Project 4 Developing Design Ideas - Stage 2, Looking for shapes and drawing

 Regentag on Waves of Love - Hundertwasser

 Cliff Harbour - Alexis Lask

An embroidered cloth from Afghanistan from the book

Embroidered Textiles: Traditional Patterns from Five Continents

by Sheila Paine

I worked on the Hundertwasser picture using coloured pencils because they were there and I really couldn't be bothered getting anything else out that late at night but in retrospecct they were a bad choice fro working directly on to watercolour paper, there was just too much texture there to get coverage from the pencils, so they are all fairly light with lots of white shining through and I'm not really pleased with them.  I think the glory of Hundertwasser is the bright, bright colours and I didn't do justice to it at all.  I tried to rescue it with outlining in black fibretip and I think it helped a bit.  It's a shame really because I really love the shapes that are present and if I'd only made a better media choice I would've ended up taking this a lot further.

Next is the watercolour bby Alexis Lask, I've had this card sitting on my bookshelf for years, I just adore the colour and texture that are there.  I used a combination of watercolour and gouache to recreate the shapes that I found the most interesting, but being me I couldn't leave it at that and I had to keep painting until almost all the details were in there too!  I love the curves of the pathways and the shapes of the rooftops.

I loved this embroidered Afghan fabric that I came across in Sheila Paines book.  I decided to use a black and white copy of it to really focus on the shapes, and so I worked only in 4H pencil, trying to ignore the shoddiness of the photocopy and the silly stripes the printer insisted on inserting!  I love the very organic shapes embroidered on to this fabric, in particular the 'sun' type thing in the centre.

Once I had completed all the squares, I decide to follow the suggestion in the handbook and make a viewing frame in the shape of a garment.  I really enjoyed this, it seemed to make a bit more sense in my head to use the vest shape instead of a square square.  I think the graphite/afghan embroidery vest works really well, with the sun following the neck shape.  I also like the watercolour vests, I would happily wear them! :)