Chapter 9: exploring design with abstracted fragments (part 1)

In this chapter the aim is to explore a design idea chosen from chapter 4 'solid shape', chapter 8 'hollow outline' or choose a new design from my other sketchbook drawings or photographs.

I have split this chapter into two parts as I seem to have completed a lot of samples, with many more ideas to explore.  This post explores the initial designs using the abstracted fragments, computer manipulation and then exploring colour with small designs.  In part 2, I will write about developing the designs with texture.

I reminded myself about the ‘design recipe’ or elements to be looking for:  polygons, spiral lines, concentric lines, lines beyond the edge, lines confined by the edge, straight lines, curved lines, semi-circles, cross-hatching and shading.  

Having looked through my sketch books I decided to revisit my original photographs and enhanced colour images that provided the inspiration of my simple shapes previously used. These two images (A and B below) are my chosen sources.

Image A

 

Image B

 For the first set of exercises I cut a window 7cm x 4cm from card to look for interesting sections to make the tracings.  I tried two different positions for my window on image A. This produced radiating lines resulting in a very simple design.  I thought this was too simple and would not produce sufficient interest for the further exercises.

I added some detail with small sketches of my simplified shape.  I'm not entirely sure that they have worked to help with the design so I moved onto looking at a window from Image B. 

Image B is a manipulated colour image so there is more subtly in the detail to look at for my tracings.  I  think having a colour image is making it easier to see lines of interest.

In this set of images, I found a simple set of lines, then adding more lines, to produce polygons to the tracing. 

Here the lines are almost straight.  I wanted to include some very curved lines, so traced some detail from the top right-hand corner (see image B2  below):

  

The first tracing (B2) started off as quite an elegant design, but rotating (B3) and adding more of the similar lines  (B4) seemed to make this too complicated!  So, now to try again with fewer curved lines and with different sizes of my simple shapes beneath the tracing.

I made a second tracing of the lines without the added curved shapes for the next exploration.  In B5, B6 and B7 (images above) I used different sizes of ‘my shape’ as a background. I’m still not quite happy about the design arrangement in this iteration so try another scheme.

I scanned a clean copy of B2 to print and/or manipulate in other digital programmes.  I played with a few ideas finally settling on a design that included adding and extending some curves that had more potential for exploring abstracted fragments.  I printed several copies of Images B2 and B2b to explore methods of shading the abstracted fragments.

The designs of B2 and B2b seemed to work well for exploring a series of changes:

In B8 and B9 I included spiralling lines and concentric lines to create pattern within the polygons.

In B10 and B11  the counterpoint shows the addition of my shapes and semi-circular motifs. 

  

However, an example that used cross-hatching was a bit of a mess!  I am pleased with progress of developing this abstracted shape as I was struggling with thinking of words/phrases to use in my 'recipe'.

  

Explore design ideas with the computer:

Unfortunately, this opportunity is like falling into a rabbit hole for me!  There are so many different effects that can be achieved through image manipulation.   I therefore set myself a limit of one morning only to work on this section and to choose ten effects.  For all but two of the images I used the package Gimp.  Two images were altered using MS Word.

 

These exercises have been useful, as I now have some ideas of how different stitch patterns could be used to define lines and edges; how layers could be added /cut back to introduce colour; how to introduce background texture; how the surface of papers / fabric could be raised; how pieces of fabric / paper could be cut up and transposed; how fabric / paper could be twisted.  Plenty to explore in the part 2 of the chapter!

Design exploration with 'fragmented shapes'

Adding colour with the computer:  The three images below show a good quality scanned diagram used in Gimp.  Polygons coloured with a basic red/green complimentary colour.  In the second image the red polygons were selected and colour manipulated.  In the third image a background texture applied to the whole image.

 In this section, colour has been added manually.  

4:  Derwent colour pencils with analogous colours (ultramarine, oriental blue, purple, grey). 
5:  Complimentary colours with Dekka silk paints (violet, lemon) 
6:  Analogous colour using System 3 acrylics (cadmium yellow & vermillion as end colours, red-orange mix and orange as two intermediate colours).

