Group presentation: summer project feedback

I am considering choosing print for my practice. As the journey I have been through over my summer has helped me conclude to my decision of practice because of my internship with a fashion designer called Derek Rose, who specialises in the pyjamas, I learnt a lot about the print and fashion industry that I am also very interested in and would like to follow this on.

My feedback was constructive and positive. I was in a group of four and we went round on by one presenting our work. In my presentation of my summer project work. I talked about my inspirations in reflections of different artists that have inspired my work and the use of texture and colour that are captured from different places I’ve spent time over my summer.

From my feedback from the rest of the group, Bryony told me to incorporate both film and animation into my practice as they said it’s a strong area of mine. They liked the fact I used a wide range of different artist for each of my drawings. They told me that I should choose print, as a lot of my drawings and patterns in my summer project reflect the practice. Alice said my bird designs reflect print and that I should create more bird patterns as it is one of the strongest parts of my sketch book. They said that my work had been well thought out and everything is considered in my work. 

Charlotte told me I should consider urban influences for my next topic in my work as she said the collar blocks think to it. They said that if I was to improve my work, It would be to have a sort of theme/pathway that goes on developing throughout my sketchbook rather than loads of little topics.

Derek Rose Internship: What Did I Learn

It was interesting to find out how the designers at Derek Rose create their textile collections. I was shown the different stages you need to go through to get fabric printed.  I helped check the strike off sheets to make sure that all of the information is correct. The designers will get small strike offs made of the prints before they get all of the fabric printed so that they can check it looks correct. I then learnt about the different printing techniques used. 

At Derek Rose, they use screen and digital printing. If the design is a geometric for example and has lots of colours, they might use digital printing because it needs to be lined up perfectly.  Also, screens are expensive and you have to have a screen for every colour you use. I learnt that red and navy are hard to print together because the colours mix. Also, silk makes colours and prints look really vibrant and rich.

I am really inspired by the use of colour at Derek Rose and how they consider what will look luxurious and also be commercial.   

A day with Mr Rose: Interview

I got the chance to work with Mr Rose himself organising and going through all his archive dating back to the 1950s. He is very inspiring and passionate about textiles and took the time to talk me though the archive. I also got the chance to interview him which helped me learn a bit more about the textile industry and how textile courses compare to 60 years ago. I found it interesting how textile courses in the 1950s were more about the machinery, construction and pattern.  My observation of current textiles courses is that they are less to do with construction and focus more on the artistic side.

Why did you decide to go into the Textiles Industry?

Because my father had been in it. My father had started in the pyjama business in 1926. As you may have seen and I came into the business in 1953, after school I went and studied textiles in Salford and then came into the business from there. I decided I like the textile business and if you don’t like what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it.

What kind of techniques did you learn in your textile degree?

We actually learnt about everything, even the raw cotton. We all had the machinery in Salford, we had the Hopper Bail Breaker carding machine and all the spinning machinery and looms. We had the normal plane loom. We used to weave our own fabrics. We would make our own designs on graph paper and then convert that into a dobby design. Then we knocked the pegs into the things that went round the dobby loom. The way it worked was it would lift the warp threads and that’s why your design was made on graph paper, so that every little square if it was coloured in, it was a peg to lift the warped threads. And so the design was made and don’t forget I’m talking about the 1950s, so I’m talking about 60 years ago, so lots of the machinery you get today didn’t exist back then.

Why did your father decide to go into the textile industry?

In the First World War. He was working in aircraft factory covering airplanes in fabric. It was a sort of cloth and then after the war, he decided to go into a shirt factory. He met a gentleman that became his working partner. They left the shirt factory and started a business of their own. So In 1926, they decided to make pyjamas because there weren’t many people making them.

Were there any difficulties with your father’s business?

To succeed in anything, it’s going to be difficult. Nothing is easy, but my father worked hard at it, and succeeded it and they made a name for themselves. We became the biggest name in pyjamas at the time. My father and his partner carried on the business from 1926 to about 1971 and then he sold the business and I started my own business with my brother-in-law, which is this business, and so all my working life I have been in the nightwear business.

How do you choose the colours for the pyjamas?

What we do is, we take colours that we think are going to be commercial. If you are not commercial. You won’t sell. I mean, you don’t sell the colour brown in pyjamas, right! It’s a no-no. So we don’t do brown in pyjamas that is as an example. Blue is your number one, then all the other colours follow on.

Your quite famous for your blue aren’t you?

Well blue is especially for a man. Men will have any colour you’ll get them as long as it’s blue. We found that women were buying more men’s pyjamas, then men were buying. Women were buying them for their husbands, boyfriends and fathers as gifts for Christmas, birthdays or general presents. So we decided to make the designs to attract the eye of the woman rather than the man, because the man, buying clothes is very boring for them and very conservative. Men would buy blue and blue and blue and blue. Boring! So we made a lot of multi coloured designs and nice designs that would attract the woman buying them and is still does. So we have both sets of pyjamas. We have the basic blues and white etc, but then we also have the multicoloured fancy and print designs. These are the things that have developed over the past 40 years. 

Derek Rose Internship

I recently spent two weeks in central London interning at Derek Rose. I learnt a huge amount about the textiles and fashion industry and it has also inspired my personal work. Working with the designers gave me a good look into how the design process works from inspiration to design.  It was very fun and interesting and I was constantly busy with different tasks, which I had to perform to the highest standard. This included organising fabrics, making mood boards, research and participating in design meetings.

