Publisher Textiles.

Fig 1. 

Publisher Textiles are a screen printed textiles company, creating high end printed designs for wallpapers and upholstery and other interior accessories. As they only use screen print their designs are aimed at a high end market level, due to the bespoke and intricate nature of their designs.
They also create commission based designs on request, so can offer one off designs.
I could see myself working for a studio like this as I would want to work as part of a design time as opposed to working for myself, or freelance. Working with screen print is something I'd want to do, and somewhere like this is a studio where I could see my work potentially being able to fit.

Publisher Textiles use a variety of specialist print finishes such as discharge, foil, flock, to create textures and surfaces. These are some of the techniques that I also use within my designs, the bold nature of some of their prints is also not dissimilar to some of the marks and patterns created within my designs. I found that my designs work well repeated, and due to their elaborate nature to not begin to appear too commercial. I definitely feel that my work is more suited to this high end level of the market, which is something I'd like to aim for when designing. 

Fig 1.  Publisher Textiles (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 5th December 2013] <http://www.publishertextiles.com.au/>

Exposed Screens.

I've been preparing my screens this week, creating two designs that could be put into a repeat. I've never done hand repeat before and only experimented with digital repeat in the past. I felt that it was important for me to have some examples of screen printed repeat in my portfolio so it shows it's a skill I have.
I'd want to be able to show that I am versatile within my designs so want to have some repeatable and some one off designs, so as to show a range within the collection.

I feel for my first attempts at repeat the prints came out well and the design worked. I've stuck to monochrome so as not distract myself again, and I felt like I was able to achieve a lot more though doing this. I've worked with a variety of heavier silks, linens and wools, to think more about what sort of fabrics would be used in a interior, particularly at the higher end market level. The linen in particular hung really well, and would be something I'd like to work with further.
I brought some foil back into the prints to link to the metallics I used in my drawings. However I think that my placement of the foil in these samples is perhaps highlighting the wrong areas and distracting from the print. The print is strong enough on it's own. Perhaps the foil would work better as a layer over the top.
I feel that the exposed line has come out much clearer than the hand painted monoprints that I experimented with previously, and has still kept the drawn mark but in a lot bolder and more defined way. I would like to expose some more designs that are non repeatable as well, to start to build up a collection.

First Prints.

For the past two weeks I've been dying up fabric and experimenting in the print room. 

I wanted to work with mono printing to begin with as I felt that this would be the best way to translate my drawings to print. 

I don't feel that my time so far in the print room has been very successful, the mono prints haven't come out as I'd have liked, the lines don't have the defined quality of my drawings. 

I've found that I've become distracted by process and colour again. Although I told myself I was going to stick to a few colours, dying up the backgrounds and working with different printing dyes has started to confuse me. 

I think that the best way to move on from this week is to go back to my drawings and pick out sections to then expose onto a screen. An exposed screen will hopefully give me the defined lines that I want to achieve. 

Monochrome Drawings.

Fig 1.

Since I've been focusing more on layout the past couple of weeks, I've been looking at Richard Long's paintings, as he uses defined shapes combined with the paint being allowed to drip and splash across the piece so is still very expressive, but with a sense of structure added. It's helped me to look at how other expressive artists lay their work out and think about composition, which I think is starting to come through in my own work this week. 

I set the aim of completing 25 drawings that explored different sets of marks to help refine my drawing and ideas.

I found this task to be very helpful, and worked well to focus my marks. I'm pleased with the body of marks generated, and feel I've created a large volume of inspiration for me to work with further in the print room. 

I think the more monochrome palette is working well, as I'm not thinking about colour and materials as much and purely thinking about what marks to create. I've also found masking off sections, in a way similar to Long,  to be effective against the expressive marks, it's quite dramatic to have a hard line in the middle to cut the marks off. 

Fig. 1 Richard Long (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 12th November 2013] <http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/368/richard-long/highlights-3783>

Ian McKeever.

I've been interested in Ian McKeever's work this week, I think it relates to some of the techniques i've been using as his paintings give the effect of illumination, with abstract forms and shapes layered up together. This is a similar effect that I want to achieve with marks and pattern. McKeever's palette is quite subtle, yet effective, the darker and tonal backgrounds really illuminate the white areas. This is something for me to think about, perhaps using a darker palette, with only small flashes of brighter areas.

Fig 1.

Fig 1. Ian McKeever (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 11th November 2013] <http://www.ianmckeever.com/gallery/paintings.php?pg=5>

Layout and Marks.

Fig 1. 

This week I was inspired by Mark Rothko's paintings, mainly for his use of layering with colour to create illuminating effects. I've been thinking more about layout this week and how my marks can work in a piece without covering a whole surface. I decided to create another large scale drawings whilst taking into account how I could block sections and create areas of space as Rothko has done within his paintings.

This piece as a whole was far more successful than my previous large scale drawings, this was because I wasn't focusing on creating shapes any more and I was purely looking at marks, through which I've realised that I don't need to over work things, pieces can be simple and effective with just one mark repeated. I think it's also helped in this drawing to have areas of space and colour without marks, creating a sense of depth and illumination.  

Fig 1. Mark Rothko (n.d) [Online] [Accessed on 11th November 2013] <www.wikipaintings.org>

Large Scale Drawings.

                                     Fig 1.                                                                        Fig 2. 

This past few weeks I've really been working on upping the scale of my drawings. I created three large scale pieces, to test out different techniques and colour ranges.  

I don't think the all over pattern worked too well as shown in Fig 1, as it started to become more like a geometric structure, which isn't the effect I want to achieve, I feel that focusing on more flowing shapes and marks to create a more natural and organic feel is more appropriate to my concept. 

For this reason I am happier with the drawing shown in Fig 2 as it is a more flowing structure. I think that the colours are working well in this piece, and the illuminating effect has really worked in areas. Working on a lot larger scale has helped to free my mark making up and create more flowing lines, creating a more natural feel. 

                                 Fig 3                                                                           Fig 4

I decided to up the scale further to get a feel for the scale of an interior context shown in Fig 4. 

I found working to this scale to be quite daunting. I ended up getting hung up on how the shapes needed to form, leading them to become very leaf like which wasn't the effect I originally wanted to achieve. I wanted the marks to create new forms and shapes without me forcing them into one particular shape in repeat, there needs to more of an organic feel to my drawings. To work on from this, I will focus purely on the marks from my photographs, and start to think about adding space around the shapes as filling the whole page is too much. The techniques and colours I'm using also need to be brought back as I'm trying to use too many colours and techniques in one piece. 

In Fig 3 I found that adding the cut out layer on top of the banner style drawing really helped to create space and depth, something that I want to continue experimenting with, especially in the print room with techniques such as devore.