Turning to hand drawn images

Over reading week I took a step back and looked at my work I

wasn’t entirely happy. When I was looking at wallpaper samples I had a clear favourite which was almost opposite to my current designs. Although the pattern was originally hand drawn, when it was printed it seemed too mass-produced. It took away the organic pattern and style of the original drawing. I took advice from my tutor and considered why it had to be a single image repeated in such a clinical way. My reasoning for this was that for me, it looked clean and proffesinal when it was presented this way. I decided to just draw and the resonse I got to just a doodle on the wall was so positive I decided to go in another direction with my prints.

I didn’t agree with my peers as for me the drawing was too messy and untidy in design but when I planned out my design instead of automatic draweing the design was much cleaner, more thought out and cleaner. Because of the detail in the print, to get the important repeat in there I had to trace the pattern and then line it 3 times because I discovered hand-drawing my pattern and having that craft element to the print is very important. You can tell when you see the print that it has taken time and care to create.

The print is different to my original idea because it is a compliation of my research and trial and error. The flowers in this print are all taken from observational drawings that I have so far produced. I like this as it makes the print very personal in that I have captured these flowers and am still drawing from them. The pattern winds and weaves around the paper guiding the eye to different elements and flowers within the piece. Colour adds to this experience as I have added little touched of colour throughout the pattern. Colour was important as it adds to the decorativeness of the piece and makes it aesthetically pleasing, without colour the strip of pattern looks like a colouring book with bold black lines.

The end piece was just over six foot in length and I decided to display it on the wall like it would be if it were being pasted on the wall for wallpaper. I stuck it flat to the wall and from the top of the skirting board. This made the piece look decorative as a piece of wallpaper.

I would ideally like to create a longer piece so that it could cover the length of the wall and I would also like to make the repeated pattern more prominent so that the viewer would be able to see the reason behind the pattern. 

Possible Final Design

I created another drawing but one that could stand on its own without needing to be connected to another piece to make it flow. This pattern is my favourite so far because it is simple but with plenty of detail. Its clear the original is hand drawn which is important to me as I want my wall paper to show skill and effort.

I tried putting this image in a pattern to print onto wallpaper. When I just put the image into straight lines it looked too formal to be wallpaper and boring. I experimented with different designs to see how I could make it interesting to look at if it were to cover a whole wall or room. After trying multiple different patterns I decided rotating the pattern through lines was the one which looked the most aesthetically pleasing. The turns are to symbolise the different ways the flower can be viewed however the print still looks too stiff and not organic.

I also experimented with backgrounds but it took away from the design and from looking at other wallpaper samples I decided I would definitely not be having a background. It made the pattern look too busy even on a small scale. A blank background makes the pattern stand out much more and looks more clean and professional.

Wallpaper Samples

I went to a DIY store and looked at floral wallpaper samples to see what qualities they commonly have. This sample was a favourite of mine because the collections of flowers look like they are coming out of the shadows behind. It has a blank background which makes the flowers stand out a lot more than if there was another pattern behind. The soft colours are also attractive to me because they are not garish like others.

This sample is very different from the others as there is a pattern stretching behind the roses. The pattern distracts from the roses and makes the overall presentation look busy and unorganised. The colour scheme being very similar throughout the sample makes it difficult to see the roses that are meant to be the most prominent feature. Because of this I don’t find it aesthetically pleasing, which is very important to me in my work.

 Although the flowers in this wallpaper are too animated for my liking, the bright colours distinguish what is the main focal point of the pattern. The way the pattern follows on from each other from a vine is attractive as it leads the eye through the pattern. However, the pattern is very simplistic and doesn’t have many elements to it. Because of this the viewer can’t be intrigued about the pattern because there is very little to it.   

This pattern is like the previous in that the pattern runs through the roll by a connecting leaves and vines. This sample is more realistic and with a much more muted colour palate to the previous. However, it has gone too far the other way and isn’t eye catching with such little colour and substance to the pattern. The outline of the flowers without colour makes its centre more of a focal point, but it still lacks much detail and substance.

 This sample is by far my favourite. The pattern leads the eye through the wall with different elements. Although I think that the dragon flies and butterflies are unnecessary I understand that this wallpaper is for domestic use. The different colours entice the eye and the simple pallet is aesthetically pleasing. The darkness of the background really makes the light colours stand out but I imagine this to quite an unpleasant background colour if it were to cover an entire wall.  

From looking at these different samples I have decided that the pattern I want to create for my ‘wallpaper’ will have a plain background so all the detail can be centred on the pattern itself. I also want there to multiple flowers running through it so that there’s substance and makes the pattern aesthetically pleasing. My ‘wallpaper’ will be coloured but I want to stick to a simple colour pallet so I don’t take away from the effect of the pattern.

