Going into fashion at university level making and styling would then automatically make people think that my fmp show would be about crating and Making my own garments. As I have never really had any practise within dress making and I am personally not the best person at textiles, it seems like far to much of a jump to go straight into a subject that I am not good at, with all techniques and processes within art and design you learn and progress but for me dress making is far to much of a leap for me to of taken. It would of made Fmp more of struggle than an enjoyment for me. I also personally don't think that I had the right sources and guidelines at college to be able to carry it certain techniques anyway. I felt like the guidance to create this work wasn't really available for me. So I choose to use my situation to my advantage, I deviced to go the best way about it and create fine art orientated outcomes. This then allows me to not only strengthen my skills in fine art which is very important in any aspect of design, but also create outcome that can be late taken and printed onto garments. All of my outcomes are diverse, and print making is very popular within fashion, it is used for interior dresses, etc.. All of initial design ideas I feel could become things like garments or even tea towels and interior based furniture.  

Noel Badges Pugh

 

Noel Badges Pugh creates scientific illustrations as well as artwork with a more psychedelic perspective. Inspired by nature and dreams, all's created with an utmost appreciation for the details and structure of each subject.

 

I've chosen to look at Noel because his work is amazing, not only is he clearly a fine artist but he looks at the scientific meaning within flowers and uses his drawing techniques to express this again similar to Georgia O'keefe he likes to look at the reproductive side of flowers and the biology within it. It isn't rare to find an artist that both shares a strong interest in science and fine art because i believe they both come together as one. He uses allot of colour within his work but doesn't stay true to the colour pallet of the actual flower, he uses fine lines which i use a lot of within my own work, it helps to create lengths of detail and fine marks which i love to create within my own work. His work captures more of the photographic side of flowers, he does this with his expression of detail, it is almost as if he has taken a photographic and changed it with an effect with photoshop the detail is incredible. Although his line work is very minimal if you look up close, which is rather surprising when you see the detail that he does manage to re-create. I have created some post card outcomes using the style in which Noel draws using again minimal line and colour (black and white).

Georgia O'Keeffe

 

By the early 1920s, when O’Keeffe turned her attention to representational painting, she had used flowers as subject matter for almost two decades and had been exposed to advanced photographic techniques for at least half a decade. It is not surprising that what she did with flowers in the 1920s and thereafter was largely the result of combining the principles she learned from photography with those of the composition-based thinking of Arthur Wesley Dow that she had first learned about in the 1910s and would subsequently explore through course work with Dow at Teachers College. His modernist ideas had derived from his study of world art, in particular that of Asia, and he believed that the study of compositions was the most important consideration of an artist.

In 1924, O’Keeffe began to make paintings in various sizes, all of which focused on the centers of flowers, and she continued making them for decades.

In 1925, O'Keefees work along with many to follow presented the sexual anatomy of the flower in sharp focus. By drawing attention to the inherent androgyny of this subject, O’Keeffe could have been attempting to contradict the critical notion that her subject matter was related exclusively to her gender.
But if so, the critics in 1925 missed O’Keeffe’s point. They interpreted her flowers as they had interpreted her earlier abstractions, as expressions of her sexuality. In 1943, O’Keeffe finally responded: “Well – I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flowers you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower – and I don’t.”

I've chosen to look at O'keefee as an artist not only because she bases a lot of her work on flowers but also because she looks at the anatomy within a flower, she bases a lot of her work and paintings trying to capture the beauty of the reproductive organs of a flower,as people we don't really judge certain elements of flowers as beauty we just get attracted by either smells or looks. This makes me relate to how flowers can also be perceived to have human traits, as people we are also attracted to certain scents of one another as well as first impression within our looks.

