The Cardiff Met career service has been offering a range of workshops since lockdown started, and I always put them off because I was working on my module work so much, but this week I decided to go for it, it is almost the end of term and I do not want to miss out further.
I saw a LinkedIn workshop which I thought would be really useful because I still only feel halfway done on there building my account, and actually no idea how to use it effectively as well.
The webinar covered a range of points and examples of accounts to show the rights and wrongs of building the accounts and then how to use them to stand out and be noticed in your industry.
My profile shows a picture of myself, which is a basic need to help engagement, I also added my tagline and the kind of opportunities I am open to. I have also added a bulk of my work experience and education so it services as a CV, with links to my website which also has a CV page too. I added one of my patterns to the top header photo to show what I do, but I may change this to more updated designs as I create more as well.
The main thing I took away from it was posting, I have been meaning to start for a while after watching some Careercake videos for the Cardiff Met Award but I made a start today posting some of my recent pattern designs in the spoonflower contest, Large Birds.
I also took part in a webinar online today for Instagram Marketing, which was quite interesting, and definitely something I will look into further on Skillshare or something.
I just finished submitting my entry for the Spoonflower Large Birds contest, from which I also created a little collection of coordinating designs from. I also posted one last week for the Quiet Spaces category too.
I have started to notice now that my designs are getting more engagement as the weeks go on, usually each post doing better than the last which is exciting because it must mean I am refining my style and doing something right. I could go back to the start of them and notice little problems in the first couple of patterns, such as the Pastel Cafe one, was too pastely, it needed some more dark in the design to add more of a colour balance into it, which I did struggle with a little in the foliage coordinating designs from the Large Birds one, I used a lot of dark browns in the birds so the lighter blues and pinks in the actual pattern were good being lighter, but I do wish I had made some a lot darker, as I much more often than not choose a light background for my designs.
Quiet Spaces Entry
I used some similar plant pots for the Pastel Cafe design challenge weeks and weeks ago, so I took some inspiration from them and kind of repurposed them with newer techniques I have learnt on Procreate, such as easily adding pattern and shading to motifs. I originally had a wite background on this design and I think it looked better in the blue, but there is not much white at all in there and something is not quite right with the colour balance I think. I was working hard last week on my sketchbooks and I left this one a little later than usual, but overall I am happy with it as a simple repeat.
The Large Birds contest was one I thought a lot about with the content, I floated some ideas with my friends in a groupchat, penguin, peacock, eagle, all good options but I was not particularly excited about any of them. I started looking in some of the bird books we have around the house, they come in handy when spotting weird birds in the garden and for situations like this. The bird pages have facts about wingspan, sometimes having the birds flying next to other popular ones to compare sizes. This is when I noticed how big the snowy owl actually was, and looking at some of the other species I noticed they were not that much smaller either, such as the long eared and short eared owls, the tawny owls were bigger than I thought, I thought they were tiny!
Anyway, I love owls and how recognisable they are, and very attractive birds that have been on trend before, and just seem to be one of those patterns that does not go out of fashion, but I knew I wanted to go with my more graphic digital painting approach to get some texture and detail into it. I created blue and pink foliage around it because I thought about how my colour palette is usually involving a lot of greens because I use a lot of nature in my work. I actually really like the foliage secondary designs I created, but I do think they do not look like they go perfectly with the owl design by itself. I did try and correct the colour balance using some space filler dots, which I think worked out really well to add more colour in the designs.
The next contest I believe is Ice Cream Truck, so I think for that one I want to try and go really out of the box with my usual colour schemes and try something bold and bright!
I found a little bit of dissolvable fabric when I was looking for something completely different, but I decided to give it a go as I was working on some 3D kind of leaves anyway.
I made sure to go over the stitching multiple times and imagine it as layers which overlap it and tie it all together, I then dissolved it, which took longer than I thought and I honestly thought the video was going to be more satisfying. The end result is quite nice but simple, I could carry on and try something more complex with this I think as it could end up being a fun piece that could work well in a pattern or a 3D kind of placement piece.
I particularly enjoyed bleaching in my book because I was able to use the bleach on the back of the leaves and print them onto colour to remove it, or onto a blank page to resist colour added on top. I have played with bleach on black fabric before and know it fades to an orangey-pink shade when the colour is removed, so I efinitely wanted to have a go with this.
Bleaching and Leaves
This photo shows a variety of experiments using black fabric to remove that colour. You can see I experimented with using the leaf skeletons, using the outlines and the negative space, tried a flick technique with the leaf acting as resist. As I was going I kept thinking of more things to try, not everything went to plan but I did find some interesting techniques here.
Some of my Fabric Bleach results.
Bleaching and paint printing
This video basically carries on from the previous one with some bleaching and also some paint experiments with shapes and skeletons again.
Again I produced some quite bright results from the printing which I really like. I would love to take this further digitally and think I could try and follow the design of the leaf skeleton on Procreate at some point.
I also tried lino on the fabric with the bright colours again. I like these with the detail on the leaves that add a little something to it but not making it really busy.
The results were quite attractive but I think the limitations I am finding with the equipment I can access is causing some issues with my quality, meaning I feel like I would not like to take this any further.
I was very surprised when the green colour lifted as much as it did, so I decided to have a little bleaching session with it, some of the designs did not work, I think the weave of the fabric was a little wide so I think it soaked up the bleach more and meant I could not get very good sharp lines. However the leaf skeletons turned up lovely so I am pleased with that one.
Overall the experiments were interesting and I would like to take the idea of the skeleton forward into pattern, so I think these were important, and timelapse videos definitely help me to keep my work pace up and encourage new ideas as well.
My drawing continued with looking at berries because they are a good source of food for dormice and are very present in all of the animals environments.
