Bird Stripes

I have now started experimenting with different ways I can arrange my bird drawings into stripes. I think my final idea design worked quite well because of the different sizes and flow to the piece, it reminds me of birds flight plans on maps.

Striped patterns

I have found some interesting contextual references that could inspire my work. I like the simplicity and ordered manner of this piece by Mini Moderns, it reminded me of the archive piece I chose to redesign.

I liked this piece by Wallpaper Republic because of the block and empty shapes, I also like the stripes breaking up the images. I would like to incorporate this into my own work. 

I liked the messiness of this piece by Brennan Burch and how you can make out what they are when you focus on them properly but not at first. I would like to have a go at forming different birds together in a print so you cant tell what they are at first but then after a while of looking you can see what the forms are.

This is another piece by Brennan Burch that I liked because of the bizarre appearance and the flow of the shapes.

Fruit and Paisley patterns

As the designs I did with a mixture of paisley and fruit images worked so well I decided to create a brush so I could use this more easily in my future designs. I think this worked very effectively and was worth all the time I spent creating it. I created the brush from the first image. The second image is a print using the brush and a colour from my colour scheme.

Paisley and Fruit Pattern

I have now started to combine my fruit drawings with the paisley pattern drawings, I think these work well together as they are all line drawings and all the shapes are so textured. I would like to develop this idea further.

Bird samples

I now wanted to start making ideas for prints on Photoshop, using the bird drawings as the forefront in black, and then experimenting with colour and size in the background using my paisley pattern drawings. I think the one below worked well the most as the patterns look like feathers and really stands out against the rest of the image in black and white. I would now like to combine the paisley patterns with my drawings of fruit and see how this works in different scales and colours.

Final Designs

These are the two designs I decided to enter into the Tigerprint 'Spots and Stripes' competition as I think they are the most bold and striking.

Sampling Spots and Stripes

These are some of my samples of my colour experiments on Photoshop.

Tigerprint competition

The idea for the new competition is to redesign the simple 'Spots and Stripes' designs. I decided to use drawings from my current project and work more from these. I started by using the drawings I did from kiwi's and pomegranate's. As part of the brief you also had to use a colour scheme that was based on the colour trends of Spring/Summer 2013. I did some research into colour trends of Spring/ Summer and I thought the best would be to use Pantone's colour report. I then experimented with these and my drawings in Photoshop.

Drawings of the centre of a kiwi.

Drawings of the centre of a pomegranate. 

Piecing Together

I have now started thinking about how I am going to piece all these different drawings and ideas together in some designs. I found this piece of artwork by Geraldine Peclard 'Chaos and Order', it reminded me of the colour in the background and the black line drawing in the foreground like in the original archive piece I picked. I thought about having my bird drawings in the foreground in black and trying my fruit and paisley patterns in colour in the background.

Giacomo Balla

Balla was part of the Futurist movement, a lot of his paintings were that of trying to represent movement and the concept of space, he did this by repeating forms in movement. This is another artist that could inspire my work with how he deals with movement. The piece below is called 'Flight of the Swallows'.

Illustrator Sampling

I have being testing Illustrator to copy some of my line drawings and adding colour to these, I think they worked very effectively but for me to create the prints I want in Illustrator would take too long, as they are quite detailed.

Movement in Still

I have done more research into the photographer Etienne- Jules Marey, I took a book out of the library on him by Marta Brown called 'Picturing Time'. I took photos from this and the book 'Hummingbirds' by Walter Scheithauer and did some large scale drawings from photos of birds movements.

I also did some reading on artists work that was inspired by Marey's photography, such as Edgar Degas, Frantisek Kupka, Marcel Duchamp, Luigi Russolo and Giacomo Balla. 

I especially like this piece by Frantisek Kupka named 'Organisation of Graphic Motifs 2'. I also like the work of Edgar Degas, below, I like his sketchy way of drawing, I think it represents movement very well.

'The Ballet Dancer'

Bird Drawings

I had decided to start doing drawings of birds so I took some books out of the library on birds, 'Living Birds of the World' by E. Thomas Gilliard and 'A Sketchbook of Birds' by C.F. Tunnicliffe R.A. I then started drawing birds from these books in a simplistic style like in the archive piece. I especially liked drawing from the sketchbook of birds as they were already quite simplified. I have now thought about working these with the paisley patterns I have previously drawn, I had also thought about doing more research into the photographer Etienne- Jules Marey and trying to convey movement in my prints.

Fruit Drawings

I wanted to keep my drawings in the same style as that of the archive pattern, I used a black biro pen, doing a continuous line without looking at my page. I like this way of drawing as it distorts the image making it more interesting as the viewer has to look closer to figure out what it is. I then drew from the same photos in continuous line without looking at the page with ink, as the ink gives a more flowing affect. As the ink runs out after a while I had to keep looking at the page which gave me more control over what the end result would look like.

Orange drawing done in pen.

Pear drawing done in pen.

Leichi drawing done in ink.

Lemon drawing done in ink.