Adding Colour

All my previous drawings have been strickly black and white. There was no reason for this other than it looking bold simple. However, most wallpapers have colour and those that don’t look bland when they cover an entire wall or room. I decided to add colour to one of my drawings of roses but I chose to go with its original colours instead of making it abstract.

My drawing looks a lot more effective with colour than without. The colour stops the pattern looking basic and like a colouring book outline. It also looks much more like a wallpaper when the pattern is lengthened. I will adding colour to my future drawings and patterns as I think it is an improved development in my practice. 

Helen Chadwick

Helen Chadwick (18 May 1953 – 15 March 1996) was a British sculptor, photographer and installation artist. In 1987, she became one of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypical perceptions of the body in elegant yet unconventional forms. Her work draws from a range of sources, from myths to science.

The Wreaths to Pleasure consist of thirteen colour photographs, each depicting different flowers and fruits set against and within both pleasant and poisonous liquids: tomato juice, melted chocolate, and detergents and soaps like Windowlene, Fairy, Ariel and Swarfega, and Germolene antiseptic cream. Shot from above and framed in the artist's own circular brightly coloured enamel steel frames, the works were the result of several years of experimentation by the artist. Each Wreath to Pleasure started as a sculptural installation, made within a shallow circular tank within which she would spread the liquids, gels, juices, flowers, and fruit, in a unique combination that would then be photographed.

This series illustrates Chadwick's depiction of a transient world of visual and sensorial pleasures and execrations, where both aspects collide: at the same time joyful, aphrodisiac, nauseous and abject. Chadwick examines the notions of desire and repulsion, life and death, beauty and ugliness by analysing - almost with a scientific approach - the fluidity of our existence and the matter that constitutes it.

I’m attracted to Chadwick’s Wreaths of Pleasure because they are aesthetically pleasuring. The colour schemes of each one are complimentary and I find their circular framing a contrast to traditional classical frames. How Chadwick uses flowers in her work in innovative by submerging them in materials which will cause them to die. Similarly to Anya Gallaccio, Chadwick centres her art around the decomposition of the natural material. Also like Gallaccio, Chadwick forces nature into geormetric shapes. This is appealing because it conrasts with the fluid and unpredicatable nature of the material. Chadwick is a nice contrast to my work where I try to preserve the flower, she tries to amplify it’s decaying. The bold colours in each ‘wreath’ are eye-catching and make the collection stimulating. From looking at her work I would like to introduce colour into my own. 

Patterns and Scale

I like my work to look clinical as I believe it looks more professional and clean when it is presented. When something is messy and out of place in a piece it causes slight OCD tendencies.

Without the pattern in my work, it eliminates the reason for looking at the Fibonacci sequence and natural materials (flowers). I decided to look at scale again but oppositely to how I previously considered it in my work. I made the flower pattern smaller. I made the pattern even smaller so that it became almost like an optical illusion. From further away it doesn’t look like a flower at all but a few dots on the page, until you get closer and see the drawing. Although the smaller scale makes the image interesting to look at, I want you to be able to see the drawing of my work. If you can’t see that the image is a flower then it might as well be anything. It is important the image of the flower can seen otherwise it has no links to the sequence. 

This drawing doesn’t work best as a sequence because the eye is drawn too much to the centres of the flowers, they are too dark in contrast to the rest of the image. As a pattern spread across a wall like wallpaper it not be as aesthetically pleasing as other drawings is have created.

Scale and Paul Morrison

While looking at my line drawings my tutor suggested I look at the scale of which I was drawing them. He helped me to print my drawing out large like an artist who he introduced me too: Paul Morrison. Although he went to University in Sheffield (where I’m from) I wasn’t familiar with him but found my work really relates to his. He creates botanical drawings, mainly in monochrome. His “boldly rendered gardens and landscapes are magnified, distorted, and cartoon-like, appearing through various mediums in paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and film. Morrison consciously shifts scales and takes inspiration from timeworn engravings, botanical illustrations, comics, animations, and found images.”

On a photo of his works you do not guess that it is as tall as a building. This made me think about scale within my own work and when we blew my drawing up large the overall image was arresting on the wall because it invaded the space with how much larger it was.

I aesthetically appreciated how my drawing looked large however if I were to make them all this big I would unfortunately not have the space to include the repetition of the flowers, thus getting rid of why I’m using flowers in the first place; because they follow the Fibonacci sequence.

I also found that when I blew the image up the quality of the image recreated and became pixilated and not sharp. If I were to create drawings with the intention of them being large scale I would make them larger to begin with to get rid of this problem.