Again I tried a variety of techniques here and I particularly like the ones that give that little shine to it for that little realistic flair to it and adding a little detail. I think the berries are a good chance to play with a few brighter colours thrown into the patterns too.
My theme could include a lot of texture, hedgehogs are textured with spikes and fluff, even their paw pads would be textured and their noses. Each animal is like this and I thought about texture while I was creating wool and felt samples to distress and explore the texture even more.
This shows some of the wool samples samples that I distressed using some simple cutting techniques and also sewing lines through it and then cutting into the top layer to expose the behind colouring. I think this is called shaneeling (Spelling?) and I think it worked okay. I do like playing with texture and more unusual fabrics for me but I need to think about how to translate this into a more digital setting then.
To experiment further with my animals and test out some more unusual techniques, I took a variety of poses from my research and started to draw or paint with the mediums that I thought may create some interesting effects.
I started with some fineliner experiments, I do love using patterns to build up detail in line drawings, I have done this before and I think the pattern works well to fill space. I was not really feeling it with the hare, I think the eye throws me off and I think this would look better as a more solid blacked out design and then worked out from there. Maybe using the different sections of the face better in terms of following the way the hare would naturally flow. I also tried some stippling, but I did not like the way this was looking either so I did not really finish it to the standard I usually would because it was very time consuming and I could already see it just was not working for what I wanted. I have used various forms of line drawings throughout too so I knew line is something I do like to use, just working on becoming simpler and looser in my work I think has been very beneficial to my designs. I tried some Indian Ink to build up a hedgehog design too which I think was okay but just using the one harsh black was difficult to show tone as I usually would. Maybe this would have worked better as a collage with some different tone being used in the papers.
The sharpie experiments turned out a little better than I thought, but a range of them in more similar colours could have created a nice effective piece I think. I also tried the soft pastels on black paper, I find this hard to use and usually very messy, I like this design but probably would not want to take it further because it neither has the detail or the simple flat approach I was considering. I managed to capture a lot of detail in the eye of the oil pastel drawing, I like this but the fur around it loses some of that detail. The hedgehog with the sponged back is quite fun, but I do like the colours and how they mixed together with the sponge. Although I think it did get the texture better than I achieve with a brush or anything.
I wanted to have a go with acrylics because I thought I could get quite a good look for the idea of realism and flat colour that I wanted to experiment with.
I did try a few styles with the acrylics, I tried the hare in a more realistic kind of style, which I think turned out better than I expected once it had dried, but I was very apprehensive about it as I started to paint and found it difficult to get the shades and blends that I wanted to. I tried a splashy style again too but I found that the acrylic was drying quickly so by the time I did more of a watercolour effect on it, it just did not blend with the thicker painted parts of the body. The flat colour examples were nice and I think form the base of the kind of shapes I would create if I was working on Procreate on the Ipad. I think this would be a good step to go too soon and see what I can do with those brushes, because I think the actual motifs all being done on the same application would be good to avoid a different kind of look with them if I was to photograph and edit some, and digitally make others.
I started a new little a4 book to explore some of the secondary images that I found, because I was struggling to find mushrooms, nuts, and some berries due to the time of the year. When I was thinking of completing this module next year, I realised that I had the whole summer into next winter and then more to research this but suddenly throwing myself into doing the module now this meant some things were not possible. I also wanted to physically visit some places that I could have seen some of the animals I was looking at too.
So you can see here some of the techniques I have used, I am particularly enjoying the effects of watercolour and fineliners, although I have tried some other things where I feel like they may produce a nice result. I also tried my own little pattern with the oak leaves and the bold indian ink nuts over the top of it. I also explored acorns and pinecones too because I did not really know what other category to put them into. I think all of these elements have worked as a motif so I would like to take them forward and decide how they will work digitally now to be placed into the patterns.
So I have been gradually getting on with a lot of my designs throughout my sketchbook, trying to take each medium and see what else I can do with it besides just the way I would naturally use it. Watercolours for me I always try and go realistic, but I took some time to step back and try a splashy style, combine it with fineliner, add more colour. Just thinking of ways that I could try the medium without it being a total mess and waste of time. I think I did such a lot of experimenting with the leaves and things so far that I know which mediums I work well with and which ones would just be a waste of time for something as in-depth as a animal portrait.
So I started out with a more realistic approach to it here, I like the hedgehog I think I got quite a nice look with it. The squirrel position is quite nice but I think the look of it could have been more realistic with a small brush and more lightness left into the piece. I tried a sharpie to outline the next couple of studies, which I think worked well to give it a more graphic look, I think this would have worked better with a darker shade of the colour rather than black, but coloured sharpies are not as bold as I would like them and show through to the background behind them. The sharpies do help to define the ears and nose and things which I think does make it look better, maybe to take this further I could see if the technique works on all four of the animals equally well, because this is important as doing three successfully then finding the technique does not work on the last one would not be good.
I tried some splashy watercolour designs next, starting with the natural colour on the hedgehog, then going into the brightly coloured squirrel tail. I took this further then and decided to try each animal, then do all look quite attractive in this style, but it is also a style I have seen before, maybe I could consider it if I add more coloured pencil detail into it to get some details in the face and a looser and splashier background.
Here I showed where I took some of the techniques further, the watercolour and fineliner designs I think were quite effective and the mixture of techniques over the collaged old paper was interesting. I particularly like the dormouse in this one, it turned out quite nice and realistic which I was surprised about, but just going back into it and adding more shading once it dried each time helped to build up the colour well. I tried the hare in a wild pink but I do not think this worked well, I think the pink is too distracting and I like the idea of using the natural colours into it.
Overall the watercolour designs have been really fun, I have enjoyed doing them a lot but whether this is something I could take forward to the designs, may be dependant on how the rest of my designs turn out as I go along.
Tahlia Paige 