Getting distracted (shocker)

Next as always I got distracted on Photoshop. I thought I would go back and look at the images I found from Sherlock Holmes and see what inspired me. Of all things the shadow of a banister on the wall stood out. I thought it was an interesting design and I thought I would take inspiration from this and create my own.

I started by drawing out a quarter of what I wanted because when I tried to do a good drawing that was equal it looked terrible.

 
I then flipped it on Photoshop to see what it would look like as a full design. When I was actually doing this I was only planning on doing the shape on the computer and then go and draw it by hand but like I said I got a little distracted doing some patterns…

Earlier in the day I had been talking to Abby while she worked on the computer and she used a tool called liquefy on her work which made it look really interesting. I decided as I was already on the computer I would give this a go myself and see what I got from it. I started simple and just accentuated some areas like the image below.

Next I went completely crazy with it. I used the tool to a point where you can’t really tell where the design came from in the beginning which I like. I also decided to add a bit of colour and found the gradient overlay on the blending tool which looked great.

When on the gradient tool I thought the design looked great in many different colour combinations so I decided to save them all and see which looked most impressive printed out. The ones I have posted here are me trying the rainbow colours in different ways which I think look great. This simple use of colour really makes the designs stand out.

After choosing my favourite I thought about the background colour and decided to try and see if it would look better than just simply leaving it white which I think it does. I love love love the turquoise one. The designs remind me of art nouvou and I think this might be a nice route to go down to see if I can get some more inspiration. I also think although I am primarily thinking of doing interior designs for my finals, I think these would look amazing printed into silk scarves or something. I could really imagine them being great like that.

 Let me know your opinions in the comment box below…

Lillian Smelt

So yesterday started well as I posted once on here... however I had planned on posting more but thanks to the weather and not wanting to get stuck in Hartlepool over night (if my trains got cancelled I would be stranded here) so I left on an earlier train than originally planned, and then typically once I got home I got immersed in other things and never got back to posting again so here we are... trying to fill you in on what I’ve been up to the last couple of weeks... hmmm where to start...

How about posting about an interesting object I found?

For things to draw I decided to look in the back of some cupboards to see if I found anything that made me go ‘omg! I haven’t seen this in ages’ and one of the things I found was my great auntie’s sketchbook.  Pictured below with her sisters is my aunty Lila (centured) around the time that she has dated the images were drawn.

Unfortunately a few years ago she has passed away (at the great age of 98) but I thought it would be a great idea to see if I could incorporate some of her images alongside my own work and see where it would take me. As the book is now decades old it’s quite vulnerable to fall apart so I decided to scan all the images from it onto the computer so I didn’t have to keep flipping through the pages to see them all. Below is a few examples of drawings from the sketchbook.

 Next I thought I would combine the two ideas I had had so far. Bringing the old (the drawings) and mixing it with the new (the code). The images below are the first results I came out with which I think look really interesting. I’m not sure where I will take these ideas but for now I think it’s a good start to the project.

What's behind the image?

Again I’m sorry for the long absence… I keep meaning to post but never get round to it.

I thought I would start at the beginning now that I have actually sat down to fill you all in on what I've been up to. When discussing my project with my boyfriend who did computer science at university he gave me the idea to look at what things really look like hidden under the surface, like this blog for example. So I thought I would post some interesting ones I found.  The two images below are actually

I thought it might be nice to repeat them in different colours and layer them over the top of each other to see what pattern i could get just from them.

Mark also said to do the same with a photo to see what that would look like as they may be interesting to use as backgrounds. So I found a picture of the two of us and did just that. The image below is what the code to its right actually looks like. 

Bay

To try and help motivate me to get some work done I've started to decorate my bay a bit (along with making a mess of my desk in the process). I have left plenty of space to add more images as the project moves forward but at least I have something instead of a big white wall for now.

Also on the wall is the envelope I mentioned a few posts ago asking others in my class to anonymously let me in on their guilty pleasures. If anyone reading this wants to contribute they can write something in the comment box. I would be extremely grateful for any help.

Sherlock

So I'm having trouble getting motivated to work on my FMP so far. Today though I decided to watch the first Sherlock Holmes film to use as a starting point and see if I could find some interesting imagery to work from. As the project is called hidden treasures I thought it might be an interesting angle to work from as Sherlock is a detective and his job is to find out what people are hiding. Also due to the release of the 2nd film at the moment, I thought it would be popular. I decided to post a few of my findings on here (in no particular order). What do you guys think??? Let me know in the comment box.

I would like to say I don’t own any of the images in this post; they are merely to be used for inspiration purposes.

I'm back...

Hey everyone,

Firstly Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New Year!!!!

Sorry for my absence over the past month…. But you all know what the build up to Christmas is like; I meant to post over the Christmas hols as well but still didn’t find the time… Anyway I am back now and starting my Final major project properly (we had it before the holidays but not much got done, what can I say a holiday was needed so I had one.)

