Christmas Card

Dear Father Christmas...a sewing machine would be lovely.

Claire Heathcote-Hannah

These three images are all part of the same piece. I have been doing experimental drawing using stitch. Inspired by the work of Claire Heathcote, I decided to attempt a portrait and am pleased with the outcome. I particularly like the effect of the loose cut threads as they are less controlled and add more movement to the piece. The idea of the paper cut doilies came from admiring an assortment of paper snowflakes in my friends lounge and I'd like to develop this further, it adds detailing effectively and quickly. It took a while before I was happy with the teapot but I eventually decided hand stitching instead of using a machine was the most successful use of media.

Milk and One Sugar

Teacup print from an etching workshop-loved the process but still need to get my head round aquatinting, you almost have to think backwards...I find this very very tricky.

Oh 'Eck!

Sketchbook page developed from a photograph taken in Ferndown. His passion was planes. He wore a tweed cap. And he liked to say 'Oh 'Eck!' a fair bit.

Drawing Approaches

Gillian Wearing: Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say''.

'this unit focuses upon perception, observations and visual thinking'

For the Drawing Approaches unit I have chosen the theme of 'Sub-Culture', I then decided to break this down further into studying the elderly sub-culture of Bournemouth.... This may sound like a pretty mundane subject matter but I felt it would allow me to look into vintage photographs, patterns and experiment with these within my work. There's also a very strong elderly 'scene' in Bournemouth so I'm hoping to get a lot of locational drawing, photographs and primary resources. As well as expanding my definition of 'drawing' itself I want to learn a lot more about use of colour and produce portraits: this is an area is struggle with. Faces are scarily hard.

I'm really wary of producing a stereotyped portrayal of a sub-culture and want to use personal quotes in order to incorporate text. I looked at the work of Gillian Wearing and her series 'Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say''. By getting members of the public to write signs on thoughts or feelings; interesting ideas are exposed. I visited the area of Ferndown in Bournemouth and used this idea...people do NOT like having their photograph taken. Finally found a few willing people though so now have some images to work from.

Animals...Animals...and some more Animals.

I have been working with second year students studying Visual Communication at AUCB as part of their fundraising project. We have all developed screen prints surrounding the theme of animals. My final image hasn’t photographed as well as I had hoped, but it consists of a fish screen print which I then worked into with ink, watercolour, fabric and stitching. The other two images are also drawings I have developed in relation to this project. It was a good opportunity to practice my Photoshop skills; current knowledge is fairly limited!

Russell-Cotes Museum and Gallery

These three ‘Fabric Postcards’ were my final outcomes in response to a Reportage Illustration brief. We were required to choose a place in Bournemouth and document this through our work. I chose the Russell-Cotes Museum and Gallery along the seafront as I found inspiration in the traditional patterns, antiques and was intrigued by the past of the house. Of all our briefs, this was by far my favourite. I was able to experiment with mixed media styles and work with textiles more confidently.