Assignment 2 - Reflective Commentary

I found the colour exercises quite surprising.  Mixing the colours to match specific samples wasn't as difficult as I had expected, except for purple.  Looking at real objects and trying to see the real colours I found quite difficult.  I think I made a good attempt at doing this though and mixing the blue background colour with the colour of the fruit to create the shadow colours worked well.

Finding words to illustrate was difficult.  I did make a lot of samples but didn't consider them to be very successful and struggled to come up with any samples to use.

The mood boards/colours bags based on images that I found interesting was really enjoyable.  I love looking through all my samples and picking out fabric/yarn/papers to re-create the mood of the image.

The stitching exercises were interesting.  The effect on the colours depending on the stitch/spacing/proximity of other colour was surprising.  The French knot exercise was monotonous but the results were good.  I prefer the pointillism effect of mixing the colours by density and not by mixing the thread in the needle.  I thought working from an image worked well - I liked both of my sample drawings and the finished piece.

Finding design ideas was also difficult - I couldn't find anything that I had worked on that I wanted to develop. The stained glass image was successful and generated quite a number of good examples and very different feelings.  I liked the idea of using the shards of pottery that I find in the garden and isolating the designs on them.  I would like to develop this idea further.

I found it difficult to select anything from my drawings to develop into print, but once I started manipulating them on the computer I realised that anything can be isolated, repeated, flipped, etc and it always seems to produce a really interesting design.  I found them all a bit too complicated to then recreate by printing by hand though.

I enjoyed the silk painting, although this technique definitely needs more work and experimenting.

Again for the painting and printing on fabric, I found it difficult to find any of my designs that I could develop.  For my final large sample I chose various elements of ideas I had worked on and put them together into a half-drop repeat.  I like the way this has turned out.  I don’t think it is anything special, but it is a good workmanlike design.

I am glad that this assignment is finished and I am hoping that the next one doesn't make me feel like this one has.  I don’t know if it is because I have had a series of illnesses over the past four months and am feeling a bit run-down or whether the course is designed to test your mettle – but I have certainly struggled with this assignment.