Project 4, stage 4 plus review

For this project I decided to work with this doodle. In my previous blogpost I already wrote a bit on how I plan to work with this idea.

Knowing that I wanted to work in black and white I cut out some shapes of black card stock: wavy lines and circles. Al of them in different sizes. I drew 3 rectangular shapes in my sketchbook and started playing around with the shapes. Here are the designs I came up with. I added my comments to each of them. The first design was A:

A bold wavy lines and 3 rather big circles. Because one of the circles overlaps the wavy lines, the shape becomes confused. Two other negative points of this design are that it is mainly vertical and because of that the view leads out of the design.

My second design was B:

I made the wavy lines much thinner and added a horizontal line as well. However the horizontal line is too bold compared to the vertical lines. The circles are much smaller than in design A. The positive points of this design are that the design is both vertical as well as horizontal and because of that the view stays within the design. The eye roams around starting in the top left corner.

My third design is this one C:

The vertical lines are still thin. Instead of the bold horizontal line of design B, I used 2 thin lines and placed them in a more playful position. I reduced the circles a bit in size and added a third one. The size of the strips and the circles are better matched this way. The thin horizontal lines are more in harmony with the thin vertical ones, more pleasing to the eye. Same as with design B the view of this design moves over the design, starting at the top, but stays within the design.

Out of these 3 designs, design C is the most balanced. The black lines and circles are not overpowering, they are in balance with the white background. Because of the different shapes (lines as well as circles) there is a difference in shapes used which makes it pleasing. I really like this design and will make a small quilt out of it. The texture will be created by the fabric I intend to use:

A bit difficult to take a good picture of, but the white is a uneven woven linnen and the black is a smooth Kona. Additional texture will be created by the quilting.

Review:

- Did you manage to make space move?

Yes, I did. By placing the shapes in different places I can create movement. Especially when some of the shapes go over the edge of the design.

- What are your thoughts about the drawing you did in stage 3?

Drawing is not - and will never be - my strongest or my favorite way of expressing myself. I wrote about that in an earlier blogpost. Doodling is the most I do for a design. But I love the mindmapping or word association to come up with ideas and how I can make use of them.

- Were you able to use your drawings successfully as a basis for further work? Are there any other things you would like to try?

Yes, I can use my doodles for further work. Actually I have several designs in my mind and in doodles on which I will be working the coming weeks.

- Now that you have a good working method, do you feel confident that you can carry on working in this way independently?

Yes. I can write a lot here, but it all comes down to the fact that I have been working in this way for many years now.

Project 2, Stage 6, creating texture continued, review

Today I spend most of my time working on this embroidery sample. I started out with 2 pieces of handdyed fabric and on those pieces I did my embroidery. With white pearl cotton I made the spider webs and the French knots, with 2 colors of yellow/brownish I made the interlaced running stitch and the roving was held in place with irregular herringbone stitches. Also in between the roving I used these stitched. And finally with the dark green I used the feather stitch. Although it took me many hours I like the result:

On this strip of cardboard you can see the colors I used:

Here is my review for this project:
- Do you feel happy with the work?
Yes, I like the result I got. It is not an exact copy of the picture which inspired me, but that is not necessary.
- Do you prefer working with stitch to drawing? Can you begin to see the relationship between the two?
Yes, I do like it. As a quilter I have been doing this for years but I have to admit that I work mainly with my machines. Especially with thin lines stitching is essential to duplicate these lines. Bigger areas can be done with pieced fabric, but with lines that is practically not possible. I have not much experience with hand stitching/embroidery, but I really see where that can come in useful.
- Having worked through Stage 2, were you then able to choose stiches which expressed the marks and lines of your drawings?
Yes, I was. If I had more experience with hand embroidery I would have been able to use more different stitches, but the ones I knew - or could find - were useable for my marks and lines.
- Do you think your sample works well irrespective of the drawing? Or do you think your sample is just a good interpretation of your drawing and nothing more?
Yes, my sample works well. It is not an exact copy of the texture in my picture, but the effect of the different textures shows in the sample.
- Which of the activities did you prefer - working with stitch to create textures or working with yarns to make textures? Which worked best for you and why?
For this question I have 2 answers. If I work with my machine I prefer working with stitch. Machine embroidery is limited to certain thinner threads as my machine does not like bobbin work. If I want to create really thick texture I would have to do this by hand.
- Make some comments on individual techniques and sample pieces. Did you experiment enough? Did you feel inhibited in any way?
As I mentioned earlier on, my experience with handstitching is limited. No doubt that there are many more stitching which I simply do not know now. This is the reason that I signed up for an online embroidery class which starts coming month. With this class my experimentation will continue. And so will my collection of different types of yarn/thread :-).
- How do you prefer to work? From drawing or by playing with materials and yarns to create effects? Which method produced the most interesting work?
I love to play and experiment and see where this leads to. Okay, sometimes the result is not great, but very often I find very intesting combinations.
- Are there other techniques you would like to try? Are there any samples you would like to do in a different way?
I would like to play more with texture and also use different materials with that. I am thinking along the line of strips of fabric instead of yarn and adding gesso and paint to make it much more dimensional.
- Is there anything you would like to change in your work? If so, try to think out why and make notes for future reference.
I want to have a bigger stash of different types of yarn/thread. This is something I am working on as it takes time to find the stuff I want. With the samples - especially the ones in the beginning - I was really held back because of the limited material I had here. Now some of the threads I have ordered have arrived.