All fabrics used at Derek Rose have to feel luxurious, as they need to be comfortable to wear in bed and around the house. The colour palette of the classic sleepwear collection uses a lot of blue and also colours inspired by the regimental colours from the war.  The seasonal sleepwear collection uses modern and bright colour palettes. 

                                       

Patchwork Painting

N4t4 has been a graffiti artist that I have always been inspired by for as long as I can remember. N4t4 based his work around illustration. N4t4 enjoys working with different media and the concept of aboriginal markings and graffiti art.  I am influenced by N4t4’s use of layering and vibrant colour. So in my own painting modelled by my father, I wanted to add a modern twist by change the concept of traditional portraits and add my own modern twist upon the both of these paintings. I tried to express the use of mood and visual language by using my own technique of vibrant colours and patchwork pattern. I could go on to develop this further by creating texture and using vibrant threads to creating an embroidery piece.

This piece is called Jubilee skate park face1, Out of all off his pieces I’ve looked at I am drawn to this one the most. What really captures me about this piece is how the position of the head is angled and the set of the head is faded away. The colours are striking an enigmatic and complex facial expression dominates the piece. The figures plump lips and the play of light which deifnse the facial surfaces give the piece a sensual, even erotic air.  

Dad & Me

I am interested in using the human element of relationship with family and friends in a way that draws out its complex nature. This embroidery piece is a machine sewed drawing showing the birth of myself and my father holding me for the first time. I made this embroidery piece as a birthday present over his August birthday.  These relationships shape our character and are completely fundamental to the kinds of people we turn in to, to our understanding of ourselves and to our understanding of our place in the world. I find Laura McCafferty work particularly interesting; because her compositions are so unusual and unique that they really subvert the meaning of traditional family scenes  I am interested in the fact that family relationships are in one sense private and self contained, but at the same time they take place within the context of the society and they are shaped by its judgements and values.  So I’m interested in exploring the fine line between what is private and what is public in relationships with family and friends.
  

Laura McCafferty uses textiles, sewing and screen printing to create textured scenes of everyday life.  Her work has a slightly absurd or surreal feeling.  She uses colourful construction with lots of floral prints.  Her work is figurative and she often depicts people engaged in everyday activities.  It is, perhaps, the contrast between her offbeat composition, floral-textured backgrounds, and the mundane nature of the tasks in which her characters are engaged, that lends her work its peculiar atmosphere.  She is particularly interested in the nature of human existence, as understood through the everyday experiences that we can all relate to.

The Old Card Players shows a group of old men playing poker.  She connects to this group because it is her grandfather and his friends but more generally she is making a point here about the importance of friends across the life span.  The image could represent old people – or indeed any people – around the world because their physical attitudes reflect the subtle and complex nature of human social interaction.  The image also has her typical use of mixed techniques, appliqué of floral prints and a slightly off-kilter composition that lends the piece a quirky and homespun air, creating a warm atmosphere with perhaps undercurrents of something more sinister, even perhaps absurd.

Life Drawing

I spend an hour down by the docks, in my hometown Bristol, doing live drawings. I drew things around me that interested me and caught my eye. I potentially like to use the concept of life drawing for developmental work to create alternative and unique designs.

 

                     

Hyde Park Bird Designs

I went to Hyde Park and discovered the amount of geese, swans and ducks there were. It interested me how different types of birds creating different patterns and compositions with their bodies working in unison. These photos that I have taken describe the visual elegance of movement of these birds.

These photos helped me with my first-hand research by going on and developing them into bird patterns. I was influenced by a print-based designer Amy Sia I discovered on pinterest. Sia is well known for her cushion cover and scarf print designs. She uses exciting colour and modern patterns that have really encouraged me in my work.
http://www.amy-sia.com/collections/cushions

Saatch Gallery: Antonio Malta

I went to the Saatchi Gallery in London and one painting stood out from me. A Painting created by Antonio Malta. His use of composition, shape and bold colour has really inspired my work. This piece of artwork itself is untitled but standing as a large scale of 230x360cm. This painting was so unique I was later to find out that Malta creates YouTube videos of the stages of his work.

                                                                                  

This has really interested me and I wanted to create a self-portraits using only an ink pen and the use of line pattern drawing, as influenced by the shapes of Antonio Malta. The effect of the video almost displays that the drawing is being created by itself.

Facial Fetchers

Ricardo Fumanal is interested in the fine art of photography for fashion and advertising. He specialises in illustration drawing using a broad array of techniques and languages. The media he mainly uses is mainly drawing with marker, pencil and ink on paper and constructing compositions his work that show two meanings.

His work looks as if action of speed and stillness exist working side by side creating a gaze effect upon his work. His images flow and it provides a representation as a collage of human activity. His compositing experiments with confrontation between figures and background; he is inspired by icons and spontaneously topical items that influence his work and make it unique and interesting.













The detailed representation of how he makes materials even shine in his work to make the clothing upon the person look life like. He likes to layer his work, and experiment with different blocks of colour; he shows beauty in its finest with his delicate use of shape and tone. The subject matter is important to my work as I like to construct composition and delicate line through my drawings. My drawings are often personal. This is a drawing of a very good friend of mine and I wanted to show the intricacy and the sculptor like form of the facial features. Using the elements of Fumanal’s composition tone of sketch and use of blocked colour I have created my own response to his work and as an artist he inspires me to draw people showing their true personality and figment of beauty.