Week 13 (9/12/24) - (15/12/24)

 Monday introduced me to the different facets of creating a bodice, including different darts and necklines so I can successfully create a top and bodice for my project. The darts were the most difficult for me to understand because they had the most variety and difficulty level. Even going through the different processes one by one I was still unsure for a couple of them that I was creating the correct pattern that would work. To help me understand more I will create mini toiles for the patterns I have made so I can fully understand and visualise the process. I have also been tasked with creating a full-scale pattern for the square dart bodice which will try to start tonight.

 

In photography we are preparing to carry out our photoshoots for this project by looking at artists that relate to the work that we will be carrying out and taking photos inspired by their work. This was a relaxed session because we were prepping to take the photos for next week. We created shapes using Kandinsky's method with yellow triangles, blue circles and red squares so we could use his work with lines and shapes to build interesting compositions. This lesson helped me to understand Kandinsky by researching into him and finding out he had synaesthesia which I believe played a role in how he was able to create such chaotic and crazy final pieces with relatively simple shapes and compositions carefully placed to trick you into seeing more than there is. 

At home I finished off all my mini patterns for Lareen and started on my larger pattern that I need for my toile on Wednesday. This wasn't too challenging because I already know a basic understanding of the different processes I need to do to get the correct pattern.

 

When I came into stretch on Tuesday, I had already completed the watercolour part of my design process so I could move on with enhancing the design and tweaking it in photoshop. I wanted to add more depth to the design because it felt quite flat for me, so I added detail in the snow and a lot more shading in the burrow that the hedgehog is in. I did this with watercolour pencils because they have a good pigment to them that my normal coloured pencils don't have. I also chose them because if I wanted to blend them out then I could easily grab a little bit of water and use it carefully on the design of the card. When I edited it digitally, I wanted to make everything clear and emphasise specific aspects of the design so there was a clear focus. However, I fell into some challenges because if found it hard to keep the colours and details consistent. Due to this I had to continuously work on working bit by bit to get it as consistent as I possibly could. I believe I managed to get it to a good, finished point but there were some things that I feel like I couldn't quite get right so I need to improve on my photoshop skills to help me prevent this.

When I got into Sam's class, I started working on colour theory so I can understand how different colours work together with each other to make something pleasing to look at. I decided to do some research on different mediums and how they interact with each other to build colours, and I found that some are a lot easier and simple to blend and create colours than others. This has helped me to think more about the materials I am using, knowing that some mediums require a more complex process to mix. It may make me a bit adverse to using some mediums, but my aim is to build my skills and confidence, not ignore things because they are difficult.

With Charlie, I learnt how to use the pen tool in InDesign by using a couple of websites. I found this helpful because otherwise I would have been extremely confused trying to work out how the tool works. There are quite a few difficult processes you have to learn, and I need to continuously practice them so I can successfully use it in the future most notably for the fashion flats.

 

When I came into College on Wednesday, I started to make sure I was as set up as possible, ready to create the full-scale square dart bodice, however, I had slept through my alarms and woken up a bit late so I didn't arrive in College at the time I wanted to that would allow me to be able to do this. Therefore, it led me to being a bit unprepared for this lesson. I think I need to get better at being prepared by not wasting any time when I am doing work and falling asleep at a good time so that I will be able to wake up on time. Despite these problems, I was able to successfully get to a good enough point through the lesson that I would be able to finish the bodice with only a little bit of work at home.

This is exactly what I did when I got home, I worked through getting the square dart bodice done, making sure I remembered the process that happened during the lesson. Due to the point, I got up to in the lesson, I was able to simply unpick one of my shoulder seams so I could attach all the interfacing to the facings, which I was unable to do at the start of the lesson. This meant I was able to complete a full piece, even with a couple of mistakes. When I made the mistakes, I opted to keep them in the toile because then I can look at it in the future and know exactly where I went wrong and how to fix the mistake. One big mistake that I made was accidently sewing the facing inverted so that one of the seams showed. When I realised this, I inspected the process that i used and the final product and realised where I had gone wrong. After completing this i moved on to doing a couple of mini bodices so that I could understand all the small processes that went into sewing the different types of darts. Overall, just doing a few, I was able to understand this quite well so I think all I need to do now is do some practice pattern making for the remaining darts so I know what they need to look like but I don't need to make them.

During Thursday I spent the time finishing off the mini bodices and writing up a few things for my folder.

 

I worked with dyes again on Friday. This was to add to my Colour Theory work as a different medium to explore. I found that there was a big difference between mixing the secondary colours with warm and cold colours because there is a visual difference in the saturation between them, on paper and on fabric. I also carried out an experiment with lines where I used line of dye and overlapped them, both horizontal and vertical, to see how the different colours interact with each other. This was a nice and simple way of colour mixing to give me a wide range of colours that can all work together. The rest of the lesson was an experiment in tie dye. This was not my first time doing tie dye; however I hadn't tried with placing different dyes onto the fabric, only dip dying and letting it sit. I tried to use methods that I hadn't used before so that I could try them out to see if I liked the outcome or not. When I had finished, I was satisfied with two of the outcomes but the one where I had used squares to create a pattern came out a bit lacklustre and I think could have done with a bit more dye. 

Over the weekend I worked on my research so it could be ready for Tuesday, gathering photos and thinking about my opinions on the different artists. I find the writing a bit difficult because I find that I don't want to repeat myself which ends in me being unable to describe something a certain way, sometimes leading me to leaving it out. I am going to try and expand my vocabulary so I can find better ways to describe different things to improve my research pages.