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Today’s life drawing session was all about portraiture. I have tried to avoid drawing faces until today, where we had to focus on the face. To start with I had no idea where to begin but once I got into it I felt a lot more confident in starting. it was recommended that we start with the eyes and work from there. To start we were just drawing the head but we then moved onto the body as well. In the second half of the session we were still focusing on the face but including the body as well, we had a bit longer for these, the first two we had 12 minutes and for the last one we had just under an hour, for this one I used pencil and white chalk, I used the chalk to highlight where the light was hitting the body, I really wish that I had more time on this one so that I could finish it. Overall, I am really pleased with the progress I made in this session and I feel a lot happier with drawing faces now, I am going to keep practising so that I can keep improving.
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MondayLife Drawing Today I had another two sessions of life drawing, the first session we were just using brush pens and in the second session we began using paints, to find out more read my next posts all about each session. TuesdayTechnical Session- Constructing The Top Today I finished construction of the top that we started last week, I had to insert the collar and the facing as well as hem the whole garment, although the facing was quite fiddly I am really pleased with my end result, I enjoy construction as I can be quite regimented with the way I do things as well as being very hands on. Deconstruction experimentation I decided to work on the full-sized mannequin today to explore my ideas on a bigger scale, I am taking a lot of influence from the work of Bridget Riley, as well as focusing on texture. Bridget Riley creates art that consists of lots of lines and block colour, they often give the effect of an optical illusion, which is all things I am trying to experiment with. WednesdayToday was a catch up day, so I took the time to work on my sketchbook, fabric file and my technical file. Thursday1/2 scale mannequin shape experimentation Today we had our open studio, where we were showing the work that we have been getting up to for the last few weeks, our work was shown from behind a piece of white fabric where we shone lights onto it so that you could only see the silhouette, then people could come around to the other side to see what was creating the shapes. We were focusing on shape today to see what silhouettes we could create, I found this quite difficult as my piece at the moment is very textured, but it doesn't have such a sculptural shape to it, this is something that I am going to work on so that it has a more defined shape to it. I found it very helpful projecting them onto the fabric as it showed us the silhouette of our work making us focus on the shape. Pattern cutting technical session I really enjoyed todays pattern cutting session as we pattern cut three different types of skirt, we pattern cut an A-Line, a Flared and a Circle skirt, I really enjoyed getting to know different methods for each of them, for the A-line I was taught using the pivot method which reduced the amount of paper that I needed to use from my old method and was a lot quicker and easier. Today we were painting, I really enjoyed this however it was quite difficult to get it drawn in the time as we were having to do quick paintings, we were painting a man, which I have never done before but it was all with clothes on which came with its own difficulties as it was a case of painting colours and garments, but doing them quickly gave us a chance to explore different ways in which to do it so that we could begin to find our own artistic styles. I am going to practice my painting so that I can get better control of my brush strokes. Today we began by drawing the body working on our line work again. But we then moved onto clothes, this was quite daunting to start with but then I settled into it and really enjoyed adding in the colour and patterns. It was interesting to pay close attention to the way that fabric sits against the body and how it drapes off the body. For this session we were using brush pens, I found this very beneficial when drawing the tartan dressing gown as you can change the effects that the pen creates by just moving it slightly, I think that drawing the clothes on an actual person will help me a lot when I am doing my design work to help create a better image of how I want my designs to look. Monday Life Drawing Today we had two sessions of life drawing, we were exploring the use of tone, I found this really interesting. to find out how I got on check out my life drawing posts. Tuesday Pattern cutting technical session Today we were pattern cutting a top ready for construction on Thursday, we had to pattern cut a bodice, sleeves, collar and a facing, for the bodice we had to draw around the bodice blocks, we had to move the bust darts from the shoulder and waist to the side seam, to do this I used the pivot method that we learnt last week. we then had to box off the bodice to give a boxy finish. 1/2 scale mannequins Today we began work on the 1/2 scale mannequins, after our sketchbook workshops last week we were creating the deigns we had made in fabric on the small mannequins. I got to explore the use of gathers and pleats that I have been experimenting with in my sketchbook. I am really pleased with the results from today and look forward to exploring them further on Thursday. Wednesday Visit to the Norwich costume and textile museum We had our introduction to the museum today, which was really interesting as I got to see a lot of fashion from different historical eras, I am excited to be able to explore this further and use this facility to help me progress in my studies. Thursday Individual tutorial Today I had my first individual tutorial, I was quite nervous to start with, but I soon settled in and as I have put a lot of work into my sketchbook and experimentation, so I was able to explain my ideas and where I want to take my ideas. I found the feedback really helpful as I now have a better understanding of what I should do next and how to make my work better and more professional. Having never done anything so experimental before it was good to be told I am going about it in the right way and to just keep doing what I am doing, just including more sketches, which I had already planned to do. Construction of top pattern cut on Tuesday this afternoon was really productive as I completed the task, we had to insert an invisible zip into the back of the top, make up the bodice and insert the sleeves ready to insert the collar and facing next week. I found the sleeves quite fiddly but using the gathering technique helps make them go in a lot easier, I was very happy to see that all my patterns matched up perfectly and that everything so far fits together. 