When i first seen the paintings I did make the misconception of relating the flowers to sexual meanings, O'keefee has strongly denied in her work that it is not what she is trying to portray through her paintings, I think as an artist it came as an offence that some critics would relate her work to her own sexuality when this is not something she is associating it with at all, but actually just the female anatomy of a flower. I think she is trying to take a step back from relating her work to personal notions.
There is one particular piece of O'keefee which really does make me think about how she is unsure about peoples interpretations of her work, it is the rams head with a flower, to me this piece resembles that of a woman's womb, and the flower resembles the egg.

 

In comparison to my work, i feel that Georgia O'keeffe and I share a lot of similarity's, not in the way we draw because she is much more of a fine art painter were as i don't enjoy to paint but enjoy to capture work through drawing and inks, I think we share the same subject matter which is flowers and not only flowers but the perception we both have on them, I have also tried to capture the beauty and strong essence of the reproductive organs of the flower rather than the beauty of it itself. I have done this by keeping away from things like colour because i see it as a distraction in my work, I like my work to be minimal and speak for itself. I wouldn't want to over power a drawing with overwhelming colour this for me would spoil the message that i am trying to perceive. Yes flowers can be beautiful and come in beautiful colours but for me its not what I'm trying to portray to my critics, i want them to realise the beauty of a flower and how i am able to create that through the use of line.

Flower Wall.

How I displayed my work in FMP is something I have come to realise as very important. Being a passionate fashion individual who wants to go onto fashion at university level it is important that I realise and understand styling and the use of space. I used FMP as my opportunity to take advantage of this and show how I am able to take pieces of work and transform them into a working space, a space that is conversational and compliments the work put up. Visual merchandising is something that interests me so working with space and making work looks it's best is something I will be having to learn to do. So using my outcomes I used the space to the best of my advantage, spending time arranging my work in different ways and angles. I looked at things like scale and shape, I wanted my work to be at one scale and not to confusing. I choose my work specifically, I didn't want to over power anything and take the light of any of the pieces, this meant I had to narrow my prints down a lot so I was only left with a select few, but it worked. This shows my keen eye for being able to style work naturally in order for it to look the best it can be. FMP is also an opportunity for your work to be noticed and maybe bought, I also took this into consdiderstion when displaying my work, just like when you visual merchandise something in a shop window. I saw my boards as my show window and my work as my items. 

failed prints

Printing is all about practice and perseverance, it also takes a lot of patience to get results. Sometimes it would take me a week of printing to only get one successful print, but the key to successful and strong work is to not loose heart! There were times were I wanted to throw the towel in because one day the printing press tension wouldn't be right and my prints wouldn't work, or the ink was inconsistent, or I hadn't washed my hands as well as I thought I had and the paper was ruined. All of these factors contribute to how well or bad work turns out. Firstly you need to think a lot about preparation, you need a clear workspace and lots of organisation , this works! Clear a space and get all your tools ready, roll out your ink, and make sure the area is clean, the tension is set and your paper is soaking. Another thing to watch out for is paper packing, paper packing is placed into the printing press to add tension and protect your work from marks and spills, it is important the packing is either made new , in my circumstance it was due to the fact I was create a lot of final outcomes, and I didn't really have time to be ruining prints with dodgy packing. Once all of these things are done you are ready to print. There are many different plates which allow you to print at different scales, this is trial and error, as I tried to print at large scale and no prints worked successfully, it was a massive struggle to get a good print, and after several tries it failed to work. So I decided to stick to small scale prints, which happened to work beautifully and even more effective. It's amazing how one small print can hold so much definition and detail, compared to the work I was creating at the start of the year in printing I have massively improved not only in skill but also mind, this time round au wasn't half as negative towards my own work. 

drawings

I created a series of postcard drawings to be exhibited, taking inspiration from the artist noel badges, his work is amazing, he looks at the scientific side within the anatomy of flowers, and captures it through drawing. His work really is unbeatable but I gave it a go, using fine liner one of my favourite drawing materials,I drew from my own photos and own flowers, the results were successful and place in my show to compliment my ink drawings. 

what is a monotype?

