Evaluation of Origins: Mixed Media & Print Rotations

Over the past 6 weeks, I have developed a very exciting bundle of experimental work. I have learnt an awful lot of techniques and ways of working, and I have also learnt a lot about the style I tend to work towards.

For the first rotation I worked with Mixed Media. I personally really disliked this way of working, I found it very hard in Mixed Media to create 3D sculptures and art forms, the whole three weeks was focused on ‘playing with a number of materials’ and for some reason I found this difficult. I am used to working towards a final outcome, I enjoy working/experimenting in ways to create a design/outcome at the end however until the third week we were not working towards making anything in particular, this made me feel a little lost within the rotation itself.

Even though Mixed Media didn’t suit the way I tend to work, I personally feel that my drawing skills improved massively, nothing is ever classed as wrong in art and this is what I loved about drawing from our objects. We were set a number of drawings tasks which involved simple sketchy drawings, detailed and also timed drawings. I was able to be very expressionate within the way I put my range of media onto paper and I like that.

I learnt a lot throughout the three weeks in mixed media, using the laser cutting machine was great fun, I really enjoyed designing particular shapes in which I could later put into the laser cutter program to be sent to the machine.
I personally wish that I had experimented further within my laser cutter workshops and with my independent study time because overall at the end of my three weeks I did not have a final outcome. When looking over my mixed media work as a whole, I would personally say that because I struggled in the first two weeks it meant that even though I had ideas for designing in a 3D mixed media format, nothing was actually visually created.

I do not want to be in the same situation as I was left in after Mixed Media which is why from day one of Print I have made sure I have been a lot more organised and committed. I have documented, made daily lists, took photographic evidence and critically assessed my work throughout so that I am on track with the work load and time limit we have. I will continue to do this throughout the rotations.
  

(laser sample on mdf wood- engraving of my hand drawn designs)

 

Print was the rotation in which I have been looking forward to the most, my mind set seems to always focus on print, whether it be digital print, mono-print, hand-print or screen-printing.

From day one the print rotation was extremely hands on, it was very hard work and there was an awful lot of work to complete, however I loved the fast paced environment and way of working.

The first two weeks we were focusing on working with black and white mediums only, I produced so many drawings both detailed and sketches in black and white media I had never thought of working with before. I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed working in black and white until I created these pieces of work.
Designing prints for our screens was something I enjoyed, I was really happy with the quality of the screen and I loved how effective the prints actually came out in the end.
From day one the print rotation was extremely hands on, it was very hard work and there was an awful lot of work to complete, however I loved the fast paced environment and way of working.

 

(photograph taken of a range of my samples- on acetate

fabrics, sketches)

(photograph taken to show my final mounted print collection-

very happy with my collection as a whole)

Above are five of my final prints mounted, I personally chose to mount these prints because of the juxtaposition in colour and imagery. I particularly really liked how effective my silk screen print came out, I used a deep purple and also a burgundy pigment dye onto the white silk, the prints of my drawn sewing threads and necklace were very clearly printed as the detail in my fine-liner drawings are expressed with the use of my chosen pigment dyes.

Working in the print room was something I was excited about doing, I made sure I planned out what I was hoping to achieve when in the print room so that I didn’t waste any time when in there.
I am happy with my print work and also the quality I have worked to, one style of print that I am particularly happy with is where I have combined both screen and mono print together. By combining print techniques and use of pigment/reactive dyes I have shown that I have printed techniques with a personal approach.
I would defiantly revisit this way of working in the near future.  

Evaluation of my 'Origins' Mixed Media Journey

When I initially started my first three weeks of mixed media within 'Origins' I was very sceptical and unsure on how to create and expand my 2D mind set into a 3D way of working.
Personally, throughout the first two weeks of my experimenting I didn't enjoy the processes and the 3D way of working. In the third and final week I felt more confident however, in a way this was a shame because I felt that it was too late to complete a number of ideas as I should of thought of them in the beginning weeks.

Friday Drawings were my most productive days of the whole week, I felt that Friday was always the day in which everything was explained, I used Fridays to evaluate my weeks worth of work and I could make a number of lists of what I was going to improve on to develop my experimentation further.  

One of our independent study tasks was to draw 100 line drawings in which we would later manipulate onto Illustrator. I had never worked on Illustrator before however, I pretty much straight away grasped the basics and I quite enjoyed this digital way of drawings. We picked 5 of our line drawings and drew these onto Illustrator, these drawings were later used to create our materialised samples of using the laser machine.

 

Iris Van Herpen is one designer that influenced my work throughout, her continuous fashion collections are full of detailed 3D sculptural designs. Her work and design process is truly amazing, I wanted to experiment and underline how she makes such strong defining shapes within her work.
I began working with paper, plain boring white paper.. At first, I did think "Why have we been told to experiment with A3/A4 paper?" However, I soon got into the hang of things, I was creating shapes and texture I didn't think was possible using such little equipment.

From these 3D paper samples, I used materials and fabrics to develop and extend my knowledge of 3D sampling. I enjoyed working with paper more than I did fabrics because I found it harder for the fabrics to hold together and create the defining shape in which I could quite easily create with paper.

From paper and fabric sampling, I then translated what I had learnt by booking an hour session using the laser machine. As you can see I developed my initial Iris Van Herpen influence and created an engraved, cut out lasered MDF sample.
Personally, I was quite annoyed at how my samples came out with the laser, I had missed the first lasering induction so when it came to my sampling they didn't come out as effective as I had liked. There was only a couple of samples in which I liked from the laser, as some materials I had bought to laser melted under the heat which meant there was no design lasered.

Above is my MDF sample showing an intricate approach to Illustrator and the Laser cutter.
Even though I have not enjoyed Mixed Media as much as I might others, I feel that it was definitely a good idea to experiment with working in this practice and I hope that I can develop my work in the future by incorporating this area of textiles within my practice.

Artist Research; Mixed Media; Iris Van Herpen

 

 

 

Iris Van Herpen is one designer who relates strongly to my current ‘Origins’ project. She was one of the designers I researched into at the beginning of the ‘Origins’ project as she creates 3d sculptured designs for her collections. Iris Van Herpen’s repeated shapes are also very interesting to me, the sizing of her shapes create a very strong outcome onto her garments. She cleverly creates a very electric defining approach to the way she works, I have created paper forms of triangular designs in which I have attached together to create a 3D form which I got influence from her style of working.
I would like to use to laser cutter to develop my paper samples and create 3D sculpture forms with materials which will have further influence to her work. I would like to be able to produce a repetitive design which is simple however express a bold and defining outcome.