Digital design

It took quite a bit of time for me to get used to designing on the computer. It is so different to screen printing, largely because you can’t actually see the full design to scale and also because there is a bit of a difference between what is on screen to what comes out the printer. However, once you get the hang of it, it is super speedy. Another benefit is not being constantly covered in a rainbow of dyes.

I am enjoying working on the computer a lot and I am quite happy with the designs I have been creating. I have sent away small test swatches to several companies that produce digitally printed fabric so I am quite excited to see the results.

Digital sketching

After quite a while of being totally stuck I decided to mess around on photoshop to try and give myself some kind of direction. I have not done very much in the way of digital printing before. I decided to work in a kind of collage way, as if I was doing work in my sketchbook, to get started. The images I produced are by no means final design work, no where near it! But I feel that I have at least moved my ideas into a new direction, which hopefully will move me towards being unstuck.

I used scans of my sketchbook as well as photographs I had taken in the aquaria I visited earlier in the year. This was also an exercise to see what I could do with my drawings and photos. Experimenting with different ways of manipulating the images.