It's a printing process where the artist doesn't have to worry about all of the "technical" aspects of printmaking and can instead concentrate on being creative. Energy, improvisation, gesture, impulse and chance are all characteristics of this printing process. It is the most "painterly" and immediately rewarding technique available for creating works on paper. Monotypes are usually made by either painting or rolling inks onto a flat surface. This flat surface can be glass, Plexiglas, or sheet metal (etching plate). With the application of pressure the image will transfer onto the paper. Pressure can be the use of an etching or litho press, or hand pressure with a Pinpress, barren or any other means that will exert enough pressure to make the image transfer. The ink used in a monotype can be applied with a brush, rag or rolled up with a roller or brayer. During the printing process depending on the method of application and the thickness and texture of the ink, the ink may spread and blur as it is blotted or absorbed by the paper. Usually the paper is placed on top of the plate used and the transferred image is a mirror image of the original. How the ink is applied and manipulated with all of its individual characteristics will be reflected in the print, which is what makes monotypes so unique.

Luisa Chillida Ingeborg

Luisa is a monotype print artist, she uses both mixed media in her work, she uses the plant form and paper to create her outcome, she chooses not to draw into it but simply capture the beauty of real life source instead. I've decided to look at her as an artist because her work has a conversation with mine in many ways, when I first saw her exhibits I was blown away with her media, I think real life plants and print go together like a duck into water, it certainly really works. The ink is washed back and the plant is brought forward almost as if it's on a pedistall. I created my monotypes by drawing into card first, I drew from my primary sourced flowers and countinued to use them throughout. I then ink up my card and worked it into the marks I had made, monotype is more about removing the ink than adding it. Using a metal plate I removed excess ink and then using variations of tools from cotton buds and cloth I started mark making in different areas, making sure I wasnt taking to much ink off but still capturing the beauty of the drawing. My outcomes were so beatiful I used both the card and the finished prints for my final show. 

Pia Jane Bijkerk

Pia Jane Bijkerk works with real flowers, she creates new spaces with them by using washy tape to affix them to walls, the flowers then slowly die and you are left with the an piece. Pia Jane's work looks at how beautiful flowers can be alive or dead, its almost as if she captures a life time of a flower, I think as people we are so used to discarding things when they die and moving on, for me Pia looks past this and continues to hold onto the beauty of the flower even when its died, this is important as I believe of course there is still beauty in something when it no longer exists. You don't have to be alive to be beautiful, some things hold much more meaning and characteristic detail when they are actually dead, for me it relates to a saying i once heard 'we kill flowers because they are beautiful, we kill ourselves because we are not' for me this piece relates a lot to this quote.

This work is similar to Anne Lory's, although Anne specific piece is a photographic image it still looks at the beauty within a flower or weed when it is dead, just like Micheal Landy and his diary of weeds, he looked at the beauty within weeds, when most of us look at weeds and choose to destroy them and discard of them from our gardens, when really is there a need? Weeds can be just a beautiful as the 5 bulbs of tulips you planted yesterday, if you don't recognise the beauty of either a dead flower or a weed then what is your illusion of beauty?! I believe there is beauty within everything it is up to us as the individuals to recognise it.

For me the washy tape also plays a big part in this piece, its almost like an aid to hold the flower up, its keeping the flower in place almost like a visible support system, without the washy tape the flower wouldn't be able to hold its own, it would fall to the floor and be seen as waste. This may seem rather negative but its also the world we live in, once something temporary hits the floor just like food we dispose of it, in this piece the washy tape is preventing this from happening.

Anne Lorys

Anne Lorys is a photographer, her photographic images have a vintage appeal to them. Her work is beyond beautiful and partly unique. Her work pushes the boundaries of art within photography, she captures the beauty of art but with a single picture, I feel that the images she captures have the same personal impression that they would if you viewed the up front and personal. Her work allows you to still interact emotionally without having to be in front of it. This is an example of one of her pieces, I chose this specifically because it appeals to me personally, my final major project is based upon flowers and this piece of work speaks a million words. 

prints

Strengthening my drawing within fine art has been important not only for printmaking but for future reference aswell. Repeating patterns and creating dresses out of these would be just a starting point, I think prints like these would make for diverse and interesting clothing. As I have a unique drawing taste, I could defiantly see my work coming together as a body of unique garments in the future. 

