Repeat patterns

We had a repeat pattern workshop in uni, using the motifs that we produced a few weeks ago to make repeatable sections for screen printing. It is difficult to get a section that will easily repeat as the edges have to continue on to each other. For example the top edge would have to be a continuation of the bottom. The whole process is very confusing and requires more concentration that I possess. I found that it was easier for me to do a section in my sketchbook and then scan it and make it into a repeat in photoshop.

Motif workshop

This week we have been in a motif workshop. Developing our drawings and paintings into motifs to be used in design work. It is actually quite difficult to get your head around making successful motifs but it is also fun to experiment. I have put a few of my motifs together on photoshop to give you an idea of what I have been up to.

Colour experimentation

I have been continuing with the sketchbook work I wrote about last week, working with a vast array of colour. Here are my results;

Making a mess

Last week I started getting together my ideas and all the research I had been doing over christmas and formulating a plan for the society of dyers and colourists project, which I spoke about in an earlier post. I also started putting down a few things on paper and making a mood board on the wall of the studio.

This week saw me beginning to fill out my sketchbook; batik waxing, paper marbling and powder pigments were my of choice media and a large mess was the general outcome. In fairness the pages in my sketchbook came out how I had wanted them, the mess was everywhere else – the floor, my desk, the wall and my skin.

I had a really great time working with these materials, marbling ink is something I haven’t used since I was a kid and it is such fun working with it. You never know exactly what you are going to get. The powder pigment I was using was much the same, I was sprinkling it over wet paper and the way it travelled through the water was brilliant.

Making a repeat

After playing around with the imagery in my RSA sketchbook I started piecing things together and trying to work out how make a repeatable unit. I tried several different shapes of unit, then photocopied the sketches multiple times so I could piece them together.

I felt that these patterns were pretty resolved, and there wasn’t much room for development or variations. I decided to keep them in mind, but ultimately move on to something different, on a bigger scale. I had quite liked one of the very first sketches in my Pattern sketchbook, so that’s where I continued from.

Repeat patterns

Our latest project brief is all about the repeat. Going back into our RSA sketchbooks and pulling out the more successful pieces of pattern. Starting out working with quick sketches and then black and white photocopies; collaging and adding more detail, I started to have ideas about what my repeated unit would contain.

A new bottle of quink

Quink is my must have drawing medium. I am lost without it! The first thing before I started properly in this sketch book was to buy a new bottle! I think for this project that I spent far too long researching when I really should have been drawing. But I have made my best attempt to make up for it!