paint paint paint, cut cut cut !

At the last tutorial, my tutor suggested me to use my own paper instead of colour cards from the artstore. This is really a basic thing, so I was embarrassed that I have bothered painting paper by myself and bought them only for saving time.
Now I got my own paper which is much better in terms of colour and texture compared to the one from the shop, and I'm happy with it.

With the paper I made, I have done small pieces of collage (approx. A5)
I cannot believe I hated collage so much, it is now a necessary part of my design process. 

Before cutting and paste paper, I try not to think too much, and just decide composition as I like it. It sometimes works, and sometimes not, but at least I can move forward anyway.

The quality of colours of those photos below are, unfortunately, very disappointing, so hope you imagine real, lovely colour.

The biggest event this week was a super short trip to London.
There are too many exciting exhibitions going on at the moment, among all, Matisse Cutouts exhibition at Tate Modern Gallery is the best in my opinion. It was a surprise that he originally applied his cutout techniques to oil painting work so that he can try out many different compositions. The scale of cut out pieces were stunning, the colour was well-considered, and lots of pin holes suggested that he put paper on and off many times before he pastes it in right place.

Anyway it was amazing !

mess

This week became a tough one for me. The more I draw, the more I get confused.

I spent almost whole week on colour research, then started drawing but only with paint. It was quite fun to apply the colour and patterns into my B&W drawings, but they were just too flat and no texture though it takes me ages.

By Tuesday I completely got lost, so the tutorial was really helpful.  First, Susan told me a couple of things to look at—Jazz age art and Matisse's cutwork—which are different to Mexican folk art but relevant to my design. It was actually good to know them, that I felt I got a clue to get back on the track finally. Now I'm going more abstract way rather  than pictorial painting, as I see in those artists' work.

What I learnt from this is to concentrate on drawing is important but to keep gathering information is necessary too. I often try to complete each drawing even if they seem not successful, and this kind of attitude may help to keep quality of drawings high but it definitely slows down the progress. To avoid going round in circles, secondary research and quick drawings shouldn't be ignored.

The second thing is to come out of sketchbook. I was quite embarrassed when she pointed out that I was woking within a small A4 sketchbook, because I should have known how limited a way of working it is. After being out of rectangle sheets, I can draw more freely.

Davis Stuart

Matisse

The main concept so far is unusual combinations of people, flowers and birds, yet most of my drawings look much more colour focused than each object I selected to draw. It means I have to be careful about details and shapes, and explore more next week.

once a week I feel I'm an art student

Here is a couple of drawings which I selected for this week workshop activity. The top one is 'Outlived I' and the bottom is 'Outlived II' both are done by an American artist Pat Perry in January 2012.

I wondered if they are a right choice, because the drawings are too new and so as the artist who is apparently young, and it's not been long after he's known to the world. For me, it seemed easier to focus on very famous artists from the past, so the sufficient information is on the internet and books, and the artistic styles of him/her are already discussed enough. Despite this, I liked Pat's art and a kind of philosophy belonging to him, and it made me think it is challenging but worth to research on a new artist.

A major part about him is unknown, so this is difficult to tell about 'manifest' of his work. In one of a few interviews, he answered to a question 'What are you trying to achieve with your art?'. He says his aim is to 'encourage people to look at the world in a different more beautiful way' through the art. It means his art is not only telling people the artist's aesthetics and something inside of him but asking people to feel and think by themselves.

I often have a too passive attitude towards art pieces, or oppositely I am too enthusiastic to lean something from them. However, Pat's drawings let me think in a natural way apart from academic aspects, and I think this is why his art attracted me and many other people.

week 1

The first week back in school was relaxing.

On Monday and Wednesday morning, we worked on craft and drawing activities in small groups. It seemed less suitable for our age, but I found that quite a few of materials provided by tutors were unfamiliar to me, so it was fun and inspiring to play with them.

At pechakucha on Friday, I found myself getting used to making presentation compared to the last year. I still have problems in every aspect—especially timing—but at least I could speak more confidently without giving an uncomfortable smile at all time.

stitch samples on paper

In this weekend, I visited GSA graduate degree show at lighthouse. There were many things to learn from master students' work—the work itself and how to present it to the public.
From one of portfolios, I knew an interesting embroidery artist. The artist is called Jazmin Berakha who works in Buenos Aires. She uses a lot of cheerful colours, and I liked the different look of colours which changes depending on background colours.

namaste India

   I'd like to introduce a book called Contemporary Indian Fashion(library catalogue number: 746.920 954 ROC) which I found in the library. The book's cover is beautiful from a textiles' point of view and this is why I borrowed it.

   Indian textile is famous for their traditional women's shawl called Sari, but their contemporary scenes of fashion and textiles haven't been internationally well known yet. To be honest, I couldn't come up with no indian textiles designers until I read this book.

   India is one of the most developing countries, and the influence can be seen in art as well as economy. In that book, almost 20 fashion designers are introduced, and most of their collections are very interesting in terms of textiles, not only fashion. The work consists of unique sense of colour, skills and influence of western culture, and it is absolutely different to any other kinds of  designers' collection.

