Design Development

 Surprised at the time it took to complete this exercise it was great to end up with lots of ideas of how further designs could be developed see Ref 16. 

                                      Photo 4 x 6                                                                             Photo 4 x 6

Design Sheet Ai and Aii.  The shape of a cross ( Ref 3 c2 ) chosen for the distort on nylon was placed over a triangle and circle see Ref 13.  In order to achieve the distort on design v) graph paper was used. It took several attempts to get a satisfactory result even with graph paper! see Ref 14

Design sheet Bi and Bii

A series of patterns were tried See Ref 15 before deciding on design G where an overlap had been used.  The design is a little too tight and does not leave enough space around its edges.  The new shapes, however, provide a much more dynamic result, especially a, and b, if one considers using them as a four component design see  ref 16.

Design Ci and Cii

NB All images are A4 unless otherwise stated

Coloured papers

Trying to interpret colour onto a variety of papers with my acrylic colour recipes I reread the instructions and appreciated I should have been using inks. 

With some inkjet refills to hand – they were no longer of use with ‘new’ printer - I set out to replicate the colours, see ref 10.  

The ink absorbed very quickly into the paper and the amount of papers being coloured soon made the workspace chaotic. It took several attempts, a range of papers emerged, some of which looked equally chaotic!  Against the first colour mixing with acrylic where the results were too thick the inks looked thin. The solution – to over print inks with acrylic paints as I had used up all my inks.  The reason for revisiting this part of the exercise can be seen in the star and cross shapes in ref 11.

                                                       A 3 sheet

Printing blocks were made up using a rubber, on both sides and lino cuts.  I also had string and card blocks of stars to hand as seen in ref 2. and other rubber stamps See ref 12a and b for printing blocks and samples of prints and papers.

                                                                             A 3 sheet

Star and cross shapes, see ref 11, were made and whilst pleased with some of the ideas that came when linking shapes I was becoming increasingly frustrated by the quality of my coloured papers and the cutting of some of my shapes!  I resolved to buy the book Colour on Paper and Fabric by Ruth Issett to double check my techniques.

I would make revisits to the colour palette in the following days as I was unhappy with recipe book samples and particularly unhappy with the greens made… the ultimate answer appeared to be to experiment with the two tones of blue and the two tones of yellow mixing them into one base colour before introducing white or black.  In order to allow the coloured papers to have more depth a layering process built up paint rather than making thick paint to start with.  I used white or neutral cotton muslin, calico to ‘mop up’ the colour thereby hoping to achieve empathy between paper and fabric colours.

Some of the papers that would eventually be used for Chapter 3 and 4 are in Ref 18 seen below.

NB all images are A4 unless otherwise stated

Inspiration and colour

Inspiration:When is a cross a cross and not a star or a star a star and not a cross?

It appears that the line between whether we are looking at a star or a cross can be blurred; an item such as a compass is an example of many crosses; ‘a geometrical figure consisting of two  lines perpendicular to each other  dividing in two’ Webster dictionary definition of a cross.  The same source gives the definition of a star as: ‘ A figure with points radiating like the spokes of a wheel’- both aspects are incorporated in a compass.  To explore this quandary cross and star shapes were found amongst items and photos already in my possession, see photos ref 1 and 2.

Other samples of cross and star shapes were drawn see ref 3 and 4. In some cases shapes were selected as they simplified complex patterns e.g., the Celtic cross show bottom left in ref 1 was complex but the shape d)2 in ref 3 had the influence of Celtic without too much detail. 

While considering these pictures words, shapes and symbols came to mind, see re 5 and 6.

                                            Ref 5 A3 size                                        Ref 6 Mind maps each A 5 

 Colour Circle 

Ref  7 First attempt

Setting out to produce the colour wheel a recipe sheet , see Ref 8, was made to help replicate the colours in future.  

                                                     Ref 8 A5 book

The paint used on the wheel was too thick and looked cumbersome but on contemplating complementary, split complementary, triad and tetrad themes certain colours sang out to me…going into autumn and with a garden full of changing leaf and flower colour how could I not pick green and red!  Similarly yellow appealed because of leaf colours and the purple reflected recent sunsets.  See Ref 9 a and b.  I set off on a route that would revisit the production of a colour wheel and recipe book in the future!

                                                           Ref 9 a and b A 3 story boards

NB All images are A4 unless otherwise stated