, each with their own form of camouflage. All are quite busy, so best suited to digital design, and use a range of colours, in a deliberately bold or subtle way. I think they work well, and could form part of a collection despite the different emphasis for each. In previous projects a weakness was a lack of variety when it came to the scale of my motifs, so here I tried to use medium, large and small scale ones respectively. It adds another dimension to the work and extends the range of the collection.

Left: some shells are negatives of others, a subtle form of camouflage
Middle: shells ad feathers become palm leaves, and butterfly wings are parasols
Right: Texture and colour are used to conceal this sea urchin-like motif,
which itself is actually a sea sponge  

Left: experimenting with spacing of motifs and colour combinations
Middle: layering textures to see what works well and what new shapes can form
Right: the purple motifs are actually negatives, which isn't obvious straight away

Motifs for Screen

At first when choosing motifs for screen printing I picked my favourites from my digital designs, and used far too many. I narrowed them down, but after talking with the technician from the fine art (paper) side of the print room I realised that I couldn't use my usual technique of printing several different motifs from one screen onto different pieces of fabric before cleaning it. This is due to the much shorter time it takes for pigment to permanently block the screens on the paper side. This meant having to go back through my motifs and choosing them in a different way, prioritising easy coverage and pulling through, and increasing scale. I picked out the simpler photoshop designs and used the motifs from them for my screen selection (see below). There are 6 motifs, each A3 in size. This should help to achieve coverage quickly.

Both examples are simple in terms of motifs (2 each) and colours (3 each)

Final choice of screen motifs, 2 of which will provide background texture

I also needed another (quicker) way to form a background; rubbing wouldn't work on good quality paper, and line drawing or printing would take too long. Looking back through my research drawings I realised that watercolour would be a good solution as it is quick and provides a contrast to the defined edges of motifs on screen. Watercolour paper which is durable and able to take paint, and also has a slightly textured surface that I could always work into afterwards if needed. I still wanted to keep the printing to a relative minimum so picked out simple, bold photoshop designs and used the motifs from them for my screen selection.

Clarissa Hulse

I looked at a screen print designer called Clarissa Hulse, (also on Teresa's suggestion) and her work is really inspiring; she uses colour in a bold, fearless way and uses natural subject matter elegantly to form shapes and stripes. From a distance it isn't clear what the shapes are, and because of the bright colours you wouldn't assume that they are natural forms. This fits in well with the idea of camouflage and shows that a few motifs can go far if they are presented in an interesting way. Her work encouraged me to be highly selective when choosing motifs and to be less afraid of using vibrant colours together in my designs. Hopefully I will be able to carry this through into the print room.