Coral Exhibition - Manchester Mueseum

Today I went to the Manchester Museum and to the coral exhibition. I found it very useful in terms of my current project as lots of the shapes that I found were relevant to my project. In particular the brain coral and orange tube coral. I documented the visit and plan to use my research when producing further samples. The organic yet organised shape of coral has an interesting quality that I want to explore.

Organic Influence

I've started to think further about how I can use an organic influence. I was given this picture of a Bridal Veil Mushroom by a friend. The resemblance to the rubber matting and some of my samples is incredible. I really like the areas of negative space and surface of the plant. I have been sketching this and some samples to improve my understanding of the space and surface. Here is some sketchbook examples of what I have been up to.

I want to use this organic influence within my samples so everything isn't as regimented and straight. I like the loose qualities of the mushrooms as well as negative space in the images.

Playing with angles

I produced a few drawings in which I experimented with a protractor and using angles.
I also used these drawings on photoshop to experiment with my colour pallets.

I like how this has started to look organic although the shapes and structure are very measured and calculated. This develops my theme of geometry and gives me further inspiration. I want to look into how nature uses similar themes.

Colour Research

I started playing around with colour pallets. I used two images from Leutton Postle's research blog to inform me. I liked the the colours that are used within the photographs but I want to include found objects within my research and this limits me in terms of colour. I played around with recycling some old colour pallet ideas but I wasn't happy with the shades. I want to combine the ubove colours, to create bright and bold fabrics. 

I think I need further research into the materials I will be using in order to decide what colours I want to use. When using found objects, this often informs the colour pallet. 

Cling Films Finals

I produced these samples using the cling films from throughout my project. I didn't know what to do with them but I loved the layering effect and how you can see the others behind each other. I decided to layer them together to show a new narrative of the songs. I am happy with the results, I feel like each one displays a mood of colour that I wanted to produce from the start.

Daft Punk

Boom Bip

Photoshop Workshop

Today I had a workshop in photoshop. I already have a basic knowledge of the software so it was a positive experience to gain further knowledge and shortcuts to help me to improve. I produced this image in the workshop. It is a manipulation of one of my cling films. I like this composition as I feel I can use it to inspire a sample

Progression Of Images

After experimenting with using the speakers to draw from, I played with the images to try and inform my embroidery. I played around with enlarging sections of the images to find the most interesting parts and documented this process in my sketchbook so I have a lot of inspiration to work from.

I like how the gouche creates a surface that seems to change with time. Using ink, makes the print bleed out in another colour. This is an interesting quality that I want to take further.

These are prints from the pieces of cling film that I allowed to dry. I am interested to investigate what I can do with these in terms of embroidery. They each have interesting qualities that I would like to explore. The last image is from the photocopier. It was originally all red, but the colours became obscured. I love this effect, even though I'm not quite sure how it happened.

Using Music to Draw

I have been really keen to experiment with using the music to create the drawings. I want to do this method to experiment the differences in marks that two different songs will create.

I have chosen to do this with Boom Bip and Daft Punk songs.

I created my own contraption for creating this mark. I began by layering cling film over the speaker and photographing the paint move around on the surface.

This produced an interesting effect that I want to turn into animations if I have enough time to document the process fully.

I also did an experiment using rice to see how it could move with the music.

I like what is happening here but I want to create prints with the songs so I layered a piece of paper over the top. As the music causes the speakers to vibrate, the paint bounces up and creates a drawing. The marks I got were really interesting. I was really pleased with the differences in marks between the two songs.

Roads Must Roll - Boom Bip

The Game Has Changed - Daft Punk

I love how the two different songs create such different splatter patterns. The marks vary from materials, but the basic shapes are individual to the song. This is something that I want to investigate further through materials. 

I am going to compare the differences in marks between the music.

Next I want to play around with printing on to fabric and see where that can take me.

Manipulation

I love the effect that has happened here when the Boom Bip sketch was enlarged. Although this wasn't what I intended to happen, the grainy distorted colours that have appeared really reflect the mood of the song and the nature of the image that I wanted to produce. 

I found this was less successful on my sketch of The Game Has Changed. Although some areas of solid paint came out well, I do not like the image as a whole. However I feel like this is helping me think into the future about materials that I could use. This one reminds me of a velvet or other pile fabric. The smooth nature and blend of colours remind me of the qualities of velvet. 

Bigger Drawings

These are more enlargements of some of the larger drawings that I did in response to the music. I wanted to get out of my sketchbook in the hope that I would be able to create more detailed drawings that weren't limited by size. I am happy with my results and especially the enlargements. I can see some delicate areas coming through within my work and am starting to visualise compositions and how I can translate these drawings into embroidery.

After creating an order and organisation within my drawings, I have edited down some of my images. I noticed that I liked the cut off areas arranged on the table. I wanted to document this serendipity and repetition as I feel like I can use this for inspiration for a sample later.

Adding Colour

When flicking through my sketchbook I found myself to be sad about the lack of colour. I want to introduce colour before I start using the sound to create drawings. I decided to line up all my colours inks and paints and then freely pick up the colours I felt were relevant to the music. I have narrowed down my choice of music to two songs now, Boom Bip and Daft Punk. I want to compare these two songs to see how colour, line, tone and shape will differ with different music.

I produced these sketches as a starting point for including colour

Left - Daft Punk, The Game Has Changed

I find the Daft Punk song to be very dark and scary. I wanted to use colour to create a mood as well as tell the story of the song. I found that using long brush strokes and blending the colours created the right effect.

Right - Boom Bip, Roads Must Roll

This song is more static, I see lots of negative space within the song as well as bright tones and harsh movements.

I have also produced some larger sketches to help me get out of my sketchbook.

Boom Bip. I am happy with this sketch, I like a mixture of tones within the piece. This is the colour pallet that I want to take forward for this song.

Daft Punk. I think the colour pallet for this one needs more work, the yellow is too strong here.

I am happy with these results so far. I want to experiment further using the photocopier at enlarging the images and creating compositions from the areas I like the most. I feel like this method is helping reduce   and consolidate my ideas. 

Photocopying

I begun to experiment with my initial sketches by using the photocopier to enlarge sections. I hoped that this would encourage a variation of lines and help me visualise an image as opposed to a page of scribbles. I am really pleased with what happened next, especially when something went wrong causing the image to distort or miss the page. Here are some examples of what happened...

I really like these two images. In the first image I can see how this could progress to inspire a composition. Whilst in the second image, I'm not sure what happened here but the effect is beautiful. It reminds me of a landscape. The distortion is something that I feel like I can use going forward. It disrupts the original document of the music but still represents areas of sound.