1/2 scale mannequins I continued with the experimentation on the 1/2 scale mannequins today. I decided to explore the use of shibori and gathers mixed with box pleats that I manipulated into different shapes, I will take my experimentation and work into it to generate more ideas for next week. In today's session we were looking at how light hits the body. our first drawing was using white chalk onto black paper, and we only had to draw where we saw light hitting the body, I found this interesting as we could make out the person, but you didn't need a full outline. the second drawing we did was using chalk and pencil, we were able to highlight the areas of light with the chalk and show the shade with the pencil, we were drawing onto a nude coloured paper so were to use the paper as part of the drawing, I liked getting to use different medias to create a drawing. I felt a lot happier going in to today’s session as it wasn’t the first time I had done it, meaning that I had an idea on what to expect. I liked using colour to show shading as I feel it makes the drawings look more interesting and defined. I felt a lot more confident in just drawing what I saw today, I wasn't hesitating as much or panicking if something didn't look quite right, I just continued practicing my lines so that there weren’t as many sketchy lines. I have found that using brush pens stops me doing as many sketchy lines as it becomes a lot more obvious. In today's session we were looking at lines and making our lines more fluid and less sketchy. I found it quite difficult as I am not the best at drawing, but I know I will get better the more I practice. over the next few sessions I want to work on my proportions and my lines, I want my lines to become more defined. Over the next few sessions I shall share my progress in life drawing with you.
The word contemporary can mean something different to everyone but it all runs along the idea of something that is modern and new. When I think of the word contemporary, sustainable comes to mind. We live in a world where we are trying to make a difference to how we treat it, I started by looking at sustainable designs in architecture. This house is built using reclaimed wood, to me this is contemporary as it is using materials that are sustainable and don’t damage the environment  Image from https://inhabitat.com/7-year-old-california-boy-saves-10k-for-college-with-his-own-recycling-company/ I then went on to look at culture, for new generations we are trying to fix what the people who came before us have done to the world, from recycling and reusing to reducing the amount of fossil fuels used, we are concentrating on electric power and how we can create it in an economical and eco-friendly way, including hydro-electrics, the world is advancing and modernising and the younger generations are at the front leading the rest of the world so that is nicer for the generations to come. I chose an image of 7-year-old Ryan Hickman who has started recycling in the masses collecting over 200000 plastic bottles which he then cleans and takes to the recycling centre.  Image from https://www.vogue.com/article/milan-fashion-week-fall-2017-moschino-runway-show I then went on to look at how fashion can be influenced by rubbish and recycling, I first thought about the Moschino A/W 17 collection which looked as though it had been made out of cardboard. This was a task from today where we had to show what 'contemporary' means to us, please leave a comment about what it means to you.
Fashion follows social contexts, everything that is happening in the world effects what we wear.
Fashion begins in the 14th century Invention of:
15th century During the 15th century being 'out of date’ became a social concern. Fashion became very political, it showed your status and your allegiance and with more access to fabrics, rich embroideries became popular after king Charles the fifth of Spain. Slashed sleeves came into fashion, the slashes were symbolism of Switzerland defeating Burgundy. With peoples fashion becoming a lot more extravagant a lot of detailing in shirts becomes visible. Sleeves had a fur lining, tight to the elbow, then flared into a trumpet sleeve. I was quite shocked to learn that men were as richly decorated as the women. 18th Century During the 18th century a distinction between day and evening wear became the normal, where before people would wear the same thing all day. which a very steep increase in the amount of cheaper fabrics becoming readily available and the invention of the sewing machine, people began to be able to afford more than one outfit, this lead to people using fashion to display one's identity. 1950s The 50s saw the invention of Dior's New Look and it saw a popularity increase of Levi's ad blue jeans. The term ‘teenager’ became popular and Elvis came to fame. Also in the 50s Nylon and Rayon were invented.
1980s
The 80s saw a social change with lives beginning to revolve all around money and finance, it also saw the invention of the first mobile phones. Women's power dressing became very popular in the 80s and a lot of the clothes designed contained shoulder pads. Following on from the disco wear of the 70s, neon clothing. Ready to wear fashion became readily available and sportswear turned into street wear |
AboutHello, Eleanor here, I am currently at Norwich University of the Arts studying Fashion, please join me along my adventure. Archives
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