Anatomy & Botany Art

Argentinian artist Juan Gatti illustrates and combines together botany and anatomy drawings of the human body, plants, exotic birds and other various creatures. His illustrations are extremely intricate and I find them so interesting, I could look at them all day! There is something so elegant and peaceful about the human body and animals shown throughout his work. He is also known for his photography and graphic design and has worked with big names such as Zara, Karl Lagerfeld and Italian Vogue.





 

I Love Arts & Crafts

Crafty Sunday! I love being all cosy inside my warm house making lots of things, whilst its all rainy and cold outside. Perfect Sunday if you ask me!

Butterfly Drawer Liner

Here is the drawer liner I designed for Cherished by Charlotte. I actually did this a couple of months ago and I have only just got around to uploading it! Charlotte upcycles beautiful vintage furniture by hand painting and refinishing them in a quirky and unique style. She came up with this wonderful idea of having butterflies inside of the drawer so she got in touch with me to see if I could design something. So this is what I came up with and in the end it worked wonders. She also found a very pretty butterfly door pull to match! You can have a look at more of her stunning and unusual work on Etsy or check out her Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/CherishedByCharlotte/info

Monoprint & Acetate

Layering acetate over a monoprint works really well! I love the effect it gives.

Hand Drawn Pattern Repeat

This week I've been creating hand drawn pattern repeats for my current brief's theme 'folklore'. I'm probably going to develop these patterns further digitally and hopefully use them in my finished garment so keep your eyes peeled for the final outcome!

Anthropologie Inspiration

Today I am feeling very inspired by Anthropologie home interior. I love all of their bedding, rugs, curtains, lighting, cushions in fact I love and want everything from Anthropologie! http://www.anthropologie.eu/anthro/index.jsp

Layered Screen Print

Here's a 3 way colour screen print I did today with the help of my fellow classmate Sara! Have a look on her blog to see more of her work! http://sararosetextiledesign.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/infrastructure/

Black Monoprint

A couple of monoprints I have been doing today! 

Monoprinting

Today I have been really busy developing my drawings for the new brief and thinking of lots of different ways to create unusual motifs for the theme 'folklore'. One of my favourite techniques I have been working with today is monoprint. It's a very simple technique and can sometimes look a bit boring (I think so), but if you have a play around with it and experiment with different ways of creating a monoprint, you can get a really interesting outcome. 

Here's one I did today!

There is a few ways you can monoprint and people tend to have their own habits. But this is how I do it anyway...

I started off by choosing a drawing from my sketchbook that I wanted to develop. I began to trace it because you will need to stick it down on the back of the paper your monoprint will be going on. You could also photocopy it but It's only a simple design so I thought i'd quickly trace it. 

I wanted two layers of colour on my monoprint, so I traced the thick stalks of my flowers first on one sheet of tracing paper and on a separate sheet, I traced the flower heads and a few leaves.  

I then prepared my board by squeezing a small dollop of mono paint and rolling it until it's a very thin layer. With masking tape I then stuck down my first traced image on the back of the paper where my print will go. I then went over the image with a pen whilst being careful not to lean on the rest of the paper because it will smudge the monoprint on the other side.

Then gently peel off the paper to find your first layer. I then repeated the last few steps for my second layer but using a different colour. 

...and here's my final outcome! I think it has created a really nice motif and has the potential of maybe being used in a final piece after a little cleaning up and a bit more development. 

Dreaming About Wolves.

I always have dreams/nightmares which involve this wolf! I wonder what the meaning is for that? If there is one... 
I drew this using charcoal, graphite and ink. 

Drawing Techniques and Media

I haven't posted anything for while as I have been super busy over the summer with various things. But now I am back at college I have more time to concentrate on the subject I really love. Here's a few bits and bobs I have been working on this week. 
My new brief is to create 3 garment fronts based on my chosen theme 'folklore'. So like any project, I start of by drawing a few sketches including techniques such as blind, opposite hand and continues line drawings using different shades of graphite and fine liner. I then go on to draw more analytical and tonal drawings using a wide range of media such as graphite, stick and ink, pen and watercolour. These drawings are just the early stages before I start to develop them in to something much more interesting.