textiles

the other week was our textiles workshop which i had been looking forward to. i'm really interested in surface design and pattern so i was excited to learn more about the subject. at the beginning of the week, i felt as though it was very similar to the illustration course as we were doing a lot of experimental drawing to begin with. however, we were studying still life compositions rather than birds like we used in illustration. i really enjoyed working with inks and emulsion paints again, as i believe that they work well to create interesting textures and effects. we then moved on to studying specific parts of our compositions and drawing them in much finer detail. i chose a to focus upon a sheep's skull and part of a belt. throughout the week we experimented with mono-printing and sewing. i have used both of these techniques a number of times before but had never been so hands on and experimental with them. i really enjoyed mono-printing as it's a very simple method of printing and requires a lot less skill and patience than the others! our final outcome task was to decorate two paper strips with patterns and colours lifted from our compositional studies. i chose to make my strips quite abstract and experimental so i zoomed in very close to parts of my study so parts of them were almost unrecognisable. i used colours from a palette which i composed myself to suggest colour and form and then worked on top of those with emulsion and mono-prints to add depth and create new and interesting forms within those in the composition. finally, i used different lengths of stitch and thread to suggest finer details such as cracks in the skull and details in the belt. i really enjoyed the textiles workshop and was very pleased with my outcomes. i feel as though they are really successful and can imagine them as textile prints and patterns to be used on garments such as dresses and jackets.