First Digital Print Designs

The fourth year students at Edinburgh College of Art were given a project last year (2011) in which they would collaborate with students at another institution. ECA students looked at Ayrshire needlework and paisley patterns and produced an A2 design from their own personal drawings. The textile designs were then sent to the partner institution so that they could then add or remove what they felt was necessary. They could do this by printing, stitching beading, discharge printing, unravelling and cutting.

Where did we (2nd years) come in? Once the partner institution sent the A2 samples back, we were given a project in which we then had to try to make the sample our own. We were allowed to add our own drawings and our own take of ayrshire needlework or paisley pattern. However we had to keep some of what had been done by the fourth years. We were allowed to zone in on a section that we really liked and found interesting. 

When I initially saw the sample that I would be working from I was very happy and excited. I loved the idea behind the design, Anna looked at paisley patterns to begin with and then ventured into looking at the woad plant and its dying properties. Anna initially did drawings of the woad plant, then dyed the fabric using woad to dye the fabric and then printed the design using normal binder. Anna had also included some stitch work at the bottom of the piece. I decided to include my family history into the piece using my family christening gown as well as some of my drawings of the woad plant. Hope you like them.

The image above is the final design which will be printed digitally... very excited!! Not been printed yet but watch this space for photographs of the finished piece!! 

New Photoshop Designs for Interior Project

 These designs consist of about four different layers of patterns. I decided to put them all together because by themselves they looked like they were floating, whereas when they're together I feel they flow together a lot more. Personally I find there is also a lot more depth to them, as you notice something different each time you look up close. All the layers were hand drawn, whether it was with watercolours, oil pastels, chalk pastels or pens. Then on photoshop I have created many different layers of floral patterns by placing different floral drawings together, until I am happy with them. I then decided to see what it would be like having loads of patterns together on  top of each other and changing the opacity levels. The ones above are all the same pattern but using slightly different colour variations.

This design above shows what this one looked like before the next lot of images.

The next two images below again show what two of my designs have looked like below before I have mixed them with other designs and changed the colours.

These ones now again are the after effects of merging other designs.

Please leave comments and let me know what you think, again this is just a snippet of what I have been doing.

ALL IMAGES FEATURED ON THIS BLOG BELONG TO EMILY COLLISTER, PLEASE ASK PERMISSION FOR USE OF THESE IMAGES.

Creating Patterns using Photoshop

In these photoshoped images, I have used all my own drawings to create the repeat patterns and the crackle background. The block colour backgrounds were done using photoshop.

ALL ARTWORK ON THIS BLOG BELONGS TO EMILY COLLISTER UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.

Experimenting with photoshop using my drawings

Just thought I would post a few of my experiments from photoshop, where I have been changing my drawings whether it be adding colour, repeating an area, shrinking or enlarging parts, or even rotating them. For some of these drawings I have even experimented in creating my own brushes from parts of my original drawings.

ALL ARTWORK ON THIS BLOG BELONGS TO EMILY COLLISTER UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.

Monday Drawing Class 27/2/2012

In the afternoon of yesterday's textile group drawing class, we all worked collaboratively to come up with a mural. We were told to choose 3 colours within our design, and were told to think about scale, painterly lines, block colour areas, changing what medium we were using to draw and rotating imagery like we had done in the morning session. We were able to use acetates of drawings we had done before the class and acetates of what we had been doing in the class on a projector to change the scale of the image for the mural.

This middle section of the mural was painted first. Firstly the 4 horses were drawn with the help of a projector enlarging a students drawing. The horses weren't drawn in full detail as we felt as a group that we should pick the details of the horses we liked the most and draw them in.

Originally we had also painted in two of the images of the umbrella's in the mural, however everything just looked too symmetrical, so we decided to cut out one of the umbrella's and to just leave it as a blank white space. We also figured that we also need more textures and variation in scale as well as some blockier areas to the image. So we ended up adding in really detailed drawing in charcoal pencils of bugs and adding some cirular beads with different textures within the middle of them. As well as these, we added in some block geometric shapes in green and grey, green and grey outlines of geometric shapes and texture using bubble wrap and sponges.

At the end of it all,our tutor asked us to rip and cut the parts of the mural we liked and to stick them together to create a new drawing that was perhaps more refined like we had done to one of our drawings we had done individually earlier in the day. (It just about felt like a stab in the heart after all the time we had spent on it - though we did feel that the end result did look much better.) I think I may rip up my work more often and rework it to see if I can create something more interesting.

(Just thought I would add in this last picture for this post of a close up image of Sophie and John's beautifully drawn bug!)

THIS ARTWORK BELONGS TO EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART STUDENTS - TEXTILE DESIGN 2ND YEAR 2012.

Crackle Effect

This is another piece of work that I have been working on today. I have been trying to recreate parts of an image which looks quite cracked. To create this image, I have used things that I found round the house. Firstly I collaged 2 different colours of tissue paper (that wrapped a cardigan I bought from Anthropologie) one piece was lightly patterned and the other was plain. Once that had dried, I rubbed some ink onto the slightly raised area's with a baby wipe. Again I allowed it to dry, then to dull the colour of the tissue paper, I used a white acrylic mixed with lots of water and used it as a wash and then blotted it with another baby wipe. Once I had used the hairdryer to dry this layer, I then painted a thick coat of a clear crackle paint on top.

These two images here are very zoomed in images of the original piece of work, so the effect is quite subtle it is only when you look very closely that you see all these really interesting amazing cracks.

This image is one that I have manipulated slightly, the others on this post have not been changed.

ALL ARTWORK ON THIS BLOG BELONGS TO EMILY COLLISTER UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.

Being creative some more...

This one and the one below are some of the pieces I have been working on today. I have been using the same techniques as the one on my first post, but I have just been trying to perfect the technique a lot more. Some parts of the techniques I am not able to control as much which means there can be an element of surprise when all is revealed. I have some more photo's to post trying other techniques which I will post a bit later after I have done a couple more!

ALL ARTWORK ON THIS BLO9G BELONGS TO EMILY COLLISTER UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.