Reflection Notes

Demonstration of Technical & Visual Skills-  I think I have shown good observational skills and awareness in terms of colour and pattern.  The design and composition of my Colour Resource Book and its contents has resulted in a positive outcome and shown my capabilities are improving.

Quality of Outcome – I have tried to choose the best of my work to be presented in my Resource Book and put them together in a coherent manner that translates well.  I think my overall I present my work well and communicate my ideas.

Demonstration of Creativity – In my resource book I have used the work I have produced to experiment with different ideas and inspire moods and feelings with extra textile based mini projects and words.  I feel like I have been given the freedom to create my own personal style with this project.

Context –  My Blog helps me to reflect on what I feel I have done well or struggled with and I find that writing about the projects helps me to focus on what I need to improve upon.  I have been researching different making techniques for books and pin loom weaving but I need to remember to also add this research to my blog.

Reflection on Colour Studies – Assignment 3

I feel like I have learnt so much during this section of the course but still only scratched the surface in real terms.  Having not really attempted colour mixing with paints etc. before, I now feel much more confident in trying out new mediums for my mark making and drawings which can only be a good thing as I have had a tendency to play it safe.  I have a greater understanding of colour schemes and the different effects and moods that can be created by utilising these methods with projects and will now put this knowledge to use when creating new pieces of work.

I particularly enjoyed working with the fabrics and yarns and feel that this was where I had the most successful outcomes and also gave me the most inspiration.  I found the watercolours quite difficult to get to grips with but I really liked the softness of colour quality that was achieved so would like to delve more into trying to improve my skills in this.

I found the collage exercises interesting and saw the value in completing the different colour schemes.  Although not my favourite medium, it did increase my understanding through practical application and it was a good way of creating inspiration for new projects from a perhaps overlooked source.

The making of the Colour Resource Book was by far my most enjoyable project so far, and I would definitely like to make some more books.  Originally I wanted to create a fabric cover for my book, but after experimenting with primary colours and paper paste I decided on the latter.  This is definitely something I would like to revisit, ad perhaps utilise for future assignment submissions.

Colour Resource Book

I was really excited to get started on this assignment and start experimenting with book designs and covers.  I have seen and been researching different book binding and covering techniques.  Because the work I will be including in the book will sometimes be bulky I need to create a binding technique that will allow the pages to take this.  Japanese book binding seems to be the best idea for me as it will allow the pages to take bulkier materials.  I wanted to experiment with different types of covering for the front of my book, based around the theme of colour.  For me the biggest thing I have learnt through my work on colour studies is colour mixing and it has been a real eye opener. I want my front cover to be based around the primary triad and the mixing of the colours and I would like to incorporate some stitch, perhaps some free machine embroidery but I am undecided yet as to what materials to use.  I am going to experiment with paste papers and also having been inspired by the photo of the wallcovering from earlier research with layers of painted fabric stitched together so the different layers can effect the colours beneath.

My first step was to make up some paste for my paste papers.  I made a simple paste from cornflour and water then added acrylic paint to form my three primary colours.  I experimented with sponges, and combs homemade from old store cards and worked on trying to create patterns that blended the colours.  The comb gave a really nice textured effect but didn’t blend the colours as much as I’d hoped, however using a flat edge and applying the paste in a different way I found that I could get a lovely blend from one colour to the next.

Primary Colours painted onto Paper then patterned with home made comb

Paper paste manipulated with old credit card

I really loved the effect I got with the old credit card by blobbing paper paste onto paper then swirling with mixtures of red, yellow and blue.  I did some further experiments with this technique before I got something that I was happy with for the cover of my book.

I started the construction of my book by cutting grey board pieces then covering with plain black paper for the spine and my paste paper for the front.

I wanted to make sure the paper inside was strong enough to hold my work so decided to go for white card, which I knew was going to be quite difficult to stitch and work with but other heavy papers that might have been easier weren’t bright white which was what I wanted.  Before binding my book together I wanted to make sure I had a nice stitch pattern that I’d practised so I did a few designs on white card and played around with the technique first.  I found a nice multicolour embroidery thread that I thought I’d like to use, but as it tends to split quite easily I waxed it first before starting to combine the cover and pages together.

After reviewing my work in Colour Studies and choosing pieces to go in my book I decided to create some further work to demonstrate what I have learnt both through the projects and other research that I have done.  Some of the research I have done has been textile based so I wanted to include these pieces in my book as they relate to the projects, and how my understanding of colour has developed.  I began looking at each piece of work that I had created and decided on the order they should go in and how I would communicate the colours and ideas in each piece.  I wanted to show the work I had done in Gouache Studies, learning about colour mixing so I decided to create a colour wheel and greyscale to include at the beginning of the book as it seemed a suitable introduction to a colour resource book.  My subsequent pages have taken the form of mood boards that hopefully communicate the colour and feeling of the pieces of work and also offer further inspiration.  My woven textile piece in Gouache Studies was really interesting as it was a combination of different strands but woven together to create colours instead of for instance mixing paint to create the same effect.  I decided to have a little experimentation with this technique so I made a little pin loom and used some wools and fibres I had to make a woven rectangle.  I also played around with the difference in colour effects when dark backgrounds or light background are used with woven/knotted embroidery threads.

Moving on to my next pages I had a better idea of the style I wanted my layouts to take.  I wanted each page to form almost a mood board, both showing the work I had completed and also representing the colour schemes, thoughts and ideas; a kind of reference or ‘resource for me to use in the future.  Which I suppose, is the general idea!