PORTFOLIO

This project was what i was working on throughout my final year at university, spoken about on my home page. This project really helped me to test and develop my skills and completely jump out of my comfort zone. Skills included attention to detail, hand drawing, creating a design and seamless repeat pattern, photoshop and more.

In this project the aim was to create a scarf based around Norwich. I decided to research into the different nature reserves around Norfolk and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. After a lot of research into the wildlife, i found out about a certain species that grabbed my attention due to the amount of detailing it had - the Swallowtail Butterfly. In my woven scarf i portrayed the amount of detailing and colour the butterfly had by showcasing it into my own piece.

The purpose of the professional design challenge was to set myself a small amount of time (3 hours) to complete a set of pyjamas for a 6-7 year old boy, creating initial ideas from a range of different boys toys from a toy box. I picked out 2 plastic animals - an elephant and giraffe and began drawing motifs. I had to create a main print as well as a ditsy print, and used the marks on the giraffe as my inspiration for the ditsy. I wanted to keep the colour palette more neutral - whilst still keeping that fun detailing in the prints to keep it appropriate for that age group. This project helped me to develop my digital drawing skills as well as time management and working within an industry-like deadline. 

In this project, there were 5 members of the team including myself. we each took responsibility for initial drawings, mood boards, creating presentations and research. the manifesto of the project was to create a diverse collection of interior fabrics designed with high quality and timeless fabrics that will last a lifetime. because one of the main qualities of Huit Denim was their sustainability, we also took into account sustainable material choices. The main colour of the palette was blue, inspired by the company's timeless jeans. Inspired by the 'Shaped By You' no wash club movement, we decided to look at natural worn surfaces for textural inspiration when sampling. In my sampling, I made sure to use recycled/reclaimed denim and used second hand/recycled yarns. 

Throughout projects, watercolour has been one of my favourite ways to draw, especially as my speciality is drawing botanicals, it gives them a smooth delicate look, and easy to blend colours together. Weathercolour allows you to draw in high detail, creating delicate and different opacities. Plants also have a huge amount of texture, which watercolour is perfect for. For my FMP, my watercolour drawings were what i was using in every digital print, therefore each drawing had to be carefully scanned in and edited before being put into a pattern and printed onto fabric. It is important to have the skill of hand drawing and to see your own drawings come to life.

The printed length was the first large-scale screen print i had done. I drew my design onto three different pieces of drafting film, each piece representing a different colour. I used a mix of Indian ink and black posca pen to be able to achieve the different thicknesses and detail in the drawings - the thin posca pen was a lot thinner and helped to create more texture whereas the Indian ink with a brush was a lot thicker and didn’t leave texture.