The concept / theme for my FMP is called ‘Hidden Treasures’. I am looking at objects that have been hidden for a while, whether at the back of a cupboard or been put away especially to keep it safe, as well as looking into peoples guilty pleasures. I have just put a sign up in my classroom asking for peoples secrets (anonymously of course) so I will see how that turns out…

 As I am only starting this project there isn’t much to inform you all about just yet so how about I post something else. This time last year I had a deadline for Newcastle College. It was horrible, the deadline was the 4^th Jan which meant I was working extremely hard over the holidays to get it all finished for when I went back (including working on Christmas day!!!! I remember being at my grandparents’ house with the rest of the family working away as we all watched Dr Who)

We were doing a live brief for the Elizabeth Bradley competition (http://www.elizabethbradley.com/news/2011-Design-Competition/ this is the winner – unfortunately it wasn’t me – but a few other girls from the course got mentioned for their designs) This meant doing a 16 x 16 inch square design for a cusion in cross stitch for our final piece (I think I figured out that the whole thing would take over 70 hours to complete. My goodness It took aaaaaaaaaaages to do) the theme I chose was the 1950’s style and ended up doing a design based around the dress style of the time. Take a look at the completed design along with the painted out square that was required as well…

 As I said it took ages to actually complete, and I kept going cross eyed due to concentrating on it for so long. Typically the type of wool needed to complete the design was only available from Fenwick’s in my area and as the background was so large I cleared them out of that specific yellow – it was still not enough. Unfortunately I ran out of that colour myself right before New Year which meant the shop wasn’t getting any more stock in as well as  them closing for the bank holidays etc. this meant when I went in on the 4^th Jan for the deadline, the final piece wasn’t finished (what was I supposed to do, I looked everywhere and I couldn’t find any wool, it wasn’t my fault) gladly though only one or two people in the class had actually finished the project due to it being over the Christmas holidays and having problems like I did so our tutor gave us an extra week to finish. In this week I managed to find some wool and complete the design (yay).

Please comment on what you think of the design!!!

Graphics

While looking through my files to find something I came across the image below which brought back some memories. Before doing my foundation degree I did an art and design diploma year at Newcastle College which gave me the chance to explore other fields I may not have tried before, like fashion, photography, ceramics (and even textiles - I had never done it before that course) etc. When I went to do the diploma year I thought I would specialise and come out doing graphics as that is what I had done and enjoyed in high school. however I soon learned textiles is the direction I really would like to go down instead.

This image was done during the 8 week rotation, where we tested each different type of design to decide which we liked best. In the graphics one we had to pick a celebrity and a meal time out of a hat and had to connect the two somehow. I got Simon Cowell and a picnic. I chose to collect objects that you might take to a picnic that could signify Simon and photograph them (like marmite for eg - you either love it or hate it) I then did things like photoshop his name and DOB into the wine bottle etc to make it more personal. Let me know what you think...

Fundraising

O and I also forgot to say. In my absence I have done a bag packing session at Marks and Spencer in Newcastle to raise money for our final show next year. We each have to pay for certain things in the final show so we're doing things like this to help us not have to fork out the whole amount ourselves (remember by the time final show comes around we'll have had to pay for all our final designs etc which wont come cheap so we wont have any money left to pay for the show ourselves anyway.)

We didn't expect to get much from this session but I'm proud to say between 6 of us we managed to raise around £340. This means that we each have about half of the amount needed by each student... one more fundraiser like that one and we'll be sorted...

Not been on in a while

Hey bloggers,

Not been on here in a while, (sorry for that) I've been distracted. I am currently starting my Final Major project (gulp) but I don't really have much to report with that yet, I'll keep you posted when it starts getting interesting.

I thought as I haven't posted in a while due to not really having much going on I would post some pictures of some old work. When I started this blog I said I would do this quite often but never got round to it with the amount of work I had to do with the current project. I however actually have time now so I thought it would be a good time.

This project is going back a few years now. It was my Final Major project in my Diploma year at Newcastle College. It was about favourite toys through childhood and how they might have effected the person as they grew up. I ended up creating 3 patterns that got used on all the different products. There was a boys collection and a girls collection using the same pattern just in different colourways as well as a bear / train collection (used to cover the bookcase).

My original idea for my final products was to cover a piece of furniture. I found the bookcase so covered that. Once I had done that though it meant I had to fill it, otherwise my final show would look a bit bare. I thought instead of simply putting the same design on everything and it looking boring I would change the colours and create a boys collection and a girls to fill it better.

In the end I think I went a bit over the top with my products, I kept having new ideas of things to put my designs on so I did it. I think the collections look great and to this day have come in handy - the bookcase and some of the things on it are still being used in my mothers house now.

first we have one of my final boards with one of the original drawings on to show where the designs started from.

Next is 2 boards which has photos of the two collections and the various products in them.

Finally is a picture of me with my final set up at the final show. As a last minute thing my mum used the scrap material that was left over from when I made the cushions and made the rag doll (which got named Daphne).

 I really liked the outcomes from this project. Although bright and complicated I think they work nicely as a collection together. Let me know what you think...