   I felt ashamed myself having not tried to look at modern scenes of asian textiles even though I'm from asia and it seems easier to get information than people in the west. The world is much broader than I knew, and so as the fashion and textiles industry. There'll be more and more things I must see.

Manish Arora

Right: Fall 2011, Left: Fall 2012

Right: Spring 2013, Left: Fall 2010

Annamika Khanna

Spring/Resort 2011

A treader, the inspiration of the collection above

 photographed by Christian Courreges, French photographer

shake it

My development samples of this week were especially related to fringes.  The key image is the one below, a photo of flower which I found in the botanical gardens. The idea of making fringes had been developed while I was working on technical samples.

These two designs are more successful in comparison with the other development samples, because I could relate my drawing to the contextual awareness. 

Tim Ryan S/S 2010

what do you see on the cutting edge of knit?

   As the workshop started yesterday, I've started looking for interesting knit design. At the begginig of this project, I found some inspiring design, although I rather needed to find art which is related to the theme of the project, bloom. At this time, I need to find designers, and I found more interesting knit designs that I've found before.

   The photos below are knit design by 2 designers; the first two are by Mark Fast, and the others are by Craig Lawrence. Few colours and 3 dimentional design particularly interests me at the moment, and the ideas could be apllied for my own project.

  My tutor explained that more than 60% of clothes in the modern world are knitted. The thing I would imagine with the word 'knit' was a bland knitted jumper, but the latest knit design is actually stunning!

Mark Fast 

S 2010 rtw

F 2011 rtw

Craig Lawrence  

colouring books

My drawings are getting simpler, and harder to identify the original photo. After doing texture drawing, I've been concentrated to symbolisation of the shapes. It is difficult to break down the botanical shapes and to leave only necessary elements. I don't really like these drawings below to be honest, but believe it is good to try variety of drawing styles.

I've been to Edinburgh this yesterday, and visited Dovecot studios. As there's no current exhibitions at the moment, I thought I wouldn't go, but now I can say it was well worth visiting. I found a book called Pretty Deadly at the museum shop, and knew an artist Michael Brennand-Wood. His work is very different to the others, and it is literally exploding. I'm sorry for having been not able to see the original (the exhibition has already finished only few days ago), but it was good to know a new artist.

inspiration spot: the library

   Today was the first day of uni, so we have been briefed about DP project in the morning and the afternoon was free. Therefore I went to the library after lunch, and searched for interesting designers and artists. Once I am on journey of searching inspiration, it takes much longer time than I would firstly be expected.

   One of my bad habits is jumping the subject from one to another. This time was the same, although I had to look for designer/artists who I have researched before, I was excited to others as I realised. Usually, I hardly look at magazine racks on upstairs in the library and go to the PC room straightaway, but today, I did. The one I took a look was Embroidery magazine, and an article caught my eyes. It was about a freelance embroidery designer who studied embroidery at Ecole Lesage in Paris. I was kind of familiar with the name—maybe I saw the book about the school before—, but I searched it later as I wasn't sure. Actually, the world of haute couture must be like heaven, and Maison Lesage is the one who lives in there, and Ecole Lesage is a school founded by him in 1992 when I was born! The studio of Maison Lesage gets job from world's the most famous fashion designers such as Chanel and Dior, and dresses embellished with embroidery in many techniques are absolutely amazing.

   After a while, I was looking for fashion designers who made dresses inspired by tulips for some reason, then happened to know a Japanese designer Tadashi Shoji. It is embarrassing thing to know too few fashion designers although I am studying textile design, and so the discovery of new designers often happens to me. His design is elegant, no 'too much' nor 'too less' and different to other famous Japanese fashion designers. His career is interesting as well, he was originally studying contemporary art until going to NY in 1973 when he was 25. 

Tadashi Shoji Fall 2012 RTW

   Lastly I need to write about an artist, Orly Cogan. She is an unique artist who use embroidery for the major part of art work. It wasn't first time that I've seen her work online as her work is definitely found when you google images 'embroidery artist'. Although I don't really like the obvious way of showing sexualism, I think her work is beautiful. Pictorial embroidery on vintage fabric gives you impression of both new and nostalgia. 

our friendship will never die

   I am afraid of saying such a thing, because I do not know what will be going on after 10 years or later, but sometimes I am confident of the true friendship. 

   Yesterday, I met a friend living in London. She is only one who still keep in touch with over 10 years, and the last time I saw her was about 7years ago in Tokyo. Both of us had never imagined that we would become art students nor would meet in London. As we have hardly known what we were doing these days each other, I thought we might be odd, and she said so did she. The worry was totally needless, and we enjoyed chatting.

   Although the main purpose of the trip was meeting friends, I could go to a couple of exhibitions, one is Ballgowns in V&A museum, and the other is Valentino: Master of Couture at Somerset House. Both exhibition was just amazing. I wish I were the one who embroidered on the dresses.

in the coach, on the way to London

V&A museum collections

My friend told me an interesting photographer. I loved his work.

photos taken by Tim Walker