Further exploration of colour composition includes

7: Using mainly light toned colour with one area of a dark colour mixed using system 3 acrylics Vermillion & Ultramarine & White.  Darkest colour mixed first, then more of the white added to produce paler tones.  Block coloured rather than individual fragments to emphasise change in tone.
8:  Mostly harmonious colour with one area of complimentary colour.  Using the same mix of colours as number 6, but replacing red with ultramarine in one block
9:  Combination of two complimentary colours in equal portions. Derwent colour pencils light blue and orange.  Additional diagonal lines drawn across design to indicate approximate half and half of design to be coloured.

10 & 11:  (Images below) Combination of two complimentary colours with one dominant colour.  I had several attempts at this; first using Derwent Inktense paints (which looked awful!) then using acrylic paints.  Knowing the science of the complimentary colours I was expecting one of the colours to appear much brighter, but I clearly did not have the proportions right.  So, I cheated!  I printed a transparent outline onto to coloured sheets of paper, then cut out a small number of sections from one colour (green) and stuck them onto its complimentary colour (the red paper).  I then used the green paper with cut-outs to overly the red paper.  Voila – the complimentary colours reversed.   I repeated the exercise with blue and orange paper.  I had a much better result with this technique as the colours were even and the optical effects could be seen more clearly:  the colour in the background (fewer blocks) appeared much brighter than the foreground.  I found this to be a very useful reminder of the exercises from chapter 5.

12 a and 12b:  For these samples I was trying to create a connected group of shapes of similar colour within a background. I had several attempts at this one (see below)…  Firstly, trying out painted bondaweb (blue & mauve with orange) ironed onto fabric with two of my shapes included as distinct colours, machine stitched to emphasise the linear features.  Then I added embossing powder – how awful does that look – guess what I won’t be trying again!  The second attempt was painted bondaweb (red, orange and yellow), this time I covered it with a layer of red organza with the aim of burning away some sections to reveal the colour below.  I hand stitched around the two shapes, but that made it look a bit daft, so I added running stitch outlines at random places to try to break up the background, it still didn’t look ‘right’, so I added another layer of organza, that didn’t look right either, burning back didn’t seem to help… time to abandon this one!

12 c: I had a break for a few days while I caught up the stitching for chapter 7 revisions and, to think through some other ideas.  My third attempt was much more successful.  Using one of my coloured fabrics as the background, I cut some semi-oval pieces of painted Thai silk tissue paper, that drew on the oval shapes in the early designs (image B2).  I played around with different ideas on how to connect them.  I liked the linear idea but they needed layers of different texture and stitch.  The layers are the dyed sinamay (distressed) held down with hand couched yarns from the Oliver Twists pack, then the connected shape, another line of couched yarn to hold them in position then finally, machine stitching to outline the element of the design.  This sample was a break-through moment as I felt I was beginning to get somewhere with creating an interesting sample.

13:  My next sample used the scraps of tissue paper from previous sample, couched to a contrasting background with zigzag machine stitch covered cord, a layer of distressed dyed scrim was placed beneath the scraps in the central portion to draw the eye into the composition.

14:  Faux chenille with cut away sections.  I really like the faux chenille technique, so was looking forward to trying it out in this section.  Here I have six layers of fabric in different colours and textures from my dyed fabrics – dyed cotton, organdie, scrim and silk hankie.  In two of the larger sections I sewed the lines for chenille in different directions to create added interest.  As I fluffed the cut parts up, the silk hankie completely disappeared, but strands of scrim were evident, and the cotton and organdie have lovely frayed edges.  In other sections I cut different layers away to reveal the textures and colour below. 

15:  My final sample for this section was layers of paper stitched together with the linear design, then cut up to stick on to a base of layer as exploded fabric.  I cut and folded back some of the layers to reveal the layers below, the long strips were reversed to change the colour pattern from the original top layer.  I like this idea, but the choice of papers I could have used in the layers could have better.

I have really enjoyed this section and eventually came up with some samples that I like and can take forward.  I have more ideas to try out for my part 2 of this chapter.

There were no additional costs with this part of the module as I already had all the materials to hand from previous chapters.  I spent about 40 hours creating the samples in this section.

Unfortunately, my virus has returned so I must take a few days to rest up before working in the garage on gluey, melty, messy things.