I always knew I wanted my final major project to revolve around printing. Forw printing is my calling I both enjoy and create good prints, which makes it seem like half the job sometimes. I have a real passion for printing, not only the work I become to create but artists aswell, this fmp has allowed me to explore printing and artists, it has helped me to appreciate all different aspects of print and artists, I have been able to take inspiration to create my own work. I would not of been able to of started this project without a base of research, it has definitely helped me in many ways. 

 

These are my dry point printing ghost prints, a ghost print is basically the print left over after the final print has been made, it is put through the press last and printed onto a sheet of newsprint. These ghost prints have actually captured the piece really well, this is obviously due to the left over ink. Personally I think my dry points make made my exhibition come alive, for me they were the definite focal point, they were my most successful prints and they are truly beautiful. 

prints

Michael landy weeds, was my basis for these selection of prints. I loved his illustrations of creating weeds into beautiful fine line drawings, which held detail and meaning. I wanted to create the same kind of notion when I created these prints, they were made on a small plate, which is inked up and drawn onto using a fine pin tool. It's basically etched onto the plate. The plate is then placed through the printing press onto of the paper and the outcome is created. 

Printing has really been trial and error for me this year, I suffered a lot at the beginning with several aspects like trying to get the tension on the printing press right and ink inconsistency. So I was surprised and astounded when these prints worked out really well. I made sure I only place them through the printing press once and I found this worked well were as when it was placed through twice detail was lost and so was consistancy in the ink, which was strange but I made sure I didn't make theistsle twice. These prints have been created on flower paper, which adds to the beauty of the print I think. If I hadn't of researched Michael landys work, and createdjne off of his drawings I don't think they would of been as successful. I've used a continuous line approach with a sketchy line. This technique of drawing is something I have been doing for a while and it really works, it capture detail at a different scale to what it would if you used a pencil, which I think is interesting and unique. 

plate printing

Small scale prints really worked for me in my fmp, I think I wanted things at a small scale because I didn't want anything to overpowering and I was looking a lot into styling and creating a unique working space, and I felt like small print outcomes along with mixed media photography was the best way to achieve this. These prints, are also my best pieces, most of these worked during the first attempt so they were kept for the final show, because printing can sometimes be unpredictable it was important I kept all of my prints even if some didn't seem perfect because of things like the drawn image or inconsistent ink. I would of ended up with no prints if I was trying to achieve perfection, because in printing this is merely impossible and that is something I have learned to know. 

Iphoneography

Not only are these prints unique but they are also very diverse, I could see these and imagine them on a variety of garments like dresses and t-shirts. Most of my photography work has a fashion element, as they both compliment each other. 

Flowers are very popular in fashion and are prints that are very famous in all season wether it be summer, spring autumn and winter. Winter will see prints such as leaves and tree, were as summer looks at prints like flowers, Daisy's etx. And that is noticable in my photography work. 

This print isn't half as successful as some of the others that had been created, during the photogram the developer that was being used wasn't as strong and therefore the image didn't develop as well as it was supposed to, this was obviously a shame as the image was beautiful but it still did capture the image with a vintage feel I personally think. 

Photography is something I think I had a raw talent for and wanted to use in FMP. Not only is it enjoyable but the outcomes I created were beautiful. I used my own primary sourced photos, and went into the dark room not knowing what I was going to create. Instead of developing a lot of these photographs normally, And to add to the unique element of my work I decided to hand develop them with developer,this allowed me to control how my photo turned out solely on how I used the paintbrush. 

Compared to the Iphoneography I was creating last year, my technique and work